Nightfall noticed.
It began as murmurs low voices that fell silent when Lucien passed, glances that lingered too long on the lower corridors, on the Alpha’s clenched jaw, on the way his wolf paced restlessly beneath his skin.
The Alpha hadn’t taken a mate in over a century.
And now he visited the cells every night.
Seraphine felt it before she saw it.
Eyes.
The moment she was escorted out of the cage chains shortened but visible, suppression cuffs still humming she knew the pack was watching her.
The courtyard buzzed with contained energy. Wolves gathered under the open sky, pretending to spar, to talk, to exist while tracking her every step.
She lifted her chin.
If they wanted to look, she’d give them something worth staring at.
Lucien stood near the high stone steps, arms cross
