We found them on the fifth day, not a pack in any real sense anymore, just a handful of aging wolves living quietly in a valley far enough from any major territory that nobody had bothered to disturb them in decades, their small collection of homes built low and unremarkable against the hillside, easy to miss entirely if you did not already know to look for them.
An old woman named Sorcha met us at the edge of the settlement, wary until Torin explained who I was and why we had come, her sharp eyes moving over both of us with the careful assessment of someone who had survived a long time by never trusting strangers too quickly. Something in her expression shifted the moment I said my mother's name aloud, though, softening into something that looked almost like grief resurfacing after a lon
