The wolf had not moved for three days. It stood rigid by the riverbank, fur matted from rain, eyes fixed on the earth beneath its paws. Villagers skirted the path, whispering of sickness or curses. Yet Dr. Adrian Cole, local veterinarian, couldn’t look away.
He had seen wild animals before, injured and cornered, but never this—an apex predator refusing food, ignoring prey, even ignoring humans. Something tethered it there, silent and invisible. At night, faint cries drifted with the river’s current, and Adrian’s pulse quickened each time he strained to hear them.
By the next morning, the wolf’s ribs pressed through its hide. Still, it would not leave. Adrian knew he was running out of time to act—whether for the beast or for whatever secret lay buried beneath its vigil. He remembered the first day he saw it…