s territory after dark, a

veil and the Ashveil Kingdom, Kael's domain. The trees here were older than any pack I knew of. Their roots broke through the frozen ground like knu

as not

tely still, wh

ding me the way only she could. She me

" I kept walking.

tighter and said noth

hree months of savings to keep quiet. The Thirteenth Seed, that was what the old texts called it, a pup born of a rejected bond, conceived in the last hours before severance. The legends said t

till, the same way I had when the healer first said the

was the only pe

tually know about K

oug

not an

blicly in three years. His territory hasn't been breached by any outside pack in living

fraid of ver

kno

the ent

y eyes adjusted without effort, one of the few advantages of being a warrior-luna with a wolf who had been trained since age twelve. I could see

felt like eno

, "about what happened to the last woman

heard

nd

to me by sunrise." I stepped over a gnarled root without breaking

that with a sm

t eerie stillness with a single sharp pulse of warning. I stopped moving instantly. Mara

gone from qui

even the sound of our own

g cold and ancient and completely without mercy. It coated the inside of my nose and sat at the back o

in f

cogni

's voice was

kno

made. Instead I stood straight, shoulders back, chin level, the same posture I had held at the a

made small twic

irection. It came from everywhere, low and absolute, th

e on my

d my

. "I need to spe

trees shifted in a way that dark

speaking

y next breath burned. And then he stepped out of the dark between two ancient oaks, a

hing like

ad not been n