The voice in the darkness twisted again. Not Jack’s tone. Not his warmth. A distorted echo wearing his sound like clothing.
Beau stepped in front of me, teeth bared, eyes glowing. Sophie lifted her scanner, hands shaking.
Then a shape shifted at the far end of the breach.
A body curled tight in the corner. Shoulders hunched. Knees pulled to his chest. Fingers digging into the stone floor hard enough to draw blood. His breath came in broken gasps, each one sounding like it hurt to make.
Jack.
But not standing. Not fighting. Not controlled.
Collapsed.
Shaking violently.
His wolf flickered through him in jolting surges. His aura spasmed around his body, torn between retreat and attack. The remnants of Aurek’s code twisted inside him like barbed wire.
I dropped to my knees so fast I s
