🏹 Chapter Twenty-Four: The Thaw and the Gathering Storm.Â
​The deep winter settled upon the Northern territories like a physical weight, mirroring the oppressive, anxious silence that had fallen over the Shifter Houses. For three full months, the truce held firm. The world was frozen, precisely as the Shifter Queen, through the chilling clarity of the Thorn, had commanded.
​Inside the isolated Silver Wolf encampment fortified and managed with ruthless efficiency by Roric and the newly pledged Bear Alpha, The Ron life was a study in absolute control. The perimeter guards, now a disciplined blend of Silver Wolves and Bear Clan specialists, moved with a relentless vigilance born of shared purpose and shared dread. Faelan, the Northern Alpha, remained strategically distanced, respecting the truce while mobilizing his own forces, clearly anticipating the inevitable conflict that the spring thaw would unleash.
