Third Person POV:
Silas did not return to his chambers after leaving Selena in the corridor. He did not slow his pace as he crossed the courtyard, nor did he acknowledge the guards who bowed as he passed.
The air felt too tight within the palace walls, too crowded with whispers and watchful eyes. Every servant had seen her return. Every elder had noticed the rogues at her side. Every member of the pack had felt the shift.
He had felt it most of all.
Selena had not resisted him openly, but she had not yielded. She had stepped away with calm precision, and the triplets had watched him as if measuring the distance between them.
He had seen the tension in their shoulders, the possessiveness in their stares. The way she had looked at them — not with obligation, but with ease.
They hovered too close. They stood too comfortably within his halls.
It was not simply irritation that followed him into the forest.
It was the unmistakable awareness that he was losing ground.
