KAEL'S POV
The scent of rot clung to my hall.
I prowled the length of the council chamber, my black wolf just under my skin, restless and angry. Every flicker of shadow against the stone walls made my claws itch. This was my territory. My den, and the god had slithered into it like a thief in the dark.
The bond pulsed in my chest, hot and steady—Ayla's presence anchoring me even through the gnawing frustration. She sat near the fire, silver-gray eyes watching me, her silver fire dancing faintly over her fingers.
He's testing us, she sent softly through the tether. Testing the walls. Testing us.
Then I'll give him something to choke on, I rumbled back, my thoughts as sharp as my wolf's teeth. We bring the fight to him. No more waiting for him to slither into our home.
I stopped at the war table, hands braced on cold stone. A map of the Frostfangs lay sprawled across it, dotted with pins marking our patrols and the ravine where we'd bled two nights ago.
