Rennick in person was exactly what his reputation suggested.
Kael had met him twice at formal summits — cordial, measured encounters conducted across diplomatic distance and careful language. The man who came through his main hall doors now was the version beneath the summit version: six foot four, broad as a doorframe, carrying the particular unhurried readiness of an Alpha who had spent more years in the field than in a throne room, and had never entirely left the field behind.
He looked at Kael.
He looked at Lira.
He held Lira’s gaze for exactly as long as it took for something to settle in him visibly — the pulling instinct finding its answer, the inexplicable urgency of the past days finally resolved into comprehension.
“That’s her,” he said. Not to Kael. To himself.
“Alpha Renn
