RichardWe breached the blood market at 03:07, three levels beneath the old textile district. No insignia, no front signage, just a freight elevator that opened into the back of a faux wine cellar.The air hit thick and sweet, metallic and cloying in a way that clung to the roof of my mouth. There w
“So she’s not just wolf.”“She might be part wolf and part human, or part something close to wolf but no longer coded as Pack. She might not even have a wolf the way we define it. It could be an adaptive strain, a mutation, or a misclassified hybrid phenotype. Her symptoms are too clean to be random
RichardI couldn't sleep that night after I locked the pendant scan away. If I did, it was only in shallow fits, chased by dreams I couldn’t fully remember but woke from with my pulse climbing and a tightness in my chest that didn’t release until well after sunrise.It wasn’t fear exactly, but somet
I let her in and said nothing. She walked into the room like she always did, unguarded, unbothered, as if she didn’t know the weight I carried or the folder I’d locked away. She perched on the edge of the table and looked at me."You’re being quiet.""I’m thinking.""That’s never a good sign."Her t
RichardThe envelope was unmarked, which was typical for Liora. She never labeled anything sensitive, never gave anything away with the exterior. She handed it to me without ceremony, her mouth set in a line and her knuckles white around the folder until I pried it from her fingers."Don’t read it h
“There’s too much we still don’t understand. The signal mapping isn’t complete. We don’t know how many targets have been conditioned. If we release it without context, all we do is spread fear.”She crossed her arms. “Fear they already have. You think not talking about it makes it go away?”I steppe