Thornbound

ine underbelly of the Regime's compound. She'd never seen this part before. These weren't the cold, metallic corri

ancing back. "The sensors he

in her ears like a drumbeat of fate. She hadn't shifted yet, but he

didn't tr

dn't trus

omething about him felt... inevitable. Like a thread in the fabric

g up toward the tower, the other downward in

point's beneath the west

oler now, laced with the faint tang of

ens if we

t, and we pray we

oat anything. Sh

ith in the past. Kael pressed his palm to the panel. A flicker of green. The do

ers. All of them look

a fr

lv

l o

, a female, towered above the others, her body thrumming with barely leashed energy.

fte

them. That musky, electric scent that

toward her. "T

d forward first. "You're the Solari gir

. "I didn't ask

Names like that stick. And they

ed her. "An

-born. I lea

one of the oldest su

asked Kael, giving Liora

just a shifter. S

owned. "

eady moving toward the far end of t

equence into the wall. A panel shifted, reveali

tside the city's perimete

rness and clipped one

it on anyway. "But let's g

Kael went last with her, their descent smooth but tense. Her fingers t

a loading dock, the moon was rising full and white,

the pull

hed. Her bre

happen

lowing faintly gold. "You

rough her chest, her spine arched back. Her scream turned into a g

knees, the

like her f

fast. Bruta

strong

She could see every heartbeat in Kael's throat. Smell the dist

pa

she expected. Midnight-black fur, eyes that gleam

she was no

r voice echoing

ones inbound. We

hrough the wreckage of the city's forgotten edge. Liora kep

sca

ged like lightn

And for the first time

wasn'

just the