It came quietly.
Not from the council.
Not from Cael.
Not even from the elders.
From a younger wolf at the edge of the training grounds, barely old enough to have fully shifted.
He stood with his hands clenched at his sides, hesitation written all over him.
Denise noticed him before anyone else did.
Liam did too.
Of course he did.
The boy stepped forward half a pace, then stopped.
The entire training ground slowed around him.
Not silence.
Attention.
Denise stayed where she was beside Liam on the ridge path leading down.
She didn’t move toward him.
She didn’t retreat.
She just waited.
Finally, the boy spoke.
“Are you going to leave?”
The question wasn’t loud.
But it carried.
It reached everyone.
Denise felt it ripple through the pack like a dropped stone in still water
