The room fell into a thick silence. Even the distant sounds of the palace corridors seemed to vanish.
River blinked. “An… empath?”
Her father looked sharply at his wife. “Mariana…”
Confused, River slowly turned back to her parents. “Wait… what is an empath?” she asked, her voice calm, but laced with tension, curiosity, and a flicker of unease.
Mariana exchanged a glance with her husband, then let out a long, tired breath as she walked back to the chair beside the bed. Her fingers traced an invisible line on her skirt as she searched for the right words.
“An empath,” she began slowly, “is a special kind of wolf. Rare. Quiet. But powerful in ways most don’t understand. It’s… like a sixth sense. They can feel others’ emotions—sometimes even intentions—just by being near them. They don’t
