Caitlyn’s POV
I wake with a ringing in my ears. Not from pain, though there’s plenty of that. It’s from the silence. The kind that stretches too long and sits heavy in the air. The kind that always means something’s wrong.
The others are regrouping. Whispering. Not to me. About me. About Rael. About the things that crawled out from beneath the snow and vanished like breath in cold wind.
I try to sit up, but my shoulder screams.
It should be healing. It isn’t.
The throb is deeper than surface pain. Tight, pulsing, heavy. I press my palm to it, expecting the usual warm buzz of recovery from my wolf, but nothing comes. Instead, it burns under my skin. Not like fire. Like frostbite. A cold so deep it feels old. I feel it in my ribs. My spine. My teeth.
Something's gnawing from the inside
