On day thirty-nine, a second letter arrived from Ashveil.
This one was from Ryden.
Mira read it in the war room with Damien beside her, which was where she wanted to be when she read it — somewhere that was fully hers, with someone she trusted completely. The letter was formal in the way of a pack alpha addressing another pack's wolf — careful language, appropriate deference given his currently suspended status, the specific register of a man who had been told by a Council that he needed to be careful.
He did not apologize. She had not expected him to.
He offered, instead, information.
He said that Valdris's operation had been more extensive than the inquiry had so far established. He said there were wolves in four additional packs who had been facilitating Norrskov access over the pa
