The days after Kael Veyr’s first real attempt did not return to normal.
They reorganized around the threat of him.
Security inside the Alpha house tightened into something closer to wartime protocol than post-claim caution. Bond-sensitive trackers rotated through the inner rooms in quiet pairs. Patrol density on the grounds increased until the tree line felt less like a boundary and more like a watched edge. Elder Mira doubled the fortification sessions, drilling me until recognizing foreign pressure on the bond became as automatic as checking a door lock. Tristan attended every one of them, a silent, burning presence at the side of the room, the completed claim on his throat standing out like a warning.
Sleep became a negotiated truce.
When it came, it came in stretches broken by the
