He did now.
I watched it happen.
When I first looked at him his face still held the old shape. Contempt with pride buried under it. Not because he hadn't heard the charges. Not because he failed to understand what room he stood in. Habit had held longer in him than sense. He had spent too many years certain I was beneath him in every way that mattered.
Then he looked at me properly.
He saw where I stood. He saw Caius beside me. He saw Rodan in chains. He saw the full pack listening. He saw that I wasn't lowered, wasn't bound, wasn't waiting for permission to exist.
The contempt changed.
It didn't leave all at once. It bent first. Broke apart at the edges. Then something else came through and took its place. Real fear. Not discomfort. Not uncertainty. Fear.
Brent had watched me suffe
