(Kaelen)
He arrives at seven.
I'm still at the village when his car comes through — not because I couldn't leave, but because there were things to finish. The after-work of a defense: the reports, the family checks, the enforcers who needed to be seen to before I saw to myself. Joss tried to send me back to the compound twice. I ignored her twice. She stopped trying.
I hear his car before I see it.
The pack feels him arrive — that particular shift in the bond, the quality of the air changing when the alpha returns to his territory. Around me, subtly, people orient. Not obviously. Just the way wolves do, the small adjustments of a pack registering its center.
My wolf doesn't do the subtle version.
She just lifts her head and points.
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He comes through the village square on foot, h
