SEBASTIAN
The abandoned mining complex in the northern mountains had kept us hidden for a full week. It was quiet. Isolated. My last loyal wolves set up a rough camp deep in the tunnels, far from the Clanlands where any patrol might sense us and report back. No fires. No noise. Just stone, cold air, and waiting.
Tonight, that safety cracked.
The temperature dropped fast. Too fast. Nearly twenty degrees in less than an hour. The air felt heavy, like it pressed down on my chest when I breathed. My wolf stirred under my skin, restless and alert, pacing like it sensed a threat before I did.
“Alpha,” Alaric Whitmore called from the tunnel mouth. His voice was tight. Controlled, but barely. “You need to see this.”
I stepped outside with him, and my blood went cold.
The forest was wrong. T
