Caelan POV
We don’t rush back. There’s no need.
The forest settles around us as we leave the clearing, but the air still carries the imprint of what just happened. My mind replays the Council’s intrusion, the line drawn, the quiet assertion that this territory answers to no one but its own Alpha.
Vaelor is steadier now, no longer coiled for confrontation but alert and watchful. Not because he expects another move today, but because something fundamental shifted in that clearing, and instincts don’t forget that quickly.
Kieran still walks ahead, scanning more out of habit than necessity, while Rhydan lingers just behind us, his presence calm and grounding in that way that makes it easy to forget how much he’s actually tracking.
I can feel how much Elara is processing, the way her thoug
