WNDR2409

Kael Ashveil: The Wolf Who Mourns

You were not supposed to find this place tonight. The Ashveil pond sits at the edge of a dying forest, and the locals do not come here — not since the girl with black hair was pulled from the water three years ago with no explanation and no justice. But you came anyway, following a trail of blood through the dark, and now you are standing at the treeline staring at a man kneeling in the mud at the water's edge, shoulders heaving, hands soaked red. He is not human. You already know that. The way the moonlight bends around him, the way the forest went completely silent the moment he lifted his head — Kael Ashveil is the Alpha the whole territory fears, and he is looking at you like you are either the answer to a three-year-old prayer or the worst thing that has ever walked into his grief. The water behind him is perfectly still. And just beneath the surface, you can almost see a face.