The impact of the first explosion sent shockwaves through the keep, a foreboding [i]whoomp[/i] that set every last one of the wolf's instincts on a razor's edge. Veti slipped from the confines of her lover's arms with a flicker of a glance to Henry and Aislinn, the only two left in the great room now. 

"Definitely [i]not[/i] one of Jay-Jay's fireworks displays over the Thames," she growled to Thad without the least touch of humor in her voice. "I hope you still have a trick or two tucked away in that brilliant mind, love... "

A flash of amber eyes signaled the arrival of her wolf, ivory fangs at least as long as a man's fingers lengthening like daggers in that lengthening ebony-lipped maw. Veti impatiently tore at the remnants of the dress and boots with her black-tipped claws, a thick pelt of crimson and gold all the covering she needed now. Thick cords of muscle rippled like scarlet water beneath her coat as the werewolf unfolded from her transformation - head to magnificent, lethal head with Aislinn Hoyle as she caught the elder wolf's gaze. Veti's long ears flattened back in alarm - 

One of the enormous semi-circle windows shattered, glass cascading into the room like a lethal rain. The werewolf's knowledge of firearms and explosives was near encyclopedic - whatever the hell just happened, this was [i]not[/i] the work of some shock wave, and yet? The sound of crackling, tinkling fall glass fell silent, and [i]still[/i] she could sense nothing awry at all, not a single waft of a scent, or glimpse or whisper to explain what had happened.

Which only infuriated her all the more.

Veti snarled, lips pulled back over her fangs as the werewolf's amber eyes flitted here and there about them, cursing the inexplicable, her jaws snapping with a growing, impatient rage. She could smell a feint, could feel the pull of her instincts to dash toward the first explosion - but for the shattered glass window...

They were scattered, all her pack, to the four winds in this keep. She was trapped here as surely as in a hunter's snare, and her gut roiled at the very thought. Veti [i]dared[/i] not leave, but could not know if all the ones she loved were aware of the danger - and her heart pounded in her chest at the thought any one of them would be caught unaware. 

The werewolf lifted her muzzle, sniffing futilely at the air one last time before her lips pulled back over her fangs, the mane of crimson hackles raised from skull to tail as she called to them all, a challenge and a war cry, a series of deafening growls and bellowing howls that would have set a mere man fleeing in mortal terror.