The wind changed before sunset.
I noticed it while standing on the ridge above camp, watching the treeline where our outer patrol usually circled. The air carried the scent of frost and distant pine, but beneath it was something else faint, unfamiliar.
Pack wolves.
Not close enough to trigger panic.
But close enough to matter.
I crouched slightly, touching the ground with my fingertips. The soil was cold, hardened by winter, but the faint vibration of movement traveled through it if one paid attention.
Wolves had passed through the area earlier.
More than two.
Less than ten.
And they hadn’t tried to hide it.
That meant the same thing Tarek had said earlier.
A message.
Behind me, footsteps approached quietly.
“You’re staring at the forest like it insulted you,” Mira said.
I st
