Miles passed. The signal kept building. Grief and resolve and fear layering on top of each other, each one amplifying the others, the emotional equivalent of a woman climbing stairs towards a ledge.
Then the pain hit.
Lucian's wolf form collapsed.
The shift broke mid-stride, his body transitioning from wolf to man without his permission, without his control, the pain so violent it overrode every biological function including the one that kept him in fur. He tumbled across the forest floor. Roots and rocks and packed earth scraped across skin that had been paws a second ago, and his men scattered in every direction.
He landed on his back.
The canopy above him was green and gold and irrelevant because every nerve in his body was receiving a transmission from the matebond that was beyond anything he had prepared for.
River was screaming.
