(Catherine POV)
I was examining the deepest set of claw marks—gouges that went nearly through the door's full thickness—when I heard it.
A sound that made every primitive instinct in my body scream warnings I should have heeded hours ago. Low, rumbling, rising from somewhere behind me with the kind of controlled menace that spoke of predators who'd never learned to doubt their place in the natural order.
A growl.
My candle flame wavered as my hand began to shake, wax dripping onto bare stone with soft sounds that seemed loud as thunder in the corridor's oppressive quiet. I didn't turn around—couldn't turn around, because some animal part of my brain understood that sudden movements might trigger responses I wasn't equipped to survive.
The growl came again, closer this time, carrying h
