#Chapter 119 – A Wolf Suppressed

Lila Snow clung to the edge of my breath. The world around me was hushed, buried beneath a blanket of white that glittered under the sharp light of stars. Each flake was perfect. Every tree was bare and watching. And I stood barefoot at the edge of a forest I didn’t recognize, the snow cold against my soles—but not painful. Not biting. It was like the cold welcomed me home. Above, the night sky was vast and impossibly clear. Constellations I didn’t know by name burned in quiet reverence, casting a soft, silvery glow across the snow-covered ground. The moon—full and impossibly bright—hung low, like it was watching too. I didn’t know how I got here. But I wasn’t afraid. The trees ahead of me stood like sentinels, dark and skeletal, their limbs draped with frost. I could hear the faint creak of branches, the whisper of something moving beneath the snow. And then—footsteps. Not behind me, but beside. I turned slowly. The large white wolf stood at the tree line. An