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LANDON

L andon stood alone in the heart of the bloodstained clearing, Sonya’s warmth still lingering on his hands where he’d held her.

She was safe now—resting, being tended to by the healers in the hidden infirmary.

But the memory of her blood soaking into his shirt, her voice rasping out the words “Finish it” —it clung to him like smoke after fire.

He looked around at the packs gathered, some still half-shifted, others trembling with uncertainty and bloodied fur while the rest stood naked from prior shifts, dirt and blood covered.

The chaos had died down, but the air buzzed with something else now.

Expectation.

The dust hadn’t yet settled from the battle, bodies of the fallen lay respectfully covered, and Roman was gone—dragged away in chains like a wild dog with a broken snarl and a shattered pride.

But what remained here…

what waited … was purpose.

Landon took a breath, grounding himself in the weight of what had happened and what still needed to.

He stepped up onto the highest point of the ruin that had once been Roman’s command platform, now cracked and scorched with the battle’s fury.

He could feel them watching him.

Hundreds of eyes. Shifters from every scattered bloodline, rogues once hunted like animals, outcasts now standing shoulder to shoulder with elders and warriors.

And they were waiting on him .

“I didn’t ask for any of this,” he began, his voice steady, but not loud.

Let them listen. “Didn’t grow up knowing what I was. Didn’t grow up training for a crown or craving war. I sure as hell didn’t want to lead anything but my own quiet life.”

There were murmurs.

Shifting feet. Silent nods.

“But then Roman took that choice from all of us. He told us strength meant cruelty. That loyalty meant silence. That power was his by birthright.”

His voice hardened.

“But power’s nothing without honor. Loyalty isn’t blind obedience. And strength? Strength is protecting the ones who can’t fight for themselves.”

A few heads bowed.

A wolf in the back whimpered, barely audible.

“I came here because I wanted peace. Because I fell for a woman who saw through every lie you were fed since you could walk. A woman who dared to stand when every bone in her body begged her to run or bend the knee.”

A rustle swept through the crowd at Sonya’s mention, many glancing toward the treeline where she’d been carried away.

“She almost died to stop a tyrant. And some of you fought to keep that tyrant in power. But I’m not here for vengeance.”

He let the silence stretch.

“I’m here to build something better.”

A beat passed.

Then another.

“I claim the title of Alpha King.”

His voice rang out like a crack of thunder across the clearing.

“Not to rule through fear. Not to demand submission. But to protect. To unify.”

He scanned the crowd, catching their gazes one by one.

“If you served Roman… I offer you mercy. But mercy doesn’t mean forgetting. It means choosing to be better. If you want to fight for something worth bleeding for—stand with me.”

For a heartbeat, no one moved.

Landon braced himself, jaw clenched tight.

Then a thud echoed through the stillness.

A warrior—broad-shouldered and battle-worn—stepped forward and dropped to one knee.

Then another.

Within seconds, the clearing shifted.

Hundreds of shifters, warriors, elders, rogues—one by one they knelt before him.

Heads bowed. Shoulders lowered.

Not from fear.

From choice.

Landon swallowed hard, emotion catching in his throat.

This… this wasn’t about a crown or a title.

It was about redemption.

About something worth saving.

He nodded solemnly, honoring each and every one of them.

Then something pulled his gaze upward—toward the cliffside that overlooked the battlefield.

Two figures stood there, shrouded in the fading light of the setting sun.

A man and a woman. Unassuming at a glance—but even from this distance, Landon felt the weight of their presence.

The two from PEACE.

The human and the shifter who’d met with him back at Juniper.

They didn’t speak. Didn’t wave.

They simply nodded, once, in perfect synchronicity.

Then turned and disappeared into the trees.

Landon didn’t need to hear them to know what that nod meant.

They saw.

They approved.

And they would be watching.

He turned back to his people—his pack —and exhaled slowly.

Tomorrow may bring more battles and questions.

But tonight they had peace.

And maybe, finally, at least for a moment, it would last.