The Blackwood Pass Ambush

The Blackwood Pass was a narrow, treacherous granite gorge flanked by sheer limestone cliffs that connected the southern agricultural valleys to the rich mineral veins of the Northern Ridge. On the sixth morning after the Blood Moon banquet, hours before Toby's panicked report would reach the packhouse, the hundred-wolf garrison stationed by Alpha Derek at the Star-Silver mines had been two days without their scheduled rations and weapon shipments. Instead…