The pack house changed its rhythm without announcing that it had changed.
Sable noticed the differences the same way she noticed most things lately, not through what people said, but through what they avoided. Doors that used to close quickly now remained open a fraction longer. Wolves who used to linger in corridors moved through them with purpose. The whispering hadn't returned, not in the way it had during Adrian's rise, yet a new quiet had settled over Grimridge, a quiet that didn't come from fear of Cassian. It came from the awareness that the next threat wouldn't knock politely.
Cassian had shifted the structure again.
He didn't call an assembly. He didn't make a speech. He did what he always did when he wanted to see the truth hidden in a system: he changed one variable at a time and watched who adapted first.
