Three days after the vote, the trouble starts.
Not with Mara's wolves. Not with the council. Not with Lena, who is still somewhere south with her Silver Fang pack and her hurt feelings and her very legitimate anger.
It starts with a body.
A Moonridge wolf. Young. Maybe twenty. Found at the edge of the north ridge at dawn with three claw marks across his chest and his pack link gone cold.
Kell wakes me up with a knock that doesn't wait for an
answer.
"You need to come," he says.
His name was Den.
I didn't know him. He came from the outer settlements, one of the wolves who showed up for the vote and stayed on.
Quiet kid, according to the guard who knew him. Kept to himself. Didn't cause trouble.
Now he's laid out on a table in the healer's hall with a sheet over him and Rylan sta
