The First Morning

I woke up before the sun did and lay still for a moment, staring at the ceiling.

What was I doing here? Where was…. 

Then it all came back. The forest. The guards. Ragnar.

I sat up slowly and put my hand on my stomach. The baby shifted and to be quite frank I had gotten used to it during the weeks of walking alone through forests with nowhere to go.

"I know," I whispered. "I don't know where we are either."

I took stock of the room the way I had learned to take stock of every unfamiliar space.

I crossed to the window first and checked if it opened. It did. I noted that and turned back.

That was when I saw my shoes.

I had kicked them off the night before without thinking, too exhausted to care that they were caked with mud from a week of walking. They sat by the door now, clean. The white canvas restored to something close to what it had been before everything fell apart, set neatly side by side like someone had taken actual care doing it.

Someone had come into this room while I slept.

In the SilverMoon Pack the only reason anyone entered my room uninvited was to take something or leave something worse than they found.

This was just clean shoes. No note, no expectation, no price attached.

I didn't know what to do with that so I put them on and went to find out what this place actually was.

The tray outside my door stopped me.

Hot food—genuinely hot, steam still curling off the bowl with bread beside it.

Whoever had left it had timed it to when I would wake, which meant someone had been listening for movement behind my door.

What the hell? 

I carried the tray inside and ate standing by the window, watching the pack grounds come alive below as the sun finally rose.

The Dark Crescent Pack looked nothing like the stories.

I had grown up hearing about this place in whispers — the most feared pack in the realm and their Alpha, a man who had never lost a war. I had imagined something grim and cold.

What I saw was organized and almost peaceful. Clean buildings, tended gardens, pack members moving through the morning with purpose rather than fear. Two women laughing on the steps of a stall like it was an ordinary day.

I ate my bread and watched them. Was this all a ploy? There's no way here was peaceful. 

I changed into the clothes left folded on the chair—plain dark trousers and a loose top— and stepped out into the corridor.

No one stopped me.

Pack members passed without sneering, without looking through me like I was furniture. A young man carrying a stack of files nearly walked into me and apologized before I could say anything, then kept walking.

I stopped in the middle of the corridor.

He had apologized to me? To me? 

I stared at the man a bit. It was either I was dreaming or the man was to be carried to an asylum soon.

I stood there a beat too long before I remembered how to walk.

I kept moving, one hand resting lightly on my bump, following the corridor until it opened out into the grounds. The air outside was cool and sharp. I took the path that wound east and followed it slowly, not going anywhere in particular.

I found the boundary without looking for it.

The manicured path ended where the trees began, a guard stationed at the edge like he had always been there. He stepped into my path when I got close.

"This area is restricted," he said, politely.

I looked past him at the trees. "Why?"

A flicker crossed his face, like the question caught him off guard. "Border patrol routes. It's for safety."

"Whose safety?"

"Everyone's," he said. "Including yours."

I held his gaze for a moment, waiting for the irritation, the shove, the sharp edge that always followed when I asked a question I wasn't supposed to ask.

It didn't come.

He just stood there waiting to see what I would do.

"Alright," I said, and turned back.

Behind me I heard a quiet exhale.

I thought about that as I walked. How in my old pack, asking a guard a question earned you a bruise. This one had given me an actual reason and included me in it like my safety was worth mentioning.

I didn't make anything of it. I just filed it away with the shoes and the hot food and the apology in the corridor.

Evidence. I was collecting evidence without yet knowing what it proved.

I walked into the sitting room and paused for a bit.

Regardless, I needed to find Ragnar. 

Only the goddess knows where he was at this point of time. 

“Please ensure the shipments are made” a familiar voice spoke not too far from the room. 

I turned and well speaking of the devil himself. 

Lavender and mint drifted through the doorway of the small sitting room and there he was. 

Ragnar leaned against the frame without coming in, dressed simply in a dark shirt with no jacket, like a man who had already been working for hours. He looked at me the way he had in his office—unhurried.

"Did you sleep?" he said. 

"Mostly," I said.

He nodded. His eyes moved briefly to my stomach and then back to my face.

"There's a physician in the pack. I'd like her to check on you and the baby—make sure everything is as it should be after the travel."

I watched him. "And if I say I'll think about it?"

"Then you think about it," he said, without moving from the doorway. "It's not a condition."

I looked at him a moment longer than necessary. What did he want from me? There was always an angle.

I couldn't find one.

"Fine," I said. "I'll see the physician."

Something shifted in his expression—not quite a smile, just a slight easing. 

"Good," he said. And left.

I listened to his footsteps disappear down the corridor.

The whole exchange had taken less than two minutes. He hadn't performed anything, hadn't tried to charm me or reassure me or maneuver me into feeling something. He had given me information, left the choice with me, and walked away.

I pressed my palm flat against my stomach and felt the baby kick in response.

Could I trust him? 

I wasn't ready to trust this place. I wasn't ready to trust him. 

But…. but I was safe, and I was fed, and somewhere in this pack someone had cleaned my shoes while I slept without asking for anything in return.

That wasn't a small gesture right? 

I didn't know yet what it was, but it wasn't nothing.