For ten agonising, suspended seconds, the five most dangerous predators on the continent simply stared up at the wooden balcony.
Thirty minutes ago, Roxy was clearly very sad. Now, she was glowing with euphoria, holding a tiny, fiery-red fox kit over the railing like a newly crowned prince.
Torian was the first to break the absolute paralysis. The White Tiger Alpha blinked his wide blue eyes, pointing a massive, trembling finger at the squirming ball of red fluff.
"Is that... is that the boy?" Torian stammered, his booming voice cracking entirely. "He is barely two months old! Wolf pups don't shift until their first winter! That's biologically impossible!"
"He is a transmigrated Kitsune anomaly," Syris corrected smoothly, though the Snake King's elegant hands were gripping the edges of his dark green robes tight enough to turn his knuckles white. "Nothing about that child is Normal."
