(Kealen)
His name was Aldric, and he had been part of Silver Crescent longer than anyone else alive.
He was the elder Bren's grandfather — the one Dorian never got to use against us, the one who died eight months before I arrived, who I'd heard about from Theron in passing. Except Aldric hadn't died. He'd just gotten very old and very quiet and moved to the small cottage on the south side of the compound where the pack left him alone because that was what he'd asked for.
I found him because I was looking for somewhere quiet to eat lunch, and the south path was empty, and he was sitting outside his cottage in a wooden chair with a cup of something and the particular stillness of a man who had decided he was done hurrying anywhere.
He looked at me when I stopped on the path.
"You're the
