The circle was no longer a council ground. It was a pit.
Vera’s scream still echoed in the stones when the wolves snapped. The frenzy tore through them like a forest fire. Packs broke, torn into flesh and blood. Ranks forgotten, alliances burned away in a second of white heat. Wolves clawed at each other’s hide, some for dominance, some for the right to rut the nearest body. The earth trembled beneath them, slick with sweat and blood and come.
A female was pinned to the dirt by two males at once, claws tearing at her hips as she howled in the morning air. A pair of wolves in battle dove into bloody kisses as one pinned his back to a flat stone, rutting him through the hazy screaming of the crowd. The young rutted with the old, the strong with the weak, rivals with enemies — it didn’t ma
