The forest didn’t just welcome Freya back; it seemed to exhale with her.As she crossed the invisible border into the deep, ancient pines of the Northern Ridge, the air changed. It lost the stifling, heavy scent of Aethelgard’s palace, the incense, the marble dust, and the metallic tang of Alpha dominance, and replaced it with the sharp, intoxicating bite of cedar, damp earth, and wild, untouched snow. Every step she took in her simple leather boots felt like a reclamation of her own skin. Here, beneath the canopy of trees that had stood long before the first Alpha wore a crown, she wasn't a "witch-flame," a political liability, or a cursed prophecy. She was simply Freya.The journey from the castle had been a blur of adrenaline, terror, and a grief so profound it felt like a physical sickness. She had moved through the secret passages like a ghost, her heart hammering against her ribs with every muffled sound. But as the hidden village of the Resistance came into view, nestled in the
Last Updated : 2026-02-22 Read more