They didn’t arrive all at once.
It would have been too simple.
They instead spilled into the world's borders, bringing silence where birdsong had been and darkness where light had been. Instead, they rode howling like untamed packs and crashed through the woodland like rogues.
They simply... appeared.
One in the north. Another in the east. And two more, twin-bonded, in the clearing that once belonged to the Thorn pack’s sacred circle.
The Mate Hunters had returned.
And the land remembered them.
I felt it before I saw them—like something ancient waking inside my marrow. My bond to Jace flared, raw and hot in my chest, and Rowan whimpered in his sleep from where he lay curled between us.
We hadn’t returned to the packhouse after the council meeting.
Too risky. Too watched.
Rather,
