The Long Road North

Rose's POV

The road stretched on through the ancient forest.

Eight days. Eight days since the Blood Moon. Since I watched my father die, watched my best friend show her true face, watched three strangers die for a bride they'd never met.

My body had adapted to survival mode even if my mind hadn't caught up. The sharp edge of grief had dulled into a constant ache that lived in my bones. My shoulder throbbed under Edwin's poultices, but I'd learned to move with the pain instead of fighting it. My ribs had healed enough that I could breathe without seeing stars. My feet had blistered, calloused, and blistered again.

I was becoming someone else. Someone harder. Someone who kept walking when every instinct screamed to collapse.

Edwin walked beside me, his steps shorter now, favoring his bad arm. The wound from the ambush had festered before he could treat it properly, and even after cleaning it with river water and wild herbs, the infection lingered. He hadn't complained. He'd barely spoken since the stream where Mara and Finn died.

That silence weighed more than anything else I carried.

"Stop," I said, touching his good arm. "You need to rest."

He looked at me, and for a second I saw the grief in his eyes, raw, unguarded. Then it closed off, replaced by the calm mask of a healer who'd seen too much death to be surprised by any of it.

"We need to keep moving," he said. "The longer we stay in one place—"

"The greater the chance of being found. I know. But you're no use to anyone if you collapse from fever."

I guided him to a fallen log at the edge of the clearing and he sank down. His hand shook when he reached for the waterskin. I pressed it into his palm.

"Drink."

He did, and something in him seemed to break loose watching himself do it. His shoulders dropped. He stared at his own hands like they belonged to someone else.

"I should've been faster," he said. "In the ambush. If I'd reacted sooner, Mara and Finn—"

"Would be dead anyway." The words came out flat. Colder than I meant them. "There were too many of them. We were lucky to get out at all."

Lucky. The word tasted wrong in my mouth.

Edwin studied me, brow furrowed. "You sound different. Harder."

"The girl who wore a crown of winter jasmine died in that forest. I'm what's left."

He looked at me a long moment, like he was searching for pieces of the girl he'd found under the willow. Whatever he saw seemed to answer something for him. He nodded slowly.

"I understand," he said. "More than you know."

He pulled a small pouch from his pack and held it out. Dried berries, a strip of jerky. I hadn't realized how hungry I was until my stomach cramped at the sight of it.

"Eat. You need your strength."

I took the food. Our fingers brushed. It was brief, but it carried a warmth that cut through the numbness I'd wrapped around myself.

"Tell me about them," I said, before I could stop myself. "Mara and Finn."

Edwin was quiet a moment, like he was watching the memory play out somewhere I couldn't see.

"Mara was my mate for thirty years. We met young, both wanderers, both healers. Stubbornest woman I've ever known. Once walked thirty miles with a broken leg to treat a sick pup in a pack that had turned her away. Said she wouldn't let a child suffer for adult foolishness."

A smile crossed his face, there and gone.

"Finn was her nephew. His parents died in a border skirmish when he was twelve. We took him in. He had a gift for healing, though he'd have rather been a warrior. Always arguing with Mara about using your hands for both killing and curing."

"Did he ever decide?"

"Some decisions aren't ours to make." His voice cracked. "They're made by wolves with fangs and no mercy."

The silence after that was heavy. I wanted to offer him something, but I had nothing left to give. Whatever comfort I once had died with my father.

So I sat beside him and ate in silence, watching the treeline. Watchfulness had become a habit fast after the ambush. I couldn't afford to be caught off guard again.

"We should move," I said, standing. "Sun's going down. I don't want to be caught in the open at night."

Edwin pushed himself up with visible effort. "There's a trader's route about a mile east. Follow it north and we'll find shelter in the old watchtowers along the border. Silver Creek has no presence there — different territory."

"How do you know so much about this land?"

He smiled, and for a second he looked like himself again.

"I've walked these lands forty years. I know the paths that don't show up on maps."

We walked without talking, our steps falling into rhythm despite the exhaustion. The forest thinned as we reached the old trader's route, underbrush giving way to a worn path clearly used for generations.

We ran into the merchant at dusk.

Wiry man, cart pulled by two tired mules, face weathered from years of sun and wind. His hand went to the knife at his belt when he saw us, but I raised my hands.

"We mean you no harm. Just travelers heading north."

His eyes moved over my torn dress, Edwin's bandaged arm, the state of us both. "You two look like you've seen trouble."

"Every traveler does eventually," Edwin said. "It's how you survive it that matters."

The merchant barked out a laugh, like it surprised even him. "True enough." He nodded to the back of the cart. "Heading north to the River Lands myself. You can ride if you're going that way. These old bones can't make the trip alone."

Edwin looked at me, eyebrows raised. I nodded. Saving our strength for whatever waited in Aiden's territory was worth more than pride.

"Thank you," I said, climbing in. The hay smelled of sweat and grain, but it was the most comfortable thing I'd felt in over a week.

The merchant gave his name as Tobias, a trader who moved goods between packs that didn't trust each other enough to deal directly. "River Lands are the only place I do business without worrying about getting robbed," he said. "Lord Aiden keeps order. Some call him too strict. I call it better than lawless."

"What's he like?" I kept my voice even. "Lord Aiden."

Tobias thought about it. "Like a river. Calm on the surface. Current underneath that'll drag you down if you're not careful. Doesn't suffer fools. Doesn't tolerate betrayal. Last wolf who crossed him is still screaming in the dungeons under his keep. That was six years ago."

Edwin's face flickered with concern. "And the River Wolves? Welcoming to outsiders?"

"Welcoming to anyone who pays their tithes and follows the laws. Outsiders get watched, not mistreated. Stay out of trouble and you'll find none."

I filed the information away with everything else I knew about my cousin. Aiden had been a wild boy last I saw him, all sharp edges and silence. His father died in a border war and Aiden took over the pack at sixteen, shocking everyone who expected him to fail.

He hadn't failed. His territory grew. His name became something people said carefully.

But I had no other option. He was my blood. My only relative left.

"I've heard Lord Aiden has a soft spot for family," I said carefully.

Tobias shrugged. "Wouldn't know. Never heard of him having family left. They all died one way or another. Last one was his aunt — mother of the Eastern Pack's Alpha."

The words hit like a blow. My mother. Aiden's aunt. The woman who died giving birth to me.

"Alpha of the Eastern Pack," Tobias went on, not noticing my face. "Had a daughter, I think. But there was trouble at a wedding recently, and—"

"And what?" My voice came out sharper than I meant.

"And they say the daughter died too." He shook his head. "Bad business. Eastern Pack's in chaos. Silver Creek's claimed their territory. Survivors scattered."

Edwin looked at me, a question in his eyes. I shook my head at him. I couldn't risk Tobias knowing who I was. If he found out, the bounty might be worth more to him than hospitality.

We rode the rest of the night in silence, my mind working through everything I'd learned.

Aiden was feared. Respected. A reputation for ruthlessness bordering on cruelty.

But he was also my only hope. The only wolf strong enough to help me get my revenge.

We parted ways with Tobias at dawn, just as the River Lands' border markers came into view. Simple wooden posts carved with the image of a flowing river, Aiden's mark, standing at intervals along the ridge.

"There it is," Edwin said quietly. "The River Lands. We made it."

I stared at the markers, heart pounding. Beyond them, sanctuary. Beyond them, my cousin, the Lord of the River Wolves. Beyond them, a future I'd have to carve out of blood.

"We made it," I said. "But the hard part's still ahead."

The sun rose behind us, painting the land gold and red. I'd never seen anything so beautiful, or so frightening.

A wolf howled somewhere in the distance. The sound reached into my chest and pulled at something I couldn't name.

I was home.

I was also a stranger.

And I'd have to prove myself worthy of Aiden's protection, or die trying.

Edwin's POV

I watched her standing at the ridge, eyes fixed on the River Lands below. The girl I'd pulled from the forest was gone, replaced by something harder. Something that could either forge a queen or burn down everything in its path.

She'd told me her name was Rose. Told me her father was dead, her pack destroyed, her home taken.

She hadn't told me what she planned to do once she reached the River Lands. But I'd seen the look in her eyes. I knew it.

It was the look of a wolf with nothing left to lose.

Those are always the most dangerous kind.

"Edwin," she said, turning. "Thank you. For everything."

"Don't thank me yet. The River Lands aren't a sanctuary, they're a test. Aiden won't take you in just because you're his cousin. He'll want to know what you're worth."

Uncertainty flickered across her face, then was gone. "Then I'll prove my worth."

I nodded, keeping my own doubt to myself. "I suppose you will."

The wolf howled again, closer. The River Lands were waking up, and soon enough Aiden's wolves would come to see who stood on their border.

I hoped Rose was ready for what came next.

Because from everything I'd heard about Lord Aiden, he wasn't the kind of wolf who gave second chances.