Word came from the south that spring, carried by a trader, that the Blackmoon Pack had finally found its footing again.
Aria received the news without the old ache she might once have felt. Too much time had passed. Too much good had filled the space where the wound used to be.
"They say Alpha Kane stepped down," the trader reported. "Handed the pack to a younger cousin, someone steadier. They say he lives quietly now. Keeps to himself. Tends the old shrine behind the pack house."
"Does he," Aria said.
"They say he never took a Luna. Never married at all. Some say he is still grieving something, though no one knows what."
Aria knew what.
That night, on the balcony, she told Kael.
"He never married," she said. "He stepped down. He lives alone, tending a shrine."
"Does it satisfy you
