The chill of the early morning stung Jamie's flesh as he stood on the border of Vale Pack lands, the tall forest rolling out before him like a sea of green life.
Jamie's feet left no mark upon dew-covered earth, but his mind burned in agony high enough to smother out the external world.
The biting smell of pine and wet ground filling his senses, it was no longer home. Not anymore.
He hadn't left these shores since childhood — not by his choice, at least. Memories flooded up: chasing after fireflies in the dusk with Cassie, echoes of laughter in the woods, his mother's shrill shout calling him in the comfort of a pack that had been almost family.
Those echoes were bitter like phantoms.
Jamie adjusted his pack on his shoulders and breathed slowly, evenly. The earth crunching beneath his
