The night air had thickened even further, and every sound seemed amplified. The forest beyond the packhouse hummed with life, but the hum was tense, sharp, on edge. The wolf in the pen coiled on its paws, muscles rippling beneath its thick fur, eyes bright and intelligent. It wasn’t moving aggressively, not yet, but it had fully woken, fully aware, fully testing the boundaries.
I stayed a few steps back from the pen, Asher’s hand resting lightly on my arm. “It’s different now.” He murmured. “Not just aware… it’s gauging us.”
I nodded, fingers gripping the railing instinctively. “And the twins… they’re feeding into it, even if they don’t realize it. That influence she has, Emily, it’s amplifying the tension.”
Asher’s jaw tightened. “I see it. Every little movement, every flicker of atten
