It started as pain.
Not the gradual build of something developing — sudden, specific, in the left side of my lower back, radiating forward. I was in the training ring, mid-session with Petra, and it arrived mid-movement and I stopped completely because stopping was the only available option.
Petra was beside me in an instant.
"Sit," she said. No question. The voice of a woman who has seen enough to know when assessment is faster than discussion.
I sat.
The pain was — not unbearable. But real, and wrong, and carrying the specific quality of something that was not ordinary muscle complaint. My wolf, who had been calm and settled for weeks, came suddenly and fully alert.
"The bond," Petra said.
"I know," I said. "He'll feel it."
"He already has," she said.
She was right.
The bond ha
