Caleb
The grand council chamber of Blackthorn was heavy with tension that morning.
The marble floors gleamed, the dark banners of the kingdom swayed lightly with the movement of air, but nothing felt calm about this place today.
I could feel the hostility thick in the air, the sharp, silent judgment of the elders who sat around the circular table, their gazes piercing through me like daggers.
I stood tall at the center of the room, dressed formally in the dark armor of my rank, though it felt heavier than usual.
The seat that should have belonged to Erick, the Alpha King himself, stood empty at the head of the table, and its emptiness carried a strange weight, one I was struggling to bear in his absence.
Queen Elise sat at the far end of the room beside the vacant Alpha’s chair.
