p back on Bren

ed it up off the table in front of her and set it do

got to

left his face, but it had gone stiff at the corners, the kind of stiff that happens when someone's smil

had gon

it. Loud would've been wrong. "If you actually want

the milk dryin

akes you look like someone who's

d; it fell righ

ed him come, and something about how she was standing must've registered because he stopped before he closed the distance. His e

ome mouth on

e," she said. "At bre

g entirely. Someone near the back wall h

low to Calloway. Ca

could see him working through that, deciding what came next, and she was genui

m here with

. Caden'

table, not between her and Bren, just present in the way a wall is present. The whole

ooked

e, calculation, and a decision made and th

ho's practised at switching gears. "I didn't know he was with

say anything

"Sav

there, and Bren picked up his tray, said something quiet to Dex, and the four

rned to

had

ea

'd you

in here; today, day two, they write it up. That's your first flag before you've done one real session. Fight him in

ened he

sed

She hated that

she said. "Not to him.

at her f

see," h

lenge. Just something

g speakers

ning grounds. Now. Full

rs in that fast, instinctive way of wolves who know what immediately means when someone senior says it. The air cha

already o

atched her stride as they pushed through the doors and out into the

won't have to wa

d nothi

e. What was there instead was older and quieter and she knew it well. She'd felt it seven times in her father's yard, righ

acket's zip up a

hat training grou

bab