The second howl rolled across the highlands like thunder trapped in a ribcage—deeper than the first, layered with harmonics that set the stones beneath our feet humming in answer.
The drifters felt it. I saw it in the way their shoulders stiffened, in the young wolf’s instinctive half-shift before he caught himself. Fear spiked—sharp, animal—but it didn’t scatter them.
Good.
Kael tilted his head, listening beyond sound. His jaw flexed. “That wasn’t a lone call.”
“No,” I said. “It was a response.”
Below us, the woman steadied her group with a subtle lift of her hand. She was older than I’d first thought—lines at the corners of her eyes, silver threading her dark braid. Her stance wasn’t submissive or defiant. It was practiced. Survivor’s balance.
“You should go,” Kael called down. “Wh
