If we tell the pack that my removal collapses the territory, fear may shift from suspicion to containment.
They might decide that guarding me becomes imprisonment rather than protection.
They might see me as structural risk rather than leader.
If we do not tell them, the whispers continue.
“If she leaves, our children are safe.”
The sentence replays in my head because I cannot fault the instinct behind it, and that makes it harder to dismiss.
The land pulses faintly again, and I force myself to breathe slowly because the tether responds to emotion now, and heightened tension causes subtle fluctuations along the outer boundary that only I seem to feel.
Axel finishes addressing the hall and steps down from the platform, and wolves disperse in controlled clusters, but the conversations
