Cobalt stared down from the craggy ridge. The tops of the taller pine trees swayed gently in the breeze.
A ground mist obscured any signs of life in the valley. The scent of fires and humans told a different story. The hairs along the wolf’s spine bristled.
His acute hearing picked up the chatter and occasional shouts of many men. The lack of odour of women and children was ominous.
Merak and the main pack were a two-hour run away in the black woods. They wouldn’t be aware of the men camped downwind in the valley.
Night was setting in and the men wouldn’t be moving anywhere before dawn, Cobalt turned and bounded away, he wanted to reach the pack as fast as he could. There was no telling how long it would take him to make Merak understand that men were coming.