Kelly Thompson POV

With every careful but determined step, I traversed the rocky terrain, my senses sharpened to the rustle of leaves, the snap of a twig. It was a world alive with both majesty and malice; each fern frond that brushed my arm felt like the stroke of a phantom, each distant howl a portent of the battles to come.

Here, in this ominous expanse where the unknown reigned, I felt the true test of my courage begin. Yet within me surged the spirit of Shelly, the wolf whose might ...