Mira Thornvale

Nora was the last survivor of the Grayfeather Tribe—a clan deemed heretical among werewolves for their "inability to transform." Since childhood, she had been scorned as the "crippled wolf." Six years ago, she watched as her people were slaughtered by the Starblade Legion, while she herself was mistaken for a human spy and imprisoned in Blackstone Keep.

There, she was forcibly injected with "ancestral serum" in an attempt to awaken her beastly nature—but it failed. On the brink of death from the toxins, she was unexpectedly released by a newly appointed commander.


Feathers of the Forgotten

The village of Greywing was being reborn—tent by tent, stone by stone.


Refugees trickled in, many non-shifters with nowhere else to go. Children carried tools. Elders weaved old flags into new symbols.


At the center of it all stood Nora, cloaked in black and silver, her wings now fully grown.


To herself, she was a burden barely held together.


In a reconstructed watchtower, Sable paced, reading reports.


“Starblade remnants are converging,” she muttered. “Warlords from the Ash Reaches. And something worse—mercenary packs.”


Cyrus leaned against the railing. “They’re coming for her.”


“She’s a threat,” Sable said. “To what they built. To what they hid.”


“She’s hope,” Cyrus replied. “That terrifies them more.”


Sable shot him a look. “Hope doesn’t win sieges. Trenches do.”


“I’ve already reinforced the eastern ridge,” he said. “Sniper blinds in the canyon. Traps along the slope.”


Chapter 18: Hunted Heart