The morning came in quietly.
Just the slow, grey softening of the room as dawn crept through the heavy curtains and laid itself across the floor in pale, thin strips.
The pack house had been restless all night, distant footsteps in the corridors, the low murmur of Silver Fang sentinels making their rounds, the occasional clatter of something being prepared in the kitchens far below. The weight of tomorrow was already pressing down on the building itself, as if the very stones understood what the next twenty-four hours would demand of everyone inside them.
Kain woke before Nova did.
