ery'

shortest line through the gray buffer zone. I should have been at the northern outpos

rtcut never actu

ghter would be bound to Deondre Langley in seven days. I

ing on the gravel. I looked up and saw a column of black smoke cutting straight up

w and let the cold in. It carried rust

lot of

he bon

to ignore, jerked hard inside my chest. My wolf was awake instantly. It reached down the

st, knuckles white. The sig

ing in a heartbeat. He'd known me too long n

My voice came o

ho

r Bow

dirt. The other end of the bond was shaking hard. Fear, sharp and cold, mixed with adrenaline. Then pa

as ru

snarling. Hu

ow. Not panic. Cold. The feel of fingers locked around something - metal, silver, a bloody hilt. Sh

f closed in, I let

hined, and ran with its tail tucked. But Ember's reaction tightened my chest. She didn't relax. Her heart went from terror

r. She didn't know who. She ha

from behind me, pitched low.

sat on the shoulder, silver falcon emblems cold under the headlights. Deondr

im, her gaze crossing the broken wall of the pump station, pausing one second, sliding away. Her nose wrinkled s

overed in blood, and he was standing in the sunligh

rl

er

t away ran east. C

nto his tablet, and Black Guar

sion froze for half a second, then folded into concern, and she ran for her. Deondre turn

, Deondre's lips moving, Brandee gesturing beside him. Then Ember walked around them, toward the highway. Deo

his collar, and turned back toward the convoy. Brandee followed, glanced over her shoulder

settled slowly. She was still wal

e bond, her heartbeat knocked against th

"The Rogue's contained, in the third squa

the undergr

es

he blood on her knees darkening the gravel, and she didn't stop. I leaned back i

to com