A Y L A
Beth didn’t give me time to gather my thoughts. She jerked her chin for me to follow and began weaving through the narrow paths between tents, stepping around buckets of water, baskets of vegetables, tools scattered on the ground, daily life, utterly ordinary and completely out of place for what I’d expected.
I had no idea where to look. Everything felt too strange, too wrong, too organised for a rogue camp. I should have been scared. Maybe I was. But mostly, I was overwhelmed by this quiet, functioning world that existed beyond the pack’s knowledge.
Beth stopped in front of a medium-sized tent. The fabric was patched in places, faded in others, but held together well. She lifted a flap and motioned me in.
“You’ll stay here,” she said.
I stepped inside cautiously.
My breath c
