Layla's POV
The sound of the final bell still echoed in the air when the terrace lights swallowed us both. Gabriel stayed three paces behind me, as he had promised, his presence silent but his wolf's aura was heavy. I could feel him prodding and poking the other wolves as we passed, letting them know who he was and that he was here.
"They'll never change," Freja observed dryly with a smirk, "I think secretly they get off on the reactions if I'm honest..."
"It wouldn't surprise me," I murmured in reply as I fought the urge to keep glancing back towards him.
The crowd of wolves pressed around me, and the sound of voices rising higher as names were called for their various roles in the ceremony seemed never ending, but through it all, I kept my head high as I watched the tradit
