The arrow never reached its target, Alexander caught it mid-air and snapped it in half like kindling, that was the signal, the clearing erupted.
Wolves shifted in flashes of bone and fur, snarls ripping through the night, shadowcrest surged forward as one, disciplined and brutal. Ironshade answered with chaos. Thornhill hesitated for half a second too long and paid for it in blood.
“Mila, move!” Rowan shouted, Alexander spun, shoving her back toward the inner ward just as a wolf slammed into him from the side.
He barely shifted in time, his body blurring into fur and muscle as he tore into the attacker.
Mila stumbled, heart pounding, the world dissolving into noise and motion, she shouldn’t be here, but she was, and her body knew it.
The pull inside her flared again, stronger now. No
