The estate gate stood tall beneath the late morning light, iron bars catching the sun in quiet glints, though the stillness surrounding it was not peaceful, it carried tension woven too tightly to ignore.
Wolves lined the inner perimeter, their stances disciplined, shoulders squared, though the faint shift of weight, the tightening of fingers, revealed what their silence concealed.
Elara stood at the forefront, her posture composed, her hands resting at her sides, yet there was something within her presence that altered the space itself, something unseen but unmistakably felt.
Alessandro remained a step behind and to her side, not diminished, not removed, but aligned in a way that spoke of choice rather than hierarchy, though his gaze remained sharp, watchful.
"They're here," Luca murmured quietly.
His jaw tightened faintly.
The gates did not open immediately.
