ALCYDE
Dawn breaks strange through windows touched by Sophia's blessing—silver threading through ordinary sunlight, casting shadows that bend at angles geometry can't explain. Three days since the blood ceremony, and the compound still adjusts to its moon-blessed Luna. Pack members cross themselves when they pass the ritual ground where her blood turned sand to silver glass, permanent reminder of power that flows through an omega's veins.
"Alpha." Billy Joe fills my office doorway, mud still clinging to his boots from the morning patrol. "Got a situation at the territory line. Roger Henley's stuck there—can't cross back in."
I set down patrol schedules that blur together, all reporting the same phenomenon—the wards know intent now, judge worthiness. "How long?"
"Since dawn. Says his le
