Chapter 85

The extraordinary Continental Council session was scheduled for early spring, giving Arianna several weeks to prepare. But three days before departure, an urgent message arrived that changed everything.

The courier was from a small pack called Riversend, located in remote northern territory that Arianna barely knew existed. The message was desperate, barely coherent, requesting immediate assistance for a crisis they described as "unnatural threat unlike anything we've faced."

"This is vague to the point of uselessness," Helena said, studying the message. "What's an 'unnatural threat'? Rogue wolves? Disease? Some kind of territorial dispute they're dramatizing?"

"Whatever it is, they're terrified enough to reach out to packs they've never...