{"A real shifter walks in when the rest of the world walks out."}
We reached the edge of Hanka Island just as the first light of dawn broke across the distant horizon. The path forward was familiar, but everything felt changed. Hanka no longer pulsed with the same suffocating darkness, but it had been scarred. The kind of wound that did not heal with time. I walked at the front, beside Freyr, Rou, and Elle, just behind me. The rest of the survivors trailed close. My boots pressed against the earth with more weight than usual, each step a silent prayer that the Bay Shifter pack remained untouched.
As the trees thinned and the border came into view, I slowed. A line of guards stood ahead of our own. They were waiting, weapons in hand, but their stance was not aggressive.
