The perimeter alarm was a low subsonic pulse — not audible to humans, registered by every supernatural being within three blocks as a pressure change behind the sternum. Neva felt it at three-fourteen and was dressed and out of the apartment in forty seconds.
She had the layout in her head before she hit the street. Six entry points around the Ember District perimeter. The alarm's pulse had come from three simultaneous directions — north, southeast, and west — which meant at least one wolf per entry point, which meant coordination. This was not a single rogue testing a boundary. This was organized.
She ran the calculation as she moved. Her pack was four minutes out minimum — the overnight rotation was two people on the eastern edge, everyone else at home or in the building, nobody positi
