At the front, Lucy sat tall, her posture straight and dignified, gaze steady as she guided her mount forward. There was no hesitation in her movements, no uncertainty in her presence. In that moment, she looked exactly like what she was becoming, the matriarch of a rising empire.
Behind her rode Bruce and Sophie.
Sophie felt it keenly.
The stares.
Curious. Awed. Some fearful. Some reverent. She could feel eyes following them from every direction, lingering longer than they should, drawn not just to the Shadow Wolf beneath them but to how close they were, how naturally she sat in front of him, how securely his arm rested at her waist.
Heat crept up her cheeks as she leaned closer to him without even realizing it, suddenly aware of how intimate it must look from the outside.
Bruce felt it too.
The weight of attention. The shift in the crowd. The way the city's rhythm bent subtly around them.
A faint smile touched his lips.
