LOGIN*Continuing the ultra-detailed, slow-burn style.This chapter details the first contact with the Hollow Men, the horror of fighting anenemy that doesn't bleed, and the tactical nightmare of waging war in a vacuum.HELEN’S P.O.V.War usually has a sound. It is a cacophony of shouting men, cracking gunfire, and thewet thud of violence.But this war began in silence.We hit the ground in the clearing of the Old Estate—the place where the Pack Houseonce stood. The ruins were still there, overgrown with ten years of ivy and saplings,nature trying to reclaim the scar Vane had left.But as the Hollow Men advanced from the tree line, nature didn't fight back. It died.I watched, horrified, as the lush green ferns turned gray and crumbled into dust themoment the white line of soldiers stepped near them. The saplings withered, their leavesturning black and falling like ash. The air itself seemed to turn stale, the humiditysucked out of it, leaving a dry, static vacuum."Perimeter!" Damia
*Continuing Book II.This chapter focuses on the fragile alliance between the North and the South, theterrifying nature of the new enemy, and the realization that Leo’s power—once infinite—might now be his greatest vulnerability.HELEN’S P.O.V.The concept of "The Council" had changed in ten years.Once, they were the terrifying overlords who ruled from high-rise penthouses inSanctum. Now, they were a fractured, paranoid coalition trying to hold onto power in aworld that knew a god was sleeping in the Yukon.We stood around the holographic table in the Spire. The connection was established.On the screen, High Elder Marcus appeared. He looked older, his face gaunt, his eyesdarting nervously around his own office as if he expected assassins in the shadows."Alpha Sinclair," Marcus said, his voice tinny through the speakers. "To what do we owethe... honor? The Exclusion Zone treaty prohibits direct communication unless—""Shut up, Marcus," Damian said calmly.He didn't shout. He d
BOOK II: THE HERALDHELEN’S P.O.V.There is a specific kind of grief that comes with getting exactly what you wanted.For ten years, I had prayed to every deity, spirit, and cosmic force that would listen. Iprayed for the sphere to open. I prayed for my son to wake up. I prayed to hold himagain.Now, sitting in a red vinyl booth at "Sal’s Slice"—the only authentic New York-style pizzajoint in the subterranean city of Sanctuary—I had my wish.Leo was sitting across from me.But he wasn't the seven-year-old boy I had sent into the Star. He was seventeen. Maybeeighteen.Physically, he was a masterpiece of biology and magic. He was tall, leaning across thetable with the casual grace of a predator. His shoulders were broad, filling out the flannelshirt Damian had lent him. His hands—hands I used to hold while crossing the street—were now large enough to crush the soda can he was holding.He was a man. A stranger wearing my son’s face."This tastes..." Leo paused, chewing a slice of
TEN YEARS LATERHELEN’S P.O.V.The coffee in the North always tastes burnt. I had decided years ago it was becausewater boils differently when it’s sitting on top of a dormant magical volcano.I stood on the balcony of the Spire—now fully enclosed in reinforced glass—lookingdown at the city of Sanctuary.It was no longer a crater of gray snow. It was a metropolis of light.Over the last decade, Sanctuary had become exactly what its name promised. It was ahaven for wolves who refused the collar of the Council, for witches exiled from theSouth, and for humans who stumbled upon the truth and survived.Geothermal vents heated the streets, keeping them free of ice. Buildings carved from theblack obsidian of the mountain rose in terraced layers, glowing with the soft blueambient light harvested from the deep earth.It was beautiful. It was impossible. And it was all guarded by the reputation of the"Sleeping God.""Director Sinclair," a voice crackled over the intercom on my desk."Go
HELEN’S P.O.V.Grief is usually a sharp thing. It cuts like a knife. But this wasn't grief.This was something vast and hollow. It was the feeling of standing in a cathedral afterthe choir has stopped singing, when the silence is so heavy it presses against youreardrums.I sat on the cold stone of the bridge, my legs dangling over the abyss.Ten yards away, the Star Core pulsed.Thrum... thrum... thrum.It was a gentle, rhythmic blue light. It washed over us like a tide. Inside the semitranslucent sphere, the shadow was still there. Small. Curled in the fetal position.Floating in the center of the plasma storm.Leo.He wasn't dead. I knew that. The bond—the mother-cord that connected my soul to his—was still intact. But it had changed.Before, the bond felt like a live wire, buzzing with his fear, his hunger, his joy. Now, it feltlike an anchor chain dropping into the Mariana Trench. It was deep, heavy, and silent."He is dreaming," Wulfric said softly.The old wolf was standing
Continuing the ultra-detailed, slow-burn style.This chapter marks the return to the origin point, the terrifying efficiency of the "NewLeo," and the realization that the enemy isn't just fighting a pack anymore—they arefighting a force of nature.HELEN’S P.O.V.We didn't sneak back into the North. We arrived like a storm front.The cargo ship had dropped us at a remote mining port on the coast of the BeaufortSea. From there, Damian had "procured" (stolen) a heavy-duty all-terrain transport—amassive, six-wheeled beast designed to crush permafrost.We drove inland for six hours, navigating by the stars and the pull of the metal plate inmy pocket.As we crested the final ridge overlooking the Shadow Claw crater, Damian killed theengine.The silence that followed was heavy."Look at it," Kai whispered, raising his thermal binoculars. "They've turned it into afortress."Below us, the crater was no longer a silent, snowy graveyard. It was a hive of industrialactivity. Floodlights b







