Arielle's POV
The compound looked different when we came back.
Not physically. The same stone walls, the same gates, the same mountain rising behind it with its cold authority. The same torchlight in the windows. The same smell of woodsmoke and pine.
But I was different from when I had left, in ways I was still cataloguing, and so it looked different.
The pack came out to meet us. Not formally. Just — there. People emerging from the compound with the specific quality of those who have been waiting and are relieved to stop.
Dessa hugged me with the brisk efficiency of a healer who was also checking for injuries. I let her. Then I stepped back and let her do the same to Lucien, who submitted to her hands on his ribs with the patience of a man who had long accepted that Dessa's authority
