(Isla)
The first thing I understood was sound.
Not the sound of the hall, not voices, not the waiting pack behind the closed door. This was inside me. A deep pull beneath skin and bone, like something had woken and found every locked place at once. I tried to breathe through it, but breathing belonged to a body I no longer fully understood.
Caius was in front of me.
I knew that because his hands were near me and his voice was there, low and controlled, giving me something to follow. His face stayed close enough that I could find it when the room broke into pieces again. I wanted to tell him I was still there, but the words wouldn't rise properly. They caught somewhere between my chest and throat and came out as a rough sound that frightened me because it was mine and not mine.
"It's a
