(Kealen)
I heard it before anything else.
That was the thing about the berserker form — Mira had said it was triggered by high-stress situations, and the three weeks of controlled training with Theron had been about learning to access it deliberately, to bring it forward without the world having to force it. We'd been making progress. Slow, careful progress.
I didn't access it deliberately on a Tuesday morning.
The world forced it.
I was in the corridor outside the nursery when I heard Kiara make a sound she had never made before. Not her hunger sound or her discomfort sound or the small growl she made when she was practicing her claws. Something else. High. Sharp. Cut off fast.
The wolf was forward before I'd consciously processed it.
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The man in the nursery had his back to me.
