The creature does not land so much as it drops, its body twisting mid descent like it is not made of bones or muscle but something alive and shifting. The silver light of the cavern hits it and its form convulses, rippling with shapes that should not exist. Limbs that bend the wrong way. A spine that stretches and contracts like breath being forced in and out of a corpse.
My stomach tightens. My wolf snarls, the sound vibrating through my ribs.
Adam steps in front of me, instinctive, protective, the way he always does in the first heartbeat of danger.
But this time something in me surges.
My wolf flares against my skin, pushing me forward, refusing to hide behind anyone. Heat erupts from my chest, spiraling through my arms, down my spine, up into my throat. It is too strong to hold in.
