It's distant, coming from somewhere past the east wing. I follow it until I round a corner and the smell hits me: copper, thick and everywhere.
The pack hospital doors are propped open. Wolves are being carried through them, some on their own feet with an arm slung over a shoulder, some not moving at all.
Blood streaks the stone floor in long smears where people have dragged each other through. Healers move in every direction at once, shouting things I can't follow, and nobody stops long enough to tell me what happened.
I stand frozen in the doorway.
A woman lurches out of the crowd toward me. Her hands are red to the wrist, her dress soaked through at the front, her eyes wild and rimmed raw.
"You." Her voice cracks down the middle. "We haven't had blood in this pack since before I c
