The estate didn’t sleep that night.
No one told them to stay awake. No alarms. No sirens. But the stillness didn’t settle, it bristled. Like the stone walls themselves were holding their breath. There were no howls, no music drifting from the kitchens, no casual laughter from the barracks. Even the youngest wolves, the ones who usually ran through corridors chasing each other barefoot, knew better than to make noise.
Something had shifted.
It was not panic but something worse.
Clarity, or something along those lines.
The kind that cuts through fog and forces you to see everything exactly as it is. No illusions. No comfort. Just the truth, laid bare. And that truth? It was ugly. It stung. It left behind a raw ache in your chest you couldn’t shake no matter how tightly you clenched your
