The council chamber did not return to normal.
Even hours after the ground had settled, the air remained tense, thick with something unspoken and volatile. Wolves filled the outer hallways in quiet clusters, voices low, movements cautious. Authority no longer flowed cleanly from the council's raised seats—it fractured, pooling unpredictably wherever fear and curiosity met.
Aurelia felt it the moment she crossed the threshold.
Not power pressing outward.
Attention pressing inward.
Every gaze turned toward her—not hostile, not reverent, but searching. Measuring. The pack was trying to understand what she represented now, and whether that understanding made them safer… or less so.
Mira walked beside her, shoulders squared, jaw tight. "They're going to try something," she murmured under her breath.
"They already have," Aurelia replied calmly.
The council had convened again with unnatural speed.
That alone told her everything.
