The morning after the council meeting arrived with a silence she did not understand. Normally, the citadel woke with movement. Warriors crossed the courtyard before sunrise, cooks prepared meals in the lower kitchens, and messengers ran between stone corridors carrying news from patrols. That morning, everything felt muted, as if the mountain itself were holding its breath.
Mira noticed the absence immediately, that Ryker was gone. His chambers stood empty when she checked, the bed untouched and the windows open to the cold air. His scent lingered faintly, but the room felt abandoned rather than occupied. She told herself that an Alpha had duties, and those duties often began before dawn.
Still, something felt wrong. She moved through the day carefully, listening more than speaking. The
