AISLYNAshlyn doesn’t vanish from the pack all at once.

She fades.

I notice it first in the pauses. Conversations that don’t stop when she enters, but don’t shift to include her either. Elders who acknowledge her presence out of habit, then turn back to me without realizing what they’ve done. Wolves who glance at her, hesitate, and then continue on as if she were part of the stonework.

It isn’t cruelty.

It’s worse.

It’s irrelevance.

I never push her out. I don’t need to. The pack ...