the number the way you notice a song has stopped playing only once the silence after it settles in. She'd been so used to marki

he drills which used to leave her flat on the mat now ended with her opponent there instead, more often than not. Priya had

said one evening, not looking up from the apple

dn't

t stop you fixing it

he'd learned there wasn't much point arguing with a fourteen-year-old wh

gain, who broug

nal on the edge of the mat. "Pack histories, mostly. Family lines. This sec

eren't sure could survive being handled. The handwriting was cramp

nothing but ordinary weakness, only for the bloodline to surface in full the first time death stands close enough to touch. T

ree times before she trust

rly," she said quietly. "For years

eeded." Priya took the journal back gently when Elena offered it. "She wrote that the packs who hunted the Ashwoods to near ext

ion. Not full

that made her seem older than fourteen for

-

his study without an escort. Elena wasn't invited to that meeting. She found out what it contained anyway, th

hallway. "Third incursion this month. Voss pack morale's reportedly thin. If Calder decides to move for real

ing, cataloguing the information with the same flat precision she u

humiliated in a clearing and looked at their phones while it happened didn't deser

ost bel

study again, the way she had the

Calder incursions,"

eventually." Damon set his pen down, studying her with the patience of a man who'd been e

essure on Voss territory. Is

d with it. If they can't collect on you directly, pressuring the pack that let you slip through their fingers is

sk if it wa

found it's usually faster to answer both

, uninvited this time, which s

s coming for that territory, I'm not

reed. "You're

uch lo

lives, which tells me the bloodline's doing at least half the work whether you notice it or not. But instinct isn't the

arm now more often than not, as though it had

r long it takes. I want to be ready befor

something that might have been approv

on't think you have as much t