Natalie POV
The royal estate was drowning in a suffocating sea of white velvet and silver silk. From the high arched windows of the southern solar, I watched the courtyard below transform into a fortress of aristocratic excess. The winter solstice summit had brought every high alpha, minor lord, and council diplomat from the border lands to the capital, their heavy black carriages line-wrapping around the grand courtyard like a defensive wall.
The scent of pine resin and heavy wax candles was heavy, but beneath the artificial luxury of the court sat the terrifying, volcanic weight of hundreds of predatory auras. The air was thick with the baseline tension of alphas sizing each other up, waiting for the slightest tremor of weakness from the Blackwood throne.
"They look like vultures wait
