Serenity's POV
Chaos does not erupt all at once.
It spreads.
It moves in layers, in glances that sharpen, in guards who no longer know whether they are protecting an estate or containing a scandal, in alphas who stop observing and begin calculating. The moment Darian’s voice carries across the gate—raw, furious, demanding—it is no longer a private disturbance. It is a political one.
And I am standing at its center.
I feel it before anyone speaks again. The shift. The air tightening as attention reorients—not toward Darian, not even toward Kaelen—but toward me. Toward the woman Darian came for. Toward the question no one has asked aloud yet, but which has already begun to echo.
Why her?
Darian is still being restrained, still fighting the hands on his arms, blood streaking down his t
