[WARNING - Disturbing and violent content.]
Arion could feel the beasts waiting.
Their attention pressed against the edges of his consciousness, an unfamiliar awareness that had somehow become easier to understand than the voices of the people standing around him.
He knew Nero was speaking.
He could hear Amaru ordering the remaining soldiers toward the upper corridors, and somewhere behind them Victor was demanding new readings through the communication channel.
None of it seemed particularly important.
Claudia stood several meters away, her back almost touching the broken railing, black channels spreading beneath her skin as the enhancer continued forcing corrupted pheromones through her damaged glands.
She smelled wrong.
Something in her pheromones was demanding obedience from the animals around him, pushing against their instincts with an artificial pressure that made the entire clearing of awareness inside Arion's head recoil.
She was hurting them.
