ELLIE’S POV
The air was still thick with the scent of burned lies, acrid and suffocating, clinging to the back of my throat with every breath I took. The smoke from the ritual fire curled into the night sky, carrying with it the remnants of Wesley’s deceit, every false word he had wrapped around this pack now unraveled and exposed. He knelt in the dirt, stripped bare of the power he had clung to so desperately, his once-commanding presence reduced to a hollow shell. His shoulders shook, breaths ragged and uneven, each inhale like a man choking on his own shame.
Around him, silence reigned. Not the peaceful kind, not the kind born of unity, but a silence so heavy it pressed down like a physical weight. It was as though the entire world had drawn in one breath and refused to let it out, wa
