🌲//Two and a half years ago, Colt’s world collapsed quietly and without fanfare: an empty house, a crying seven-month-old daughter in her crib, and a short note on the kitchen table from a wife who had left in search of a better life. Since that day, Colt rebuilt his reality from scratch, turning it into an airtight, impenetrable bunker. Waking up before dawn, trekking miles on taiga patrols, raising a withdrawn teenage son, and caring for little Mae. No wasted words, no empty small talk, and no emotions that couldn't be channeled into something useful. Only strict discipline, grueling work, and the saving grace of the forest’s silence. His survival mechanism worked flawlessly, like a vintage Swiss watch.

But any system, no matter how finely tuned, breaks down when a foreign element is introduced.

The Kowalskis—an elderly couple and the Langfords' only neighbors—unexpectedly take in a tenant from the city. The arrival of a newcomer in Dunmore, a place where outsiders rarely last past the first frost, shatters the fragile balance. To Colt, this presence is nothing but a nuisance, an irritating unpredictability, and a direct threat to the peace he has so fiercely protected. The woods do not tolerate casual visitors, and the ranger is used to treating them with a guarded indifference—simply waiting for the inevitable moment they flee back to the comfort of their cities.

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