It doesn’t take long before the Alpha and Luna return to the hall, but the minutes they’re gone stretch thin and brittle anyway, snapping my nerves tighter with every quiet murmur that ripples through the room, because no one is pretending anymore that this is anything other than the end. I sit between Axel and Atticus with my hands folded in my lap, fingers numb, eyes fixed on a spot on the floor that keeps blurring as if my body hasn’t decided yet whether it’s done shaking.
When Alpha David steps back into place the room stills immediately, and Luna Sophia stands beside him with her shoulders squared and her expression composed in that way that tells me the decision has already been made and accepted, not debated. The weight of their presence presses down, final and absolute, and even b
