Chapter 19

Zinnia’s POV

We had been walking for most of the morning when the forest went too quiet.

No birds. No small animals moving in the brush. Even the wind seemed to stop.

Joseph raised his hand and we all froze. Christiana turned in a slow circle, nose lifted. June pressed against my leg.

“What is it?” I whispered.

Joseph’s voice was barely sound. “Someone is here. Close.”

A man stepped out from behind a wide tree about twenty steps ahead of us.

He was tall and thin, with gray mixed into his dark hair. His clothes were clean and expensive, out of place in the deep woods. His eyes were a pale, cold brown. He smiled like we had arranged to meet.

“Zinnia Quill,” he said. His voice was smooth and calm. “At last.”

Joseph moved in front of me and June. Christiana stepped to the side, ready to shift.

The man held up both hands. “No need for that. I came to talk, not to fight. Not yet.”

I kept June behind me. “Who are you?”

“My name is Ciro,” he said. “I believe you have already met some of my people.”

The name made my stomach drop. The hunters. The ones who had tracked us since the cabin. The ones who sold rare wolves.

Joseph’s shoulders went tight. “You are a long way from your usual hunting grounds.”

Ciro’s smile widened a little. “Special prizes require special effort. And your companion is a very special prize.”

He looked straight at me. “I know what you are. The old blood. The seal that is breaking. The power that can touch mate bonds. People pay a great deal for someone like you.”

“I am not for sale,” I said.

“Everything is for sale,” Ciro answered. “The only question is the price.”

He took one slow step closer. Joseph growled low in his throat.

Ciro stopped and sighed. “Let us be adults. I have no interest in the child. Children are difficult to keep and harder to sell. I only want you. Come with me willingly, and the boy walks away free with your friends. Refuse, and I take both of you. The boy will not enjoy the second option.”

June’s hand tightened in my shirt. I could feel him shaking.

Christiana spoke, her voice hard. “You will not touch either of them.”

Ciro glanced at her. “Ah, the old guardian. I have heard of you too. You cannot protect her forever. The seal is almost gone. Soon every collector in the region will feel her. I am simply the first with a fair offer.”

I stared at him. My heart was beating fast, but my voice came out steady. “No.”

Ciro tilted his head. “No?”

“I will not go with you. And you will not take my son.”

For the first time his smile faded. “I was being polite. I do not need to be.”

He raised one hand.

Shapes moved in the trees around us. Six wolves stepped into view, surrounding the small clearing. They were the same kind we had fought before — dark, quiet, and well trained.

Joseph shifted without another word. His dark gray wolf stood ready. Christiana shifted too, silver fur bright even in the low light.

I pushed June toward a thick fallen tree. “Hide under there. Do not come out.”

He looked terrified but did what I said.

Ciro watched it all with mild interest. “Last chance, Zinnia. Walk to me and the child lives a normal life. Fight me and I cannot promise the same.”

I felt the power rise under my skin, hot and ready. The last pieces of the seal groaned.

“I already gave you my answer,” I said.

Ciro dropped his hand.

The wolves attacked.

Joseph met the first two with a heavy crash. Christiana took another pair, moving fast and sharp. The remaining two came at me.

I shifted.

Selene surged forward. Silver-white fur and pure anger. I slammed into the first wolf and drove him back. The second one tried to go around me toward June’s hiding place. I turned and caught him by the shoulder, biting down hard.

Pain flared along my ribs as claws raked me, but I did not let go.

Ciro himself stayed human, watching. He seemed to be waiting for something.

The power inside me broke further. Gold light burst from my fur without me calling it. It hit the wolf in my jaws and threw him across the clearing. He did not get up.

The light kept growing. The two wolves fighting Joseph hesitated. Christiana used the moment to finish one of hers.

Ciro’s eyes lit up with real interest. “There it is. Beautiful.”

He whistled once.

More wolves poured from the trees. Too many.

Joseph’s voice came through the pack link, rough. “We cannot win this. Run.”

Christiana snapped the neck of one more attacker and turned toward me. “Go. Take the boy. We will hold them.”

I wanted to argue, but June’s scared face under the log decided it for me. I shifted back, grabbed my son, and ran.

Branches whipped my face and arms. June clung to my neck. Behind us the sounds of fighting grew louder, snarls, bodies hitting the ground, Ciro shouting orders.

Joseph and Christiana were buying us time with their lives.

I ran harder.

The ground sloped down toward a narrow ravine. I almost fell but kept my feet. June buried his face in my shoulder and did not make a sound.

A wolf crashed through the brush behind me. Then another. They had broken past the others.

I could not outrun them while carrying June.

I stopped, set him down behind a boulder, and turned.

“Stay here,” I told him.

The first wolf leaped. I shifted again in mid-motion and met him in the air. We hit the ground in a tangle of teeth and claws. The second wolf circled, looking for an opening.

Gold light poured from me in waves. It was wilder now, harder to aim. It slammed into the second wolf and sent him rolling, but it also left me dizzy and weak.

The first wolf got its teeth into my shoulder. Pain exploded down my leg. I forced more power out. The light burned him until he let go and stumbled away, fur smoking.

I shifted back, gasping. Blood ran down my arm. June ran to me and wrapped his arms around my waist, crying.

“I have you,” I said, though my voice shook. “I have you.”

I picked him up again and kept running.

The sounds of the fight behind us slowly faded. Either Joseph and Christiana had stopped the rest, or they had been overrun. I could not know.

I ran until my lungs burned and my legs threatened to give out. Only then did I slow down and listen.

The forest was quiet again. No paws behind us. No voices.

I leaned against a tree, holding June tight. Blood from my shoulder soaked into his shirt. He was still crying softly.

“Mama, where is Joseph? Where is Christiana?”

“I do not know,” I said. The words hurt. “We have to keep going. They wanted us to run.”

I forced myself to stand straight and started walking again. Every step sent pain through my shoulder. The power under my skin still flickered, leaking gold light every few minutes like it could no longer stay fully contained.

Ciro had seen what I was. He would not stop now.

And I was alone with my son in a forest that suddenly felt much bigger and more dangerous than before.

I kept moving north, toward the deeper woods Joseph had spoken about.

I did not know if Joseph and Christiana were still alive.

I only knew I could not stop.

Not while June needed me.