The Great Hall filled in silence.
Not reverent silence.
Not respectful.
The kind that trembled with held breath and unshed violence.
Wolves packed the chamber from wall to wall—loyalists on one side, dissenters on the other, the divide unmistakable now. Even the air felt split, charged with dominance and fear and the echo of everything that had happened since the Solstice.
I stood beside Kael at the foot of the throne dais.
Not behind him.
Beside him.
That alone sent ripples through the hall like a stone dropped into still water.
Whispers hissed.
“She shouldn’t be there.”
“He’s lost his mind.”
“That thing doesn’t belong on the Alpha floor—”
Kael lifted one hand.
The hall fell silent instantly, dominance crashing outward in a wave so powerful it pressed lungs flat and forced e
