Ewing steered the conversation back to the hunt. "You didn't breach my borders today just to admire my collection of relics, did you, Alpha Hudson?"

Hudson inclined his head, his posture shifting into something uncharacteristically humble. For the first time, the pride of the Montgomery Pack bowed before another male. "I am here to ask for your scent-trackers. I need you to find someone. She may be a 'dormant' of little consequence to the pack’s future, but I want her found—unharmed and secure."

Hudson had chosen Ewing for this task specifically because the Nixon heir had spent most of his life in the Southern Wastes of Ferelden; he had no...