Chapter 45. Love Before Fire

The Vale Territory was silent, the dawn light filtering through the trees. The battlefield was frozen: the defeated remnants of the Ironclaw Legion, the victorious but wary Ashen Reign army, the enraged High Alpha Kalen clutching the Hearthstone, and the gasping, freed Lysandra leaning on Kael.

All focus, however, was on the ridge.

Caius stood tall, his presence overriding the colossal power radiating from Kalen. He was not scarred, but his eyes held the raw, profound fatigue of a wolf who had wrestled with the fate of the world and won, though not unscathed. Beside him, Neriah was a small, fragile figure, utterly drained, the Ashen Flame extinguished within her.

“You will not touch her, Kalen,” Caius repeated, his voice cutting through the heavy, silver-laden air. He descended the ridge, leading a newly assembled force of fiercely loyal wolves, their armor carrying the subtle, shimmering white-gold energy of the Hearthstone itself.

Kalen’s face was a mask of