POV: Alpha Jackson Reynolds
Two weeks had passed since the stones of the Coronation Hall first vibrated with the cries of the Royal heirs. Two weeks of sleepless, blissful exhaustion, where the world outside the Whispering Pines ceased to exist. In the quiet of the mountain, the North had begun to heal.
But tonight, the silence was over.
The Full Moon hung like a heavy, glowing shield in the sky, its light so potent it turned the snow on the peaks into crushed diamonds. Inside the palace, the air was thick with the scent of roasting venison, cedar smoke, and the heavy, floral perfume of the night-blooming jasmine that lined the banquet hall.
I stood before the tall mirror in the Royal Solar, adjusting the heavy Star-Iron bracers over my forearms. For the first time, I wasn't wearing my
