GIDEON
The room stayed still for exactly long enough to become dangerous.
That specific type of silence – not the absence of sound but the presence of something unspoken, pressing at the edges of the room, waiting to be named – was something I had produced many times in this chamber.
I understood its mechanics. I had used it deliberately for seven years.
Having it turned on me was a different experience entirely.
Then Adrian spoke again.
“A mate changes the calculus,” he said. Not loudly; Adrian Duskbane had never needed volume.
He had the gravity of a man whose words landed by weight rather than force, whose precision made elevation unnecessary.
“Every Alpha in this room knows it. The bond rewires priority. Decision-making. Risk tolerance.” He let that settle with the patience
