Third Person POV
The hall was frozen.
Not the kind of frozen that came from cold. The kind that came from a room full of people all processing the same thing at the same time and none of them fast enough.
Every eye had locked onto the platform. Onto the white-haired woman standing beside the new Alpha. Onto the veil lying discarded on the stone floor between them.
The priestess had not moved from the spot where she had stumbled back.
The council members stood with their mouths half-open, words forming behind their teeth that had not yet found enough air to become sound.
The murmuring started from the back and moved forward.
Confused. Low. The particular quality of sound that happened when something unexpected landed in the middle of something sacred and the crowd could not decide whether to celebrate or revolt.
Helen stood in the center of all of it.
