The diversion works because it is loud, messy, and perfectly timed, and because everyone, including me, has learned to move toward the biggest threat instead of questioning why it suddenly appeared where it did. The alarm sounds just as the council disperses into fractured urgency, the sharp pulse echoing through the stone halls and sending wolves into motion on instinct alone, and the bond flares hot and directional, tugging me toward the eastern stairwell with a sense of wrongness that does not yet have a name.
Adam is already moving, issuing clipped orders as warriors peel off in coordinated lines, and Justin vanishes down a side corridor with a group of enforcers before I can catch his eye. The air fills with overlapping scents and raised voices, the pack snapping into defensive patte
