POV: Aphrodite
Not all rivals snarl.
The bond shift happens during breakfast. One moment everything is normal—the twins flanking me, Kai checking supplies across camp, Lyra braiding her hair. The next, the air changes. It's subtle, like the moment before lightning strikes when every hair on your body stands up, when the atmosphere becomes charged with something electric and dangerous.
I feel it through the twin bonds first. A ripple of awareness. Not pain. Not the sharp sting of rejection or betrayal. Just... unease. Like sensing a storm building on the horizon, dark clouds gathering in a previously clear sky.
Draco's head snaps up, eyes finding me immediately. Then tracking to Kai. Then back to me. The movement is predatory, precise, the kind of focus that usually precedes violence.
