Chapter 172

The lie spread faster than fire in dry grass.

By dawn, the couriers were already carrying Alpha Theron’s story across France. At every tavern hearth, in every elder’s hall, the same tale was told: Solene of Vael-Ois has been kidnapped.

I heard the whispers long before the parchment reached our hands. Wolves spoke in half-truths and gasps: rogues had taken her, witches had cursed her, Lycans had st