Sol tried his best to get out of their entrapment, but he was thoroughly defeated by their shamelessness.
But thankfully, he didn't have to endure for long, as a group of elders was coming towards him.
Three lineage matriarchs approached with the unhurried, immovable presence of women who had managed households and bloodlines through decades of harder times.
Their gazes swept the cluster of younger women with the kind of calm authority that required no raised voices.
The effect was immediate.
The predators who had been so confidently closing in on the helpless prey exchanged quick looks, offered him a final set of lingering, unashamed glances, and reluctantly withdrew… still casting looks back over their shoulders as they went, as if the interruption were a temporary inconvenience rather than a true retreat.
Only then did the matriarchs come fully forward.
