"I gave you a chance."
A pause. Measured. The kind of pause that felt like the space between heartbeats.
"You brought me broken bodies."
The words did not rise. They settled. They lay across the square like ash after a fire.
Then—with a calm far more terrible than rage—
"Now I collect the rest."
---
And as the first wolves broke from the square, moving outward to close every road, every boundary, every escape beneath Alpha command—
Blackmoor understood.
Too late.
The reckoning had begun.
The first signs moved faster than panic.
They moved as orders. Silent to most. Instant to the war pack.
Thessian did not raise his voice. He did not repeat the command. He did not need to. The bond carried what words no longer could. Across rooftops, wolves peeled away in coordinated waves. Street approaches fell under control. Municipal exits sealed shut. Intersections that moments earlier pulsed with city life now bent to the logic of siege.
