# Chapter 19: The Ranger Station

I couldn't breathe.

The howls were everywhere. They came from the left, the right, behind me, in front of me. The dark forest was full of them, high and broken and hungry, bouncing off the huge black trees so I couldn't tell how close they really were.

I pressed my back against a tree. My whole body was shaking. My heart was pounding so loud I was sure they could hear it.

*Run,* my legs screamed. *RUN.*

But where? I couldn't see anything. If I ran, I'd fall. I'd break my ankle. Or I'd run straight into their mouths.

*Think, Sienna. You have to think.*

I closed my eyes. It didn't matter anyway. Open or closed, it was all the same black.

I made myself breathe slowly. In. Out. In. Out.

And I listened, the same way I did in the barn this morning, with the blindfold on.

At first, there were only the howls. Then, under them, I started to hear other things. Paws on dead leaves, and branches snapping. Heavy, panting breaths.

And heartbeats.

They were fast and wild, like drums. One was to my left, far away, maybe fifty steps. Two more were behind me, closer, maybe thirty. Another was to the right, moving slowly through the trees.

I could hear them. I could hear every single one.

*How am I doing this?*

I didn't know. I didn't have time to wonder. I just knew that I could, and that it might keep me alive.

Then I noticed something else.

The rogues were moving strangely. They weren't coming straight toward me. They were running back and forth, in circles, sniffing and growling. One of them stopped close by, maybe twenty steps away. I heard it breathe in deep through its nose. Again. And again.

Then it made a confused, angry whine.

And I understood.

*They can't smell me.*

Every wolf hunts with its nose. That's how they find you. That's how they track you through the forest, by your scent.

But I didn't have a scent. I never had. My whole life, it was the thing that made me a freak. Hollow. Empty. Nothing.

And tonight, that nothing was going to save my life.

They knew I was here somewhere. Maybe they heard me walking. Maybe someone told them. But they couldn't find me, not with their noses.

Only with their ears.

So I had to be quiet. Quieter than I'd ever been in my whole life.

---

I moved.

Very, very slowly. One step at a time. I put my foot down on the ground like it was made of glass. Heel first, then toes. I felt for dead leaves and sticks before I put my weight on them. I breathed through my mouth, slow and soft.

The rogues were still circling. Still sniffing. Still growling at nothing.

I kept going. Ten steps. Twenty. Thirty.

And then I heard something new.

Water.

It was soft and far away, the sound of water running fast over rocks. A creek.

*Crow's Creek.*

It ran all the way from Hollis's cabin down through the west woods. Kael had shown me on the map. The creek went right along the edge of Black Hollow.

Water is loud. Water would hide the sound of my feet.

I turned toward it.

Behind me, a branch snapped. I froze. One of the heartbeats was coming closer. Fast. It was following the sound I made.

*No, no, no.*

I didn't think. I bent down and felt the ground with my hands until my fingers found a rock, a big one, as big as my fist. I stood up and threw it as hard as I could, far away to my left.

It hit a tree with a loud *crack*.

The heartbeat that was coming toward me stopped. Then it turned, and ran toward the sound of the rock.

The other heartbeats followed it, snarling.

I almost laughed. Instead, I ran toward the water.

---

The creek was cold. Freezing cold, so cold it hurt my legs like knives when I stepped in. The water came up to my knees. It soaked through my leggings and filled my boots.

But it was loud. Beautiful and loud, rushing and splashing over the rocks. It covered every sound I made.

I walked down the middle of the creek in the dark, holding my arms out for balance. The rocks were slippery. Twice I almost fell. My teeth were chattering so hard I bit my tongue. My feet went numb, then my legs.

Behind me, far away now, I could still hear the rogues howling. Angry. Confused. Lost.

They couldn't find me.

The Hollow girl, with no scent and no wolf, had beaten a whole pack of rogues.

I wanted to scream with happiness. But I just kept walking.

---

I don't know how long I walked in that creek. One hour? Two? My legs were so cold I couldn't feel them anymore. My whole body was shaking from the cold. I knew I had to get out of the water soon, or I wouldn't be able to walk at all.

Then I saw something ahead, through the trees.

A light.

It was small and gold and warm, glowing in the darkness, like a candle in a window.

My heart jumped.

I climbed out of the creek on shaking legs. I almost fell on the muddy bank. I grabbed a tree root and pulled myself up. And I walked toward the light, slowly, slowly, step by step.

The trees opened up.

And there it was.

The old ranger station.

The same small wooden building, with the same broken window and the same crooked door. The same place where I stitched up a black wolf, and the whole world stopped, and my life changed forever.

The light was coming from inside. Through the broken window, I could see the soft gold glow of a lantern.

Someone was in there.

I stopped. My heart started to pound again.

*Rogues don't light lanterns,* I told myself. *Rogues don't use lanterns.*

But the archer might.

I stood there in the dark, shaking and dripping, with my hands in fists. I listened.

One heartbeat. Inside. It was slow and steady and strong.

I knew that heartbeat.

I knew it better than my own.

I walked to the crooked door and pushed it open.

---

Kael was sitting on the floor, with his back against the wall, exactly where he sat that first night. The old lantern was on the shelf, glowing softly. There was a thick gray wool blanket folded beside him, and a big metal thermos.

He looked up at me.

For a long moment, neither of us said anything.

His gray eyes moved over me slowly. My wet hair. My scratched face. My soaked, muddy clothes. My blue lips. My whole body, shaking like a leaf.

Something broke open in his face.

"You said you wouldn't come," I whispered. My teeth were chattering so hard I could barely talk.

He stood up. He picked up the gray blanket.

"I said I wouldn't come to save you," he said quietly. "I never said I wouldn't wait for you."

He walked over and wrapped the blanket around my shoulders. It was so warm. It was warm like it had been sitting by a fire. He pulled it tight around me, and his hands stayed on my arms.

"You're freezing," he said.

"I walked in the creek."

"I know."

"How do you know?"

"Because I followed you all night."

I stared at him.

"Every step," he said. His voice was low and rough. "From the moment you walked into the trees. I stayed back. I was so far away you never heard me. I didn't help you. I swear I didn't. Not once." His jaw went tight. "But I couldn't leave you alone out there, Sienna. I couldn't. I tried."

"The rogues," I whispered.

"I saw. I saw what you did. With the rock. With the creek." He shook his head slowly, like he still couldn't believe it. "Seven rogues. Seven, and they couldn't find you."

"Someone sabotaged my bag," I said. "The matches were wet. The water had a hole in it. The compass was glued. And the flare was gone."

His face went dark. Very dark. His hands tightened on my arms.

"I know that too," he said. "I found the flare in the bushes by the start. And I know whose perfume was on it."

"Margot."

He didn't answer. He didn't have to.

He let go of my arms. He picked up the metal thermos and opened it. Steam came out. It smelled like chocolate and cinnamon.

He'd made hot chocolate. He'd carried it all the way out here, into Black Hollow, and waited all night with it.

He poured some into the little cup that was the lid of the thermos and put it in my hands. My fingers were so cold that I almost dropped it. He wrapped his hands around mine, around the cup, and held it there with me.

"Drink," he said softly.

I drank. It was warm and sweet and perfect, and I started to cry.

I didn't mean to. It just happened. All the fear and the cold and the dark came out at once, and I stood there in the old ranger station with tears running down my face and hot chocolate in my hands.

He didn't say anything. He just held my hands and waited.

Through the broken window, the sky was starting to turn gray. Just a little. The very first bit of morning light, coming over the mountains.

"The sun is coming up," he said quietly. "In twenty minutes, you pass. The Guard is yours. Everything you wanted."

I looked up at him through my tears.

"But before it does," he said, "I'm going to ask you one more time. Not as your trainer, and not as your Alpha. Just as me."

His thumbs moved softly over my cold fingers.

"Was it you, Sienna? That night. Here, in this room. Was it you?"

I looked into his stormy gray eyes. I thought about the roof, and the lie I told him there. The pain on his face. The way he gave my hair tie back like his heart was breaking.

I couldn't do it again. I couldn't lie to him one more time.

I didn't care anymore about Margot, or the war, or the whole pack.

I just cared about him.

"Yes," I whispered. "It was me."