A

ed holdi

l. Ash wanted a real fight, and Cad

nt audibly sharp all at once. Back and forth across the dirt, neither of them clean, neither of them giving anything free. Ash was quick in a way that kep

at. He didn't

oo hard from the right. Ash moved to counter, but her bo

jacket before s

m did t

hey rolled once and stopped with Caden's weight fully across Ash's chest, one hand braced in

on the trai

looked

look

of the

But something underneath

didn't

That was what he told himself, and it was not entirely a lie, but it was not the whole truth either bec

ofter tha

tner, his hands reading something through the uniform that didn't line up with everything else. The chest under his forearm. The way t

d at Ash

ething in the second exchange, the skin there dark pink and soft-looking in a way th

h

pression that was working hard to stay neutral and not entirely succeedin

t hit hi

omething else entirely, something that had been sitting wrong in his memory since the courty

ard so hard he felt

is

every pack he'd visited, every alpha he'd met, every wolf he'd trained beside. He knew

wasn'

mething that his wolf was trying to climb toward and

d again. Different

'd been staring a

tood

t doing something it had no business doing after a training trial, and his wol

than usual. Didn't

you doing?

level. He was proud of that. "You s

t, it's

from the ground. "Come back when you c

sh's expression. Fast. Go

," Ash

to walk off

ree steps

ed b

t. It arrived from somewhere his

s forward, not on Ash. "Shower before I

d off th

e heard Ash

there with his back to the field and his hand pressed flat against the stone wa

was

t genuinely interesting thing that had happened to him since a

ther

t that was wrong in a way that was starting to feel less like wr

n't li

ver lik

certain

nt, and somewhere in the back of his head a thou

ed off

That the lunar pull was messing with his instincts. That whatever had just happene

f didn'

wanted to

and stay there until it figured out what that s

walked

t tog

record to update and absolutely no busi

o

lmost co