The forest was eerily quiet, the kind of silence that made my wolf tense and restless. I led the scouting party deeper into the dense wilderness with my senses on high alert as we made our way between tall pines and underbrush’s. A faint mist clung to the ground, curling around our boots and shifting unnaturally. It felt wrong. The air emitted this weird energy—one I couldn’t quite place, but I’d learned never to ignore.

Ardan walked beside me. His presence reassured me. He insisted on coming, of course. I hadn’t been able to talk him out of it, though I knew his presence here made Rachel nervous back at...