Chapter 4

I shivered as I made my way back to the cabin. Vivian was waiting by the door, leaning against a tree trunk.

She looked concerned and spoke quietly, "They went too far! Are you okay?"

I opened my palms and saw deep nail marks. My knees still hurt from the cold. "I'm fine."

Vivian put a hand out to steady me. "The messenger only told Randy that you and Annie had made up. He left out the part about you having to kneel, and Annie didn't say a word about it either."

She glanced around, pissed off for my sake. "Those bastards are twisting the truth!"

Back in the cabin, I shut the door and leaned against it for a while, trying to calm down.

That evening, I heard footsteps crunching through the snow outside. Randy was back.

He opened the door and looked at my calm face. "They told me you two worked it out."

Randy's voice softened, his gaze fixed on me as if he were trying to read my expression. He didn't ask anything more. "This ends here. Don't cause any more trouble."

He had no idea that I'd just been forced to kneel in the snow in front of everyone.

…

In the days that followed, as I waited for my chance to leave, the others picked on me wherever I went. Although Randy told everyone to drop it, they still targeted me, but now in secret.

Whenever I went to fetch water, someone would deliberately bump my bucket with their shoulder. When I stepped into the storage room to collect firewood, conversations paused, and they gave me hostile looks.

I didn't fight back. I just counted down the days and packed my belongings.

One evening, I went for a walk but stopped at the edge of the cedar grove. Randy stood under a tree, holding Annie's wrist gently as he applied ointment to her wound.

He looked down at her, his gaze fixed on her face. There was a subtle but unmistakable intimacy in the air between them.

I knew this scene all too well.

Randy used to look at me the same way, gently and patiently cleansing the dirt around my wounds.

His tenderness didn't just disappear. He had simply given it to someone else.

Randy looked up and saw me standing in the shadows. "What are you doing here?"

He didn't flinch or look flustered. He stared straight at me, his eyes dark and gloomy. My calm demeanor seemed to grate on him.

"Did you need something from me?"

"I was just passing by."

"Nora," he called after me, hesitating before he added, "Don't get the wrong idea."

Annie followed Randy's gaze to me. Yet she stayed close to him, a faint, smug smile on her lips.

I said nothing and headed back down the way I'd come.

When I got back to the cabin, I checked the route markers Vivian had given me. Nothing stirred inside me anymore. All I wanted was to leave this place as soon as possible.

Late that night, Vivian came into the cabin and whispered, "They've changed shifts. You can leave tonight."

I nodded, not mentioning what I'd seen earlier.

The bright red flowers Randy had brought back stood out against the snow, already wilting.

His voice echoed in my mind, "Nora, just wait a little longer."

But I'd already been waiting for a long time. For the past five years, I'd waited for Annie to pass her assessment so she could stay in the pack, then get into the Royal Healing Center.

Now, I didn't want to wait anymore.

I lowered my eyes and held the flowers over the fire, watching them burn.

Then, I took a deep breath, grabbed my bag, and stepped out into the snow.