COLE
I had known it was coming.
I am not going to pretend I hadn't. I had known since I walked into that dining room and read Rowan's face and found the expression that was not anger yet but was going to be, the one that had been building since the study two days ago.
I had known since Corvin started talking and the room went quiet in the way rooms go quiet when something has already been decided and the words are just catching up to it.
I had known.
So I sat in my chair with my hands flat on the table and I took all of it without flinching, because I owed them that much. I owed them the sitting still.
The half sister landed differently.
Freya. Freya with the red hair and the quiet year and the composure that never cracked. Freya who had appeared at Corvin's side and moved through this pack house without ever quite touching it.
