Chapter 68. Not Your Beta Yet

Desmond’s POV

The mountains look different now. Not because the snow is lighter or the wind less cruel because it isn’t. The Shadow Range has never been kind. The wind cuts deep, and the paths twist like coiled serpents, and everything echoes too long. It’s always been a place where sound and trust go to die. But now there’s something growing beneath the cold. Something steady and we are rebuilding.

The Shadow Pack is mine now. Not inherited and not stolen. Not assumed through tradition. I fought for it and I won, fair and legal.

I stand at the edge of the ridge, overlooking the valley below where training grounds have been cleared from the burned trees. My warriors run drills. Some still limp from the last battle. Some are new, younger wolves who heard what happened and came to fight for something better. Cleo stands beside me, arms crossed, the wind lifting the ends of her braid. She has taken up Selena’s style of hair, and it suits her.

“You’re broo