Nobody moved for a long moment after Elara said it. The fire behind them had burned down to a low, steady glow, embers pulsing like something breathing, and Lyra found herself staring at the three men instead of at the woman who'd just rewritten everything she thought she understood about her own power.
"Explain it," Darian said. "Not in riddles. Plainly."
"I've had twenty-three years to think about how to say this, and I still don't have a clean way to do it." Elara's voice was tired, not philosophical. "A bond between one wolf and one mate carries a feeling. Warmth, awareness, the pull you've all described. A bond between one wolf and three carries something more, if the wolf survives long enough to control it. Marianne believed you could give them what's inside you. Not all of it. Eno
