Chapter 100: The Calm Before the Storm

The air had shifted.

For the first time in what felt like ages, the packhouse was quiet. Not in the way of silence before battle, but in the warm, almost sacred way of healing. Of restoration.

Freya stood in the nursery, watching her children sleep. The soft rise and fall of their chests, the way their tiny fists curled in sleep, it was a sight that made her chest ache with love. She reached down and brushed a dark curl from one twin’s forehead.

“You’re safe now,” she whispered. “No one will take you from me again.”

Behind her, she heard the soft creak of the door. Kandrix’s scent reached her first, earth and forest after rain. Comfort. Strength.

“I didn’t want to disturb you,” he said gently, stepping inside.

“You’re not,” she replied without turning. “I just… needed to remember who I’m doing all this for.”

Kandrix walked to her side, his hand brushing hers, his fingers intertwining with hers in a silent show of support. “They’re incredible. Just like their mother.”

She exhaled slowl