Damien crossed the border of the pack just before dawn.The guards sensed him first. Their heads snapped up, bodies going tense as his presence swept through the trees like a warning. It wasn’t calm. It wasn’t controlled. It carried sharp anger and urgency, the kind that made younger wolves lower their eyes and older ones step aside.

Whispers moved faster than footsteps.

“Alpha Damien is back.”

“He smells like blood.”

“The human world clings to him.”

Damien ignored them all. His ...