Kira found me at the river.
Not the compound's northern river — the small tributary that ran along the eastern edge of the property, the one Gamma Reese had shown me on the first real tour, narrower and quieter than the main flow, the kind of water that moved without hurry over smooth stones and didn't announce itself.
I had been sitting on its bank for an hour without particular intention. The pack bond was warm and steady. Darius was somewhere in the compound doing what he always did — present, working, the background note that I had stopped noticing because it had become the air. My wolf was doing her settled thing, the low continuous hum of a creature that has found its place and is occupying it fully.
I heard Kira before I felt her. She moved with the specific quiet of someone who
