ELLA'S POV
The forest was too quiet.
Not peaceful quiet — unnatural quiet. The kind that sits heavy in your bones and makes your wolf stir in her sleep.
I moved through the trees, barefoot and bare-faced, the mist brushing against my ankles like ghosts with secrets. Usually, Kate would hum in my head, teasing or whispering things about Jake, but today… nothing. Just silence.
Even the birds had stopped singing.
Something was wrong.
I tilted my head, inhaling. The wind carried something faint — metal, sharp and cold. Blood? No, it was older than that. Fear.
“Kate?” I whispered.
No answer. Just the low hum of my pulse and the creak of the forest holding its breath.
Then it came — a crash through the brush. I spun around, claws half out before I even realized it.
A scout stumbled int
