Ella's POV
The mist rolled early that morning, thicker than usual, curling through the trees like fingers seeking something lost. The wolves stirred with unease, though none said it aloud. Not even the elders. Not even Remo.
I felt in my bones.
Something had shifted. And it wasn't natural.
I was walking through the woods just past sunrise, seeking silence after another restless night, when I saw it.
A circle of blackened earth, charred in perfect symmetry, at the edge of the northern boundary.
I paused, breath catching. The air was cold, unnaturally so. My wolf stirred restlessly inside me, agitated but silent, like it too didn't know what to make of this.
I stepped forward slowly, crouching beside the blackened ring.
It was no fire.
This had been placed. Etched with preci
