Ariyah's POV
Settlement - Mira's Cottage
The scream comes from the village center.
I'm helping Mira prepare herbs when the sound tears through the morning calm. My hands freeze over the mortar and pestle, and my heart lurches. The baby kicks hard, as if startled.
"What was that?" I whisper.
Mira is already on her feet. "Stay here."
"Like hell I will."
I follow her outside, my swollen belly making me slower than I'd like. The village is small, only a few dozen homes scattered along a dirt path. But today, the path is chaos.
People are running. Shouting. A woman kneels in the dirt, clutching a child to her chest, sobbing.
And in the center of it all, three wolves.
They're massive, easily twice the size of normal wolves. Their eyes are wrong, too bright, too focused. They move with
