Emily's POV
The message was from the eastern border patrol.
Three wolves. Discovered at sunrise, two days ago, at the fringe of the territory of the Ironclaw, where the primeval oak wood came in contact with the open land. They hadn't been killed in a fight. Not a single wound which indicated fight, not a trace of wrestling in the soil about. They had merely ceased.
That is what the patrol leader had told in his report.
Stopped.
As though something had got in them and shut down whatever kept them going.
I read it twice. Then I gazed up at Rollins on the other side of the war room table.
His countenance was quite motionless.
"They had been dispatched as a message," I said.
"Yes," he said.
"Not to warn us away," I said. I laid aside the report. "To demonstrate
