For a moment after the figure disappeared, nobody moved.
The forest remained exactly as it had been before. Rain drifted steadily through the trees, gathering on pine needles before falling in slow drops to the earth below. Wind moved softly through the canopy overhead, stirring branches that creaked and swayed against one another.
Nothing about the woods had changed. The darkness remained the same. The trail remained the same. Even the shadows seemed untouched.
Yet every wolf on that trail knew it wasn't because people didn't simply vanish that quickly. Not from forty yards away in terrain open enough that we should have been able to track movement.
"Spread out." Braxton's voice cut cleanly through the silence.
The spell broke instantly.
Nolan was already moving before the last wor
