AISLYNAshlyn doesn’t collapse.

She withers.

The difference matters.

A collapse would have drawn attention, questions, pity, resistance. The pack would have reacted. Someone might have intervened. Someone might have argued.

Withering happens quietly.

It begins with the way her name stops being used as a reference point. Meetings still include her, but agendas no longer orient around her presence. Decisions no longer wait for her approval. She speaks, and people listen but they do not ...