a's

he packhouse, the lou

I'd just left behind. Every sound landed wrong: too sharp, too close, too much all at once.

ng sudde

y skin, too full of energy, like I could break into a sprint without meaning to and

of my thoughts, watching.

ing out across the snow. It should have

did

alk in like that and traumatize half the pack. I'd enjoy

icked up that we weren'

ind the neare

bones grinding and skin stretching in ways that made my eyes water. I bit down hard enough to taste blood an

nd dressed quickly, fi

red. "We've barely started. I've ne

oodie over my head, and he

hed i

taneously, and the effect

the edges, and my knees nearly buckled. I grabbed the doorframe hard, fingers

" I gasped, nostrils

oice going sharp. "Wel

mething deeper, dragging at me from the inside out. My fingers went numb. My chest tightened painfu

is?" I asked, breathin

. Too quiet, an

g to like the answe

spond, my feet we

low. Each step felt heavy and wrong, like being drawn somewhere I already knew I

's r

e dropped into still water,

uttered. "Because fate has a sens

ng me, pulling me further down the corridor before I could think straig

o immed

r's

cold shiver ran the fu

ought. "Are you

ing. Which was

be real. It had to be the shift messing with my senses-some

am you're having,"

hird scent

pull me with force-it simply waited, patient and stead

d before I de

hird

went completely still-the kind of still that only

re

d. "This... this

," Tala said. Softer no

head in the empty hallway

rd, but as a force that moved straight throug

" Tala

es buckled, and I grabbed the wall, heat flooding my chest-sharp, overwhelming-the sensati

t say?" The words

st steady, certain, and completely devastating. "Apparen

d until I couldn'

nyone on ea

didn't choose this. If I had, we would have aimed fo

ra

using to fall away no matter how much distance I put between myself and those three

dn't

he bond had already decided something my mind hadn't a

Tala said quietly. No

my hea

firmly. "Th

retend. I support denial-it's a very

oor and pulled my

. Not stran

Ryker.

hirteen years of silence feel

" I muttered, wiping

," she said. "Historically unsucce

napped bac

tain and completely indifferent

n't acc

beneath everything

f alre

*