Chapter 8

Zinnia’s POV

The truck stopped in front of a dark cabin. Soft rain fell on the leaves. Joseph turned off the engine and looked around.

“This is the place,” he said. “We stay the night. Move again tomorrow.”

Christiana got out first. She checked the trees and the shadows. I carried June inside. The cabin smelled like dust and old wood. One main room, a small kitchen, two bedrooms with thin doors.

I set June on the couch. He still held his wooden wolf tight in both hands.

Joseph locked the door behind us. “There is canned food in the cupboard. Nothing good, but it will do.”

Christiana lit a lantern. Yellow light filled the room and made the corners look darker.

June looked up at me with big eyes. “Mama, is Papa coming after us?”

“No,” I said. “We are far from him now. He does not know where we are.”

Joseph pulled out a chair and sat down hard. “We need to talk while the boy can rest.”

I sat across from him. Christiana stayed by the window, watching the rain.

Joseph spoke first. “My pack can hide you for a while. Give you new papers. Money if you need it. But I need something back.”

“What do you need?”

“Everything you know about Baelor. The money he moved. The meetings he had. Who he talked to at night. My father has waited years for the Frost Pack to fall apart. This is the opening we wanted.”

I felt my shoulders get tight. “So I am only useful to you.”

“You are useful to yourself first,” he said. “Take the help. Give the information. Leave when you want. No one will force a mate bond or keep you locked up.”

Christiana turned from the window. “Tell her the rest.”

Joseph rubbed his face with both hands. “My father funded some of Baelor’s early work. Not the affair with Maelis. But the money problems. The quiet pressure on Draven. I only found out a few weeks ago. I should have said it sooner.”

The words hit me like a slap. I stood up so fast the chair scraped the floor.

“Your family helped break my life and now you want me to help you finish the job?”

“I am not my father,” Joseph said. His voice stayed calm but his eyes were hard. “I am trying to fix what he started.”

“That is easy to say when you were not the one left alone.”

June watched us from the couch. His small face looked worried. I forced my voice lower.

“Not in front of him. Later.”

Christiana walked over and touched my arm. “Come. Let the boy sleep. We can fight about this in the morning.”

I took June into the smaller bedroom. He climbed under the thin blanket and pulled me down beside him.

“Mama, are we really safe?”

“Yes,” I said, even though the word felt false. “Sleep now. I am right here.”

I stayed until his breathing got slow and even. My mind kept turning over Joseph’s words. Another man with his own reasons. Another person who saw me as a piece on a board.

When I came back out, Joseph was alone at the table. Christiana had gone outside to keep watch.

He looked up. “I am sorry for how it sounded.”

“Sorry does not change much,” I said.

“No. It does not.”

We sat without talking for a long time. Rain tapped the roof in a steady rhythm.

Then a low growl came from outside.

Christiana’s voice followed, sharp and clear. “We have company!”

Joseph was on his feet in a second. I ran to the window.

Four wolves stood at the edge of the clearing. They were not Frost Pack. Their scents were wrong — darker, wilder, mixed with something chemical. One was bigger than the others and had a long scar across its muzzle.

Joseph’s eyes narrowed. “Rogues. Or paid hunters. Someone sent them after us.”

Christiana shifted into her silver form without another word. Joseph looked at me hard.

“Stay inside with the boy. Lock the door.”

“I can fight.”

“Not with him in that room,” he said. “Please, Zinnia.”

I hated the order but I nodded. I locked the door and stood in front of the bedroom.

Outside the growls turned into real fighting. Bodies slammed into each other. A wolf yelped in pain. Something heavy hit the cabin wall hard enough to shake the lantern.

June woke up crying. I held him tight and covered his ears with my hands.

“It is okay. Mama is here. I have you.”

A loud crash came from the porch. The door shook. Then I heard Christiana snarl and a wet tearing sound.

I could not just stand there. I put June back on the bed and told him to stay down. Then I opened the door.

Rain hit my face. Joseph was in his dark gray wolf form, locked with the scarred one. Christiana fought two others at once. The fourth wolf circled toward the open door — toward me and June.

I did not think. I shifted.

Silver-white fur covered my skin. Bones changed. Selene surged forward full of anger. I met the fourth wolf in the mud and sank my teeth into its shoulder. It screamed and tried to twist away. I held on and shook hard until it went still.

Joseph finished the scarred wolf with a hard bite to the throat. Christiana drove the last one into the trees. It ran with blood pouring from its side.

The clearing went quiet except for the rain and our heavy breathing.

I shifted back. My clothes were torn and muddy. Joseph became human again. Blood ran down his arm from a new cut. Christiana stood over the bodies, chest rising and falling fast.

Joseph wiped rain and blood from his face. “They were not Draven’s. Different scent completely. Someone else wants you found — or wants you dead.”

Christiana checked me and then looked toward the bedroom. “The boy?”

“He is okay. Just scared.”

I went inside and held June again. He clung to my neck and cried into my shoulder. I rubbed his back until he calmed down.

When I came back out, Joseph and Christiana were talking in low voices near the truck.

Christiana spoke first. “Before we crossed the border I caught radio chatter from Frost Pack territory. Something is already going wrong there. Guards arguing. Money missing from the main safe. Baelor is moving faster than anyone expected.”

Joseph nodded. “Draven is waking up to problems he cannot ignore. That might buy us a little time. But these hunters mean someone else is in the game.”

I looked at the dark trees. Rain kept falling. June’s small heartbeat pressed against my chest.

We were not safe.

Not from Draven.

Not from whoever had sent those wolves.

And the life I had left behind was already starting to crack without me.