Chapter eight

By dawn, I had stopped feeling my feet the neutral forest went on forever. Pines, snow, and a gray sky pressed flat above them. I had walked all night with a flashlight I no longer dared to use, following a road map in my head that was three years old. Ashford, the old border town. Two days east if the weather held. I had stamped its supply forms myself once.

My boots slipped on a frozen root. I caught a tree trunk and stood there, breathing hard, one hand on my stomach.

*Slow down ,* my wolf murmured. *Gently.*

"I'm fine."

*No you’re not.*

"I'm walking."

*You are staggering.* I laughed, too tired to be offended. She wasn't wrong though.

At a frozen stream, I knelt and took out my phone. The screen lit up with a dozen notifications I didn't read. I pulled out the SIM card, snapped it in half, and dropped both pieces through the ice then I did the same with the phone's battery I Luca’s trackers could find a smart device in a blizzard I signed the purchase order.

My last link to Moonlight sank without a sound. I tore a strip of dried fruit from my pocket and chewed it. The sweetness hit my tongue and my stomach clenched at once. I swallowed against the nausea and pressed on. An hour later, I smelled smoke, Cigarettes, and wet leather, and the sour reek of men who had slept in their coats.

I froze.

Male Voices drifted through the trees ahead.

"told you, nothing out here but deer."

"Orders are orders."

"Orders came from a man who sleeps in a heated hall."

"Orders are stupid. It's minus ten." I dropped to one knee and eased behind a fallen log, heart slamming against my ribs. Through a gap in the roots, I could see three figures on the trail a silver thorn stitched on each sleeve.

Blackthorn.

Kendrick's men. The pack Luca had spent three years keeping out of Moonlight's territory.

What were they doing this far inside the borderlands?

"What are we even looking for?" the youngest one asked, stamping his feet.

"Anything from Moonlight," the tallest said. "Any runner, any courier, anyone who looks like she's in a hurry. The Alpha wants a list."

"Why?"

"You want to ask him?"

"No."

"Then shut up and walk."

Dax muttered something about frostbite and unpaid overtime. The tall one cuffed him on the back of the head.

My wolf went rigid inside me.

*Anything from Moonlight.* They weren't looking for me. They'd never heard my name. But if they caught me, a lone woman out of Moonlight, alone and armed with nothing but a duffel bag, I'd be the best thing they found all week. I pressed my cheek to the log. Cold bark scraped my skin. I held my breath.

Boots crunched past. Close enough that I smelled the oil on their jackets. One of them spat and It landed a foot from my glove, steaming still.

"Hold up," the tall one said.

My blood turned to ice.

"What?"

"Thought I heard something."

A long pause. The wind moved in the branches. I did not dare breathe I thought of my child, a tiny flicker the size of a bean, and I willed my heartbeat quiet.

"A Deer?" the youngest said.

"Maybe."

"It's always deer."

"Shut up, Dax."

They walked on and the crunch of boots faded, leaving was only the wind I stayed where I was for a full ten minutes.

When I finally stood, my knees nearly buckled. I leaned on the log until the world stopped swimming, then picked up my bag and turned northeast, away from the trail, deeper into the trees I walked until noon.

---

Sixty miles north, Captain Garrett rode at the head of twelve men at a walking pace.

"Captain," the scout beside him said. "We could cover twice the ground at a canter."

"We could."

"The Alpha said to move quickly."

"The Alpha said to search the north road." Garrett kept his eyes on the empty snow. "I'm searching it thoroughly."

The scout hesitated. "Sir, there's nobody up here."

"Then we'll be very sure of that search everywhere, take your time."

The scout opened his mouth, shut it, and drifted back along the line Garrett looked south, where the pines hid everything, and said quietly to the wind, "Whatever you're doing, Lady Adele, do it fast."

---

The cold had changed. It no longer bit. It pressed, patient and heavy, like a hand on my back I wasn't hungry anymore but that worried me I ran through the symptoms the way I would for a patient. Dizziness. Chills. A strange, loose heat behind my eyes. A dull ache low in my belly that came and went.

*Dehydration,* I decided. *Exhaustion. Early cramps.* All common. All dangerous. I scooped snow into my mouth. It numbed my tongue and did nothing for my throat. I found a trickle of meltwater under a rock, drank until my teeth ached, and tried to stand the trees spun once and settled slowly

"Keep going," I said aloud. "Just to the road." My voice sounded thin and far away a strip of gray road appeared between the trunks, cracked and half buried in drifts. A signpost leaned beside it, weathered almost blank.

I squinted. Faded letters. *ASHFORD 4 MI. A sob came out of me, half a laugh. Four miles.

*Walk,* my wolf urged. *We are close.*

There was a healer’s house on the south edge of Ashford. I had approved its herb allotment twice. I had never learned the woman’s name. I reached the road. My boots hit the packed snow, and for a few steps it felt like flying then the cramp hit and it knocked the breath out of me I doubled over and gasped. I counted eleven long seconds before it let go.

"No," I whispered. "No, no, no."

*Breathe Adele,* my wolf said sharply. *Breathe.*

"I can't."

The cramp finally eased. I held my stomach and tried to stand then A second one came, deeper.

I knew what it might mean I'd explained it to patients. Dehydration and strain. A body that had been pushed too far.

*Not the baby,* I thought, with a ferocity that scared me. *You will not take this baby.*

My vision went gray at the edges.

I staggered forward. One step. Two. The signpost swam in my eyes.

*Four miles,* I told myself. *Just four.*

The road tilted.

I put out a hand, and found nothing there.

I hit the snow on my knees, then my side. The cold didn't feel cold. It felt soft. I thought, absurdly, of the green lamp on my desk, and who would turn it off tonight. The sky above me turned a high, bright white.

*Get up,* my wolf pleaded, her voice breaking. *Adele please get get up.*

"I'm trying."

*Please.*

*I'm here,* she added, softer. *I’ve got you whatever happens, I have you.*

I tried but my arms wouldn't move my lashes are froze together. Somewhere far away, I heard a sound. Hooves? No. Wheels. A creaking, rattling wheel on a rough road, and the slow, unhurried clop of a donkey.

A cart.

"Help," I whispered, but it came out as breath.

The creaking stopped.

"Well, now." A voice, dry as old paper and as unbothered as weather. "That's an unusual thing to find in the road."

Boots crunched beside my head. A hand, rough and knotted, pressed two fingers against my throat.

"Barely alive amd cold as a fish." The fingers moved then a long, thoughtful hum. "Oh, you daft girl."

"Please," I managed. "The baby."

"I know, I know." The hand shifted to my forehead. It smelled of sage and woodsmoke. "I can feel two heartbeats from here. Hush now. Don't fight me."

"Who"

"Orla." A soft grunt, and the cart shifted as someone tested its weight. "I'm the old woman your mother warned you not to talk to that’s Biscuit pulling the cart, and he bites, so keep your fingers in. Come on, lass. Up we go." Strong arms slid beneath me and as the sky wheeled. I caught a glimpse of a weathered face, a wild braid, and eyes the color of river ice.

"Stay with me," Orla said. "Stay awake that’s an order from your elders child."

"I don't take orders from" I tried to say.

"Well you do today In through the nose, girl out through the mouth You've taught that to someone, I'd wager." I tried I truly really tried. The last thing I felt was the rough wool of a blanket, smelling of smoke and herbs, settling over my shoulders like a promise.

Then the white swallowed everything.