**DEREK POV**
I hear the same comment less than an hour after it’s spoken.
Not because someone reports it.
Because someone repeats it.
That distinction matters.
“She’s a liability now,” a junior coordinator says quietly to someone he thinks outranks him enough to protect the statement. He doesn’t look around first. He doesn’t lower his voice much. He says it like it’s already been agreed upon somewhere official. Like he’s late to the conclusion, not early.
I’m standing just out of sight, half a corridor away, reviewing an inventory update on my tablet. I don’t move. I don’t interrupt. I don’t announce myself.
I let the sentence finish living in the air.
The other wolf doesn’t respond right away. That pause tells me more than agreement would have.
“That’s a strong word,” the second
