The tracks stayed untouched.
No one stepped over them. No one erased them.
They remained pressed into the damp earth near the western boundary like a warning neither hidden nor spoken aloud.
Nyra stood at the edge of the tree line, her gaze fixed on the marks while the others kept a careful distance behind her.
Watching.
Waiting.
The air felt heavier now.
Not because danger was immediate.
Because uncertainty had shape again.
“They wanted us to find them,” Arin said quietly beside her.
“Yes,” Nyra replied.
Darius crouched near the tracks, studying them carefully without touching the ground. His expression had shifted into something sharper over the last few minutes—something colder, more instinctive.
Alpha.
“They weren’t hiding their scent either,” he said.
Nyra noticed that t
