~LYRA'S POV~
The reports started coming in during the eighth month.
They arrived the way unsettling things tended to arrive, not all at once, not in a way that demanded immediate attention, but in a slow accumulation that built its own weight over time. The first one came from a border patrol near the Moonveil southern boundary. A lone wolf, seen at night. Large, moving with clear purpose through the treeline. Silver-grey in the moonlight. Not attacking, not approaching, just, present. And gone by morning.
Cade flagged it as worth noting and moved on.
Then a second report arrived, three days later, from a different location. Different witnesses. Same description. Large wolf, moving with purpose, red eyes that caught the moonlight, gone before anyone got close.
Then a third. Then a fourth from the far northern edge of Shadowfang territory.
