No longer invisible-1
(Isla)
The air outside the holding chambers felt different once the door closed behind us. It didn’t carry their voices anymore, and it didn’t press against my skin the same way. I walked beside Caius without looking back. For once, I didn’t feel dragged toward what I had left behind.
The guards at the top of the stairs moved before we reached them. Their heads lowered faster than before, not only for Caius this time. I noticed the way their eyes dropped before they could fully meet mine. Something in me recognized the difference immediately.
Caius didn’t ask if I was alright. I was grateful for that because I didn’t know what answer I would have given. I wasn’t falling apart, but I wasn’t untouched either. Everything inside me still felt too new to place properly.
We reached the upper corridor, and the sounds of Ashcrest returned in pieces. Footsteps slowed when we came close, voices lowered, and bodies shifted out of the way. It wasn’t the silence from before, the kind that had always hidden fear and obedience. This one came from people finally understanding they could no longer look away from what they had allowed.
Two warriors stood near the entrance to the outer hall. One of them went still the second our eyes met. I remembered his face because he had passed the shack more than once and never once questioned why I was locked inside it. Now he lowered his head immediately.
I kept walking.
I didn’t need to stop for him. I didn’t need him to explain himself or pretend he regretted it now. His body had already answered for him. That was enough.
Caius stayed beside me without interrupting my thoughts. He didn’t tell me to let things go, and he didn’t tell me that it was over. Maybe some things didn’t end all at once. Maybe they ended slowly, piece by piece, until one day they stopped following you entirely.
We stepped outside, and the pack grounds opened around us, Ashcrest looked mostly the same, clean paths, swept yards, and buildings kept in order because wolves had always been made to maintain them. That was what made it worse. The place had known how to look proper while hiding what it had done to
Pack members noticed us almost immediately. A woman carrying folded linens stopped near the side path, then lowered her head and stepped back. Two younger wolves near the training yard straightened before quickly looking away. Even the older wolves moved aside without needing to be told.
I felt it again.
Not fear alone.
Recognition.

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