POV: Alexei

The plague village materialized around me. I knew this place. I'd tried to forget it for five years, but the memories never faded.

Thirty-two pack members. All infected with silver poisoning from contaminated water. It had gotten into the groundwater somehow, slow and subtle, until everyone in the village was dying.

I walked through the memory, watching my younger self move between the sick. Most were already dead or unconscious. But one remained aware.

Mira. An ...