POV: Elara
The whispers had grown louder, no longer confined to the shadows. As I walked through the heart of the compound, the tension pressed against my skin like a storm building on the horizon. Wolves who once greeted me with confidence now avoided my gaze, their conversations halting as I passed. Others didn’t even bother to conceal their unease, their eyes lingering on me with thinly veiled doubt.
They were talking about him. About Dante. And, by extension, about me.
The unease gnawed at me, each hushed exchange a splinter driving itself deeper under my skin. Dante’s return had shifted something fundamental, unraveling the unity I had fought so hard to build. Every step I took through the compound felt heavier, the weight of the pack’s fractured trust threatening to break me befor
