The Sentinels When you come and break my heart, free my blood.

A shuddering breath eased out of him as Lotte's call answered his own. Until that moment, he hadn't know that he feared for her - or rather, that she would not be there. Even her scent painted along the borders had not been enough to convince him. He needed to hear her voice, see the midnight splashed over her face.

She was upon him almost as soon as he saw her, and a warmth that had nothing to do with her body heat began to flow through his veins once more. Dag felt time slipping away as he was thrust back into the whelping den, attached to his mother's teat with Lotte pressed against his side.

I missed you, she said, and Dag blinked his eyes open to the alien world she called her home.

"Kyllä, se on ollut liian pitkä," he agreed, burying his nose in her fur and breathing in ice and blood - even here, she still smelled like home. "Joskus Mielestäni meidän ei olisi pitänyt jättää kotiin."

Even as he said the words, the knowledge that home was not an icy tundra flowed through him. Lotte was home. Hunting and singing and rabble-rousing with her was home. Even if he went back to Dorthe and Askel's den, it would be just another hole in the ground without his kaksonen's voice to answer his own.

"Minäkin kaipasin sinua."