= Elias =
The council meeting had been dragging longer than usual.
I sat at the head of the long oak table, fingers loosely interlocked in front of me while the elders debated something that should have been resolved an hour ago. Voices overlapped in polite but stubborn disagreement, the air in the chamber thick with the scent of parchment, ink, and the faint musk of wolves who had been sitting in one room for far too long.
“—I’m simply saying that expanding the northern patrols would stretch our numbers thin,” Elder Harrow insisted, tapping two fingers against the table for emphasis.
“And I’m saying that ignoring the activity near the border would be irresponsible,” another elder countered.
I exhaled slowly through my nose.
This wasn’t leadership. This was circling the same damn arg
