Nero had expected the younger alpha to be difficult.
He had not expected the forest to move.
One moment the residence stood perhaps four hundred meters ahead through the trees, its slate roof visible between dark pines and exposed limestone; the next, Nero stepped around a moss-covered boulder and found the slope stretching away from him as though someone had pulled several hundred additional meters of terrain into the space between one breath and the next.
Hale stopped beside him.
"That is annoying."
Nero smiled.
"Very."
