The meeting finally broke apart nearly half an hour later.
No answers had been found. No brilliant revelations had surfaced. Alpha Jon had given additional patrol instructions, Braxton had assigned enough extra training rotations to make half the future leaders groan openly, and the village had slowly begun returning to something resembling normal.
Or at least pretending to.
The rain had finally stopped by the time I crossed the training grounds toward the western sparring field. Clouds still hung low over the mountains, trapping the last remnants of daylight beneath them, but patches of clear sky had begun appearing overhead. The scent of wet earth lingered heavily throughout the territory while water dripped steadily from the edges of rooftops and pine branches.
Most wolves had alrea
