The sky above the mountain roared.
Not with thunder.
With wolves.
Howls broke across the valley like a chorus of knives, echoing off the cliffs and spilling down into the stone halls of the Echo’s inner sanctum. Shadows flitted across torchlight as pack warriors poured from tunnels, armor clinking, fangs bared—not for training, not for show.
For war.
Kaelen stood at the mouth of the pit, watching it all unfold.
His breath came slow, steady. But Quinn saw the tremble in his shoulders, the cost in his eyes.
“They’re moving faster than I expected,” Kaelen said. “Garrick wasted no time.”
Jace stepped beside him, his arm still around Quinn, who clutched Rowan tightly against his chest.
“They felt it,” Jace said. “What we did.”
“They felt the bond shift,” Kaelen murmured. “And now they
