Chapter 442 - CH 442 — Cracks in the Throne

Midnight settled over the Council Hall with a solemn stillness that seemed almost sacred, while silver moonlight filtered through the towering stained-glass windows and mingled with the warm glow of dying candles, casting long shifting shadows across the ancient marble floor where generations of rulers had stood before decisions capable of changing the destiny of the Pack, and the vast chamber carried an unusual silence born not from peace but from exhaustion, because every Elder who had departed earlier had left behind fragments of hope, disappointment, and uncertainty that lingered invisibly within the empty hall as though the very walls had absorbed the weight of their divided hearts.