Lorien POV Everything felt different when I walked among the pack again. Their eyes were colder now, their whispers sharper than blades. I could feel it in the air around me the mistrust. No one said it outright, but their glances were enough. After Queen Elara had separated me from the rest, they’d filled in the blanks with their own stories, each one painting me as the traitor who’d chosen the Fae. It didn’t matter that it had only been a few seconds. To them, it was enough time for me to have switched sides. Enough time to make me someone they couldn’t trust. And I didn’t know how to fix it. Each murmur that reached my ears on the walk back tightened the knot in my chest. With every step, doubt crept in like a shadow, whispering that maybe I’d made the wrong choice that maybe I shou

