I sit on the cold floor of the waiting room, legs folded beneath me, back pressed to the wall. My head is heavy, but I don’t move. I can’t. Every little face presses into my mind like ghosts I can’t shake. Ten children—gone, but not lost. Not yet.
I feel them all. Not just the ten. Not just my own people. I feel every parent in that building. Every warrior who stood guard. Every doctor who tried. Every Alpha, every Luna, every soul with a beating heart now holding its breath. Not just my pack—but all of them. Unified in pain. Frozen in hope.
Caden feels it too.
He doesn’t speak, doesn’t have to. His body stands firm beside mine like a sentinel. The bond between us pulses heavy and full of weight, his grief bleeding into mine, my pain mirroring his.
“I didn’t know it could feel like thi
