#Chapter 120: Shadows from the Border

Ember The wolves' scent lingers in my nose even as we leave the border behind, clinging to my skin like smoke from a fire I can't quite see. "Something's wrong," Nara says for the third time since we broke camp. "I know that scent—I've encountered it before, and the fact that I can't place it frightens me." I glance at Jake riding beside me and ask whether he noticed anything unusual about the refugee pack. He shakes his head—says they were cooperative, genuinely grateful for the land grant, no signs of deception. By every measure the mission was clean, and yet Nara's unease crawls under my skin like an itch I can't reach. The scent wasn't threatening, and that's what bothers me most. It was familiar in a way I can't place—like walking into a room and knowing someone you recognize was just there. Not dangerous, but unsettling in the way things are when your body remembers something your mind refuses to surface. "We should tell Kaine," Nara insists, and I push back—we will, on