Zane POV
Zane had not slept properly in three weeks.
He was not the kind of person who admitted things like that. He was not the kind of person who admitted weakness of any kind, to anyone, including himself. But the evidence was hard to ignore at four in the morning when he was running the territory border for the third time this week trying to exhaust a wolf who did not seem to get tired.
Titan ran with him. Not beside him the way a wolf was supposed to run with its human side easy, cooperative, sharing the body. Titan ran ahead of him, constantly, pulling toward something Zane could not see or smell or name. It had been this way for three weeks. A restless, directionless urgency that made no sense and responded to no logic.
Zane had tried everything. Extra training. Less sleep. More sleep. Cold water. Harder runs. Nothing worked. Titan just kept pacing.
By the time the sky turned gray he had covered the full territory border twice and his muscles ached in a way that felt almost satisfying. He turned back toward the pack house. The morning shift of pack members was starting to move around the grounds workers heading to the kitchens, warriors going to the training yard, the ordinary rhythm of a pack starting its day.
He was on the main path back when he saw her.
Wren Cole. Carrying a supply crate that was clearly meant for two people. It was almost as big as she was. She had it balanced against her front, both arms wrapped underneath, chin up, not looking where she was going because she could not see over the top of it. She was moving slowly and very carefully and not asking anyone around her for help.
There were three pack members within arm's reach of her. None of them offered.
Zane slowed without deciding to.
He watched her navigate around a loose stone in the path by feel, adjusting her weight, not dropping the crate. There was something about the way she moved that was he did not finish the thought. He did not have a word for it that he was willing to use.
Titan surged forward inside him so hard Zane actually missed a step.
The feeling was enormous and directionless and warm in a way that made absolutely no sense, and Zane shut it down with the same wall he had been building against it for three weeks. He was good at walls. He had been building them his whole life. He stacked this one thick and high and walked faster, eyes forward, past Wren and the crate and the three pack members who still had not helped her.
He did not look back.
He told himself he did not want to.
His father was waiting for him at the pack house entrance, which meant the day was already complicated. Alpha Reid was an early riser. He was also a man who used early morning conversations to make things sound casual that were not casual at all.
"Good run?" his father asked.
"Fine," Zane said.
"Summit is in three weeks." Alpha Reid fell into step beside him. "Everything needs to be perfect. The mating announcement will be the centerpiece of the evening. Sera's family is expecting a formal ceremony."
"I know."
"You seem distracted lately."
Zane looked at him. "I am not distracted."
His father studied him for one second longer than felt comfortable. Then he nodded and went inside.
Zane stood at the entrance for a moment. He was not distracted. He was focused. He was always focused. He had been training for this for the Alpha role, for the summit, for the mating alliance with Sera's family his entire life. It was what he was built for. Everything was on track. Everything was exactly as planned.
Titan growled.
Zane went inside.
The day was long and full and gave him no time to think about wolves or paths or supply crates. He had training to run, territory reports to review, a meeting with three senior warriors about the summit security arrangements. He was good at this. This was where he made sense in the structure of leadership, in the clear lines of authority and responsibility. This was where Titan was usually cooperative and strong and useful.
Today Titan was barely present for any of it. He kept drifting. Pulling toward something. Zane kept yanking him back.
At dinner he sat at the Alpha table and did not look toward the far end of the dining hall. He was not looking for anyone. He was reviewing the summit guest list in his head and listening to his father talk about territorial boundaries.
He did not look.
He ate his dinner and went to his room and told himself tomorrow would be better.
He was asleep within minutes, which was the first normal thing that had happened in three weeks.
Then Titan moved.
It was not like a dream. It was not like anything he had experienced before. It was as if the wolf simply reached forward and took the body without asking not violently, not in a rage, just with a calm certainty that was somehow worse than either. Like Titan had simply decided he was done waiting.
Zane woke up standing.
Not in his bed. Not near his bed. He was standing in the middle of his room with his back straight and his hands at his sides and his claws out fully extended, all ten of them, gleaming in the dark. His heart was hammering so hard he could feel it in his teeth. He had not had an uncontrolled shift since he was twelve years old, not since his father had trained it out of him with a combination of discipline and something close to fear.
He looked at his hands.
He pulled the claws back in. It took four tries.
His whole body was vibrating. Titan was still at the surface, eyes open, staring at the wall in the direction of Zane turned his head slowly the direction of the east wing of the pack house. The lower floor. The rooms where the low-ranking pack members stayed.
Where Wren Cole's room was.
Zane stood in the dark and breathed.
There was a scent in the air. Faint. Barely there. He did not know it had never consciously noticed it before but something in the deepest animal part of him recognized it the way you recognized the smell of rain before the storm arrived. Something old. Something that bypassed every wall he had built and landed directly in his chest like it belonged there.
He stood very still for a long time.
Then he walked to his window and gripped the frame hard and stared out at the dark pack grounds and told himself it meant nothing.
Titan pressed against the back of his ribs like he was trying to walk through them.
It meant nothing.