I swallow.
“Any casualties?”
He shakes his head.
“Only on their side. We have a couple of wounded warriors, but nothing fatal. Everyone is alive.”
Relief washes over me so hard my shoulders sag.
“That is something,” I murmur.
The rest of the evening feels heavy.
The pack does not celebrate surviving an attack.
They clean.
They repair.
They bury what needs burying.
From Nathan’s patio, I can see warriors moving through the courtyard, scrubbing blood from stone and hauling broken debris away like none of it matters.
Eventually, a rancid smell starts to drift through the air.
It is thick and unmistakable.
I wrinkle my nose and step outside onto the patio.
In the distance, just beyond the edge of our territory, I can see smoke rising in a dark plume against the night sky.
“They
