The air still hummed with leftover static from the amplifiers. Even with the fight over, my skin prickled like the world had not noticed we survived. Wolves moved around the clearing in slow, shaky lines. Some limped. Some held their heads like they were dizzy. Others sat on the ground staring into nothing, probably trying to remember how breathing worked.
The captured handlers were dragged toward containment, each one wrapped in silver restraints that smelled like panic and burned metal. Theo barked orders that cut through the exhausted silence, and warriors obeyed without hesitation. The scrape of boots and the low groans of injured wolves filled the dawn chill.
My knees wobbled. Not a tiny wobble. A full on the world is tilting, please don't let me face plant kind of wobble.
I preten
