The gate alarm went off at an hour I'd stopped trying to name.
I felt it before I heard it — a ripple through the pack bond, the compound's collective attention sharpening from rest to alert in the specific way of wolves who have learned the difference between a visitor and a threat and are currently uncertain which category applies.
I was in the kitchen. I was always in the kitchen at odd hours. Darius had long since stopped being surprised by this and had started leaving a light on for me, which was the kind of small thing that landed somewhere permanent.
The compound's front gate camera feed was visible on the small screen mounted near the pantry — a security measure that Gamma Reese had pointed out to me with the particular practicality of a woman who believed in situational awarene
