The moon had never felt so heavy.
Its glow flooded the pack lands with an eerie light, soft but relentless, like it too demanded answers we’d all refused to give.
I hadn’t spoken a word to Aiden since the council meeting.
Not when we walked out of the chamber with the weight of a thousand eyes on our backs.
Not when he tried....weakly....to call after me. And certainly not when he stood at my door later that night, silent, shame-faced, offering nothing.
Because nothing is exactly what he gave them.
Not a denial. Not a confirmation. Just silence.
And silence, I had come to learn, was often louder than truth.
Mara’s hand had trembled over her stomach, her voice barely above a whisper as she uttered his name in that chamber.
The gasps, the confusion, the disgust...it had all followe
