ROWAN
I found Karin in our sitting room at Mooncrest Keep. She was staring at a tablet, frozen. Her face was tight, eyes wide, like she had just read something she could not escape.
The woman with her, Isolde Marrick, sat nearby. She looked calm. Too calm. The kind of calm that watches instead of reacts. Every instinct in me went alert.
“Ms. Marrick,” I said. I kept my voice even, but I let my Alpha weight sit behind it. “I did not know we were expecting anyone from the Council.”
“Rowan Kincaid,” she replied. Smooth. Polite. “I was only speaking with your Luna about the ripple effects of yesterday.”
My focus snapped to her. “What ripple effects?”
Karin looked up at me. There was real fear in her eyes. Not confusion. Fear.
“She says what I did,” Karin said softly. “The Luna’s Call.
