By the time I hit the packhouse steps my lungs were still burning from the walk back and my boots were caked in damp dirt and the bond sat tight and restless under my skin like it had not decided whether to calm down or spike again. I barely made it through the front doors before the horn sounded.
It cut across the territory sharp and violent, loud enough to shake the walls and pull every head in the building toward it at once and for half a second everything stopped.
Then everything moved. Voices snapped into orders, footsteps hit the floors hard and fast and the low tension that had been sitting under the pack since the challenge broke open into something immediate and dangerous.
“They’re moving.” Someone shouted from down the hall.
My stomach dropped and my body reacted before my mi
