Torak knew something was wrong long before they reached the eastern borders.

The forest had gone extremely quiet in the most wrong way.

The elite warriors moved carefully behind him through the trees. None of them spoke now. Even their wolves had retreated deeper beneath their skin, restless and uneasy.

Moonlight filtered weakly through the branches overhead. Mist clung low across the ground, pale against the dark soil.

Torak slowed abruptly.

Every wolf behind him stopped instantly.

The scent reached him first. The scent was mixed with blood, silver, burned flesh, and chemicals beneath it all.

Torak’s jaw tightened immediately.

"What is that smell?" one warrior muttered quietly behind him.

No one answered.

Torak stepped forward slowly through the fog.

The deeper they moved into the eastern territory, the heavier the scent became.

Then finally, one of the warriors froze.

"Moon Goddess..." he uttered in reference.

Torak lifted his gaze. He saw wolf bodies before them, under the fog.

Three of them laid scattered across the forest clearing unnaturally still beneath the moonlight.

They were positioned there.

Torak’s expression changed instantly.

He moved forward carefully. The others followed slower now, visibly unsettled.

One wolf had been restrained against a fallen tree trunk using thick iron hooks driven directly through its limbs.

The wolf’s chest had been cut open clinically.

The sight made one of the younger warriors turn away immediately and vomit into the grass.

Torak crouched beside the body slowly.

His eyes darkened.

Silver rods had been embedded directly into specific areas beneath the wolf’s ribs, visibly measured, and tested.

His wolf reacted instantly with fury beneath his skin.

"This wasn’t a slaughter," Torak said quietly.

One of the warriors swallowed hard. "Then what was it?"

Torak looked at the markings around the corpse. They were cuts, and small symbols, with measurements carved directly into bark nearby.

His expression hardened fully now. "These were experiments." He said roughly.

Silence spread immediately afterward.

The wind shifted lightly through the trees. Somewhere deeper within the forest, metal clinked faintly against metal.

All the warriors turned sharply, and their weapons were drawn instantly.

Torak raised his hand slowly. "Wait."

Everyone stilled.

The sound did not come again. Torak stepped forward carefully toward the northern edge of the clearing.

That was when he saw the tracks of human boots. Dozens of them, organized and military.

The ground had been trampled repeatedly in careful directional patterns.

Torak crouched beside one print. His eyes narrowed immediately. He touched the earth, feeling the reinforced heel marks.

His chest tightened slowly.

Behind him, another warrior called out shakily. "Torak..."

Torak stood immediately and crossed the clearing. The second body had been mutilated worse. Its wolf form was partially stuck mid-shift.

Fur covered only little portions of its skin while the rest remained horribly human beneath torn flesh.

The body looked frozen between forms permanently.

Torak stared at it for a long moment.

His stomach twisted violently at the suppression damage, and abrupt transformation interruption.

They were exactly like the reports, and exactly as they had been told about how the war with the witches was centuries ago.

One warrior whispered quietly behind him, horrified. "They were trying to stop the shift."

"No," Torak answered coldly. He looked at the silver embedded along the spine. "They succeeded."

The warriors looked visibly disturbed now. Wolves died in battles often. This one felt different, and methodical.

Torak turned slowly toward the surrounding forest. He realized something horrifying.

No scavengers had touched the bodies. Nothing had fed here, or walked past. Even nature itself seemed unwilling to come near this place.

One of the elite warriors stepped carefully toward a nearby cluster of trees.

"There’s more here."

Torak followed immediately.

Beyond the clearing sat remnants of an abandoned encampment hidden beneath thick branches and camouflage netting.

The fire pit still smoldered faintly.

They had not been gone long.

Torak crouched beside it slowly. They were human food wrappers, metal tools, medical containers, and glass syringes.

His expression darkened further. He had told Xanden about this. If only he had listened, and had given him a go ahead to kill these humans before they got this deep.

One warrior picked up a strange silver instrument from the ground carefully. "What is this?"

Torak took it from him.

His eyes narrowed. The object was lightweight, and mechanical. It was engineered far beyond normal human craftsmanship.

Torak looked toward the dismantled tents nearby.

Maps were scattered across one table hastily abandoned beneath the wind. The warriors began searching immediately now.

Each discovery worsened the atmosphere.

"Torak..."

He turned.

Another warrior held up restraints. It looked specifically measured for wolf anatomy.

Torak’s wolf surged violently beneath his skin. They had been studying them carefully. For a very long time.

One of the elite warriors suddenly stiffened. "Movement."

Everyone spun instantly. Fortunately, it wasn’t the enemies, but another body. Half-hidden beneath camouflage sheets near the rear tents.

Torak moved toward it carefully.

This one remained alive.

The wounded wolf coughed violently the moment Torak reached him. Blood spilled down his chin immediately.

His healing ability was completely gone.

Torak dropped beside him. "Easy."

The wolf’s eyes struggled to focus.

His breathing sounded wet and broken. "They..." he rasped weakly.

Torak leaned closer immediately. "Who?"

The wolf’s fingers trembled weakly against Torak’s arm.

"Humans..."

His body shook violently. "They knew where we would patrol." He sniffed. "There’s a spy on the inside."

Torak’s expression sharpened instantly. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

The wolf swallowed painfully. "They used silver darts first... then the gas..."

Torak froze slightly.

Gas?

The wolf coughed again. "It stopped us shifting properly..."

Torak’s stomach dropped. How did humans get their palm on abilities only possessed by the witches?

The wounded wolf grabbed Torak’s wrist suddenly with surprising strength.

"There were too many," he whispered. "And they weren’t afraid."

Torak’s jaw tightened.

The wolf’s eyes filled briefly with terror at the memory. "They looked at us like..." His voice cracked weakly.

His grip loosened suddenly.

His chest stopped moving, and silence followed immediately. No one spoke. The mist drifted quietly between trees.

Far above them, thunder rolled faintly across distant skies.

Torak lowered the dead wolf’s hand carefully back onto his chest. He closed his still opened eyes, and muttered a low prayer to the moon goddess.

His expression had gone completely cold now.

One of the warriors finally spoke. "This cannot spread through the kingdom yet."

Torak looked toward him sharply.

The warrior swallowed hard. "If the wolves learn humans are organizing like this while the prophecy crisis is already happening—"

Torak looked toward the corpses again. "This is war."

Torak walked deeper into the abandoned encampment slowly.

The others followed cautiously behind him.

The further they searched, the worse the discoveries became.

One warrior looked sick reading through them. "They’ve been collecting data for months."

Torak stared at another page silently. One section detailed behavioral patterns during transformation stress, and another tracked silver dosage effectiveness against higher-ranked wolves.

His eyes darkened fully now.

This was an organized intelligence gathering with the help of elite wolves with extreme knowledge.

Humans can’t come this far alone.

A sudden metallic glint near one overturned crate caught his attention.

Torak stepped toward it slowly, then crouched. His hand closed around a thin dart laying partially buried in dirt.

He stared at it carefully.

The needle tip gleamed silver beneath moonlight.

Torak’s face went completely still.

Behind him, one of the warriors asked quietly, "What is it?"

Torak did not answer immediately.

His fingers tightened slowly around the dart. He lifted his gaze toward the dark forest ahead.