They didn't run like wolves.
That was the first thing my mind refused to process. Wolves ran in a rhythm — four legs, one purpose, muscle and momentum. These things moved in stutters. They surged forward twenty feet, froze completely, then surged again, as though the space between one moment and the next had been cut out entirely.
"Formation!" Kira's voice cracked across the dead ground. "Circle up! Aria in the center!"
The Shadow warriors moved before she finished speaking. Forty bodies collapsed into a tight defensive ring, shields locked, blades out. Two Betas grabbed my arms and pulled me backward into the middle of the formation before I could protest.
Caleb stayed on the outer edge.
"Alpha, get inside the ring," Kira snapped.
"No."
He stood facing the approaching shapes, black
