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Three days later, Ziko appeared in the kitchen at seven in the morning with the expression that meant he'd been thinking about something since before he went to sleep and had finally arrived at something worth saying.
He sat across from me.
He looked at my stomach.
"I want to tell you something," he said. "About how this part goes. The last weeks before."
I waited.
"It gets—" He searched. "Your wolf starts to change focus. She stops orienting toward threats and starts orienting toward the arrival. You'll feel it as a kind of settling, but it's not the same settling as after the break. This one is warmer." He put both elbows on the table, leaning in, the serious-underneath-the-performance version. "When it starts, you'll know. And when you know, tell Ryke immediately. Not in an ho
