Vael called the kingdom together at midday, the way she did for anything that mattered enough for every soul in Ashenveil to hear at once.
Aria stood at the top of the great hall steps with Kael beside her, the late spring sun warm on the courtyard stones, and she felt something she had not let herself feel often in six years of careful, measured queenship: pure, uncomplicated joy.
"My king and queen have asked me to gather you," Vael said, her voice carrying easily across the crowded courtyard, "because they have news they wish the whole of Ashenveil to hear together."
Kael stepped forward.
"Six years ago," he said, "I found a girl in the Blackwood with nothing but a torn dress and more courage than any wolf I had met in five centuries. I claimed her that night because I knew, the mom
