Rhen's talking about the upper edge. Tracks. Human. Old enough to ignore but recent enough to note.
"Could be hunters." Rhen looks at the tracks. "Passing through."
"When?"
"Two days. Maybe three. Heading away from us."
Probably isn't hunters. "Note it. Add it to Brennan's report."
"Already did."
Good. We keep walking.
The morning is cold. Sharp. Good. Except now there's room for the press of her forehead against my neck, her breath warm through my fur—
Movement at the tree line.
Two figures. Moving fast. Pack. Coming from the direction of the outer runners.
"Keer." Rhen's seen it too.
I'm already moving, closing distance, meeting them halfway. Tovar and one of the younger wolves—Liara—both breathing hard. Liara's face is tight. Tovar won't meet my eye.
"What."
"The human's cottage." Tovar's voice is flat. "It's gone. Burned. Nothing left."
A growl ripping out, low and rough. "Fuck."
Rhen goes still. Tovar doesn't move.
"When?"
"Recent. Day, maybe two." He pauses. Swallows. "A runner found it this morning on the outer sweep. The whole thing, Keer. Foundation's still standing but everything above it—ash."
"Just the cottage?"
"Garden too. The pen. All of it." Liara's voice is thin. "They brought accelerant. Oily residue everywhere."
"How many?"
"Hard to tell. Boot prints overlapping. At least five, maybe more."
"Tracks leading out?"
"Toward Blomstradal."
"The settlements." Rhen. Low.
"Has to be." Tovar looks toward the clearing. Toward her. "Sending a message."
"Or cutting off her option to leave." Rhen's eyes on the tree line.
Both. Burning her out. Making sure there's nowhere to go back to.
I look across the clearing. She's there. Her hair white in the sun, that pink threading through it. Nugget at her feet, the hens pecking around her in the dust, that fucking rooster screaming at a goat who wandered too close to the feed pile.
She's waving her arms at Keer Jr. Her voice carrying across the clearing in fragments I can't catch. Something about boundaries. Something about personal space.
