Chapter 165

The day the families arrived, the silence broke.

For weeks the manor had been a hollow heart, pulsing faintly with survivors too afraid to raise their voices.

Now the courtyard thrummed with footsteps, wagons creaked under the weight of belongings, and children’s laughter rang out, hesitant at first, then louder as their wolves sniffed the air and found safety.

I stood on the steps with Dante, my