Pauline's POV
The wooden crate felt rough beneath my fingertips as I arranged the small medicine bottles with deliberate care. Each vial represented hope for our pack, though the collection seemed pitiful compared to what larger territories possessed. Still, for us, these supplies meant everything.
Our pack consisted of barely fifty members, a tight-knit group where everyone recognized each other's voices before they even spoke. We had built our lives around a human settlement, our stone cottages scattered along the same dusty paths where farmers and traders conducted their daily business. Human children raced past our homes, their laughter mixing with the sounds of our own young ones, completely unaware of the supernatural neighbors sharing their world.
