Chapter 73. Also Strategic

Caleb’s POV

The pack howls.

It starts low and grows, wolf from belly, human from ribs, vampire from stillness, witch from the delicate chime of rings and magic. Selena’s note threads up clear and unafraid; I join it; our wolves braid the sound until it shakes the lintel and makes pups clap their hands over their ears and laugh. It’s not a challenge. It’s a census. We are here. We belong. We mean it.

When it fades, dad and mom step back, not out, never out, just back. They look lighter. Not because we took the weight, though we did. Because they trust us with it and decided that trust feels better than worry.

Dad puts the chewed pencil he didn’t throw at anyone today in my pocket.

“For later,” he mutters, and pulls me into a hug so hard my ribs remember I’m still his.

Mom cups Selena’s face, with that look mothers wear when their children are about to do something they’ve already done themselves.

“Remember to eat,” she says, because sh