**THIRD PERSON POV**
Atticus hits the ground first.
Not because he is faster than Axel, but because his panic reaches the forest a fraction of a second earlier, sharp and feral and completely uncontained, and the moment his boots leave the back steps he is already shifting, bones snapping and reforming as his wolf takes over with a snarl that tears through the trees. Axel is right behind him, the bond between them burning hot and frantic, their shared terror a living thing that pushes them forward without thought or restraint.
Bella.
The name is not a word so much as a pulse, a demand, a tearing absence where her presence should be, and the forest answers it immediately with scent so raw it nearly knocks them sideways. Blood and fear and wolfsbane, sharp and poisonous, tangled together
