Morning entered Regina Palace without warmth.
The first light came reluctantly through the tall eastern windows, laying a pale sheen across the marble corridor where servants ordinarily hurried with lowered heads and guards stood at attention beside the carved pillars, yet that morning the palace seemed to have forgotten how to breathe. Alessandro De Luca walked through the silence with measured steps, his dark coat fastened neatly despite the exhaustion beneath his eyes, and though his shoulders remained straight, Elara could see the strain in the way his right hand repeatedly tightened against his side. The Alpha bond that had once surrounded him like an invisible current was still present, but weakened enough that every sensitive wolf within the palace could feel something had changed.
