The silence after Selara's answer did not break immediately.
It stretched across the hall like a wire pulled too tight.
Every wolf in the chamber understood that something irreversible had just begun.
Selara did not move from where she stood.
She refused to give the room the satisfaction of seeing hesitation.
But she felt the shift in the atmosphere.
Not fear.
Not exactly.
It was something sharper.
Expectation.
Across the chamber, Lyanna tilted her head slightly, watching Selara with open interest now. There was no attempt to hide it. If anything, her expression made it clear that this moment had unfolded exactly as she wanted.
Draven stepped forward then.
The movement alone quieted the last whisper in the hall.
His presence carried authority the way storms carried thunder natural and impossible to ignore.
"This will not be chaos," he said, his voice steady but firm enough to settle the rising tension.
The gathered wolves straightened.
