جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 17

FAYE'S POVThe footsteps stopped.I couldn't open my eyes. The cold had sunk so deep into my skull that even lifting my eyelids seemed like an impossible task. I lay on the mud-slicked bank, my body shaking with violent tremors that my conscious mind couldn't control, and waited for whatever came next.There was a sound—a sharp intake of breath. Human-shaped, I thought distantly. Not a wolf. Not Lydia."Gods," a voice said, and it was male, deep, carrying an accent I didn't immediately recognize. "What in the depths—"Hands gripped me, careful hands that didn't grab or threaten but assessed. I felt fingers checking my neck for pulse, pressing gently against my ribs where I'd cracked them against the rocks. The touch was professional, measured, the touch of someone accustomed to evaluating injuries."You're alive," the voice said, more to himself than to me. "You're actually alive."I managed to crack my eyes open just enough to see a silhouette above me—broad shoulders, dark hair, fea

FAYE'S POVThe cabin revealed itself slowly over the next few days—though "days" became a loosely interpreted concept when you weren't leaving to mark time by sunrise and sunset.Rowan kept the fire burning constantly, maintaining a temperature that bordered on excessive warmth. He explained, in his careful, clinical way, that my body was still recovering from the hypothermia. That the continued heat would help my core temperature stabilize and reduce the risk of complications.I didn't argue. Warmth felt like a mercy after so many years of being relegated to the cold margins of the pack.On what I thought was the second day—though it might have been the third—I woke to find fresh bandages on my ribs and a new set of clothing laid out on the chair beside the bed. The dress I'd worn into the ravine was gone, replaced by simple but clean things. Linen undergarments. A soft grey shift. Wool stockings."Don't ask where they came from," Rowan said when he saw me examining them. "The previo

FAYE'S POVBy the evening of what Rowan had confirmed was the sixth day, I was able to sit up without assistance. The pain in my ribs was still present but had shifted from acute agony into something more like a persistent ache—the kind that suggested healing was actually happening beneath the surface.Rowan had prepared a simple dinner—bread, cheese, some kind of preserved fish that was actually quite good. We ate in companionable silence, the fire crackling softly in the hearth. The cabin had become familiar enough that the quiet no longer felt oppressive. It felt almost peaceful."You should know something," Rowan said as he was clearing away the dishes. "About who I am. About why I'm not taking you back."I waited, sensing this was important information that he'd been holding back since pulling me from the ravine.He settled back onto his stool, moving it slightly closer to the fire. The flickering light caught the sharp angles of his face, made his dark eyes seem deeper, more sha

FAYE'S POVI was asleep when it happened.The kind of deep, exhausted sleep that comes after days of recovery, when your body finally feels safe enough to actually rest. I was dreaming of something—something with water and Ethan's face, though the details were already fragmenting as consciousness began to pull me upward.Then the door exploded.It wasn't a subtle sound. It was the violent, destructive sound of something being shattered from the outside, wood splintering under force that was far too strong for any normal impact. The dream scattered completely, and I was suddenly, violently awake, my heart hammering in my chest.Rowan was already moving.I'd only seen him shift twice—once briefly when he'd gone out to collect firewood, and once when he'd been moving supplies from the storage shed. But I'd never seen him shift with this kind of speed and purpose. His human form seemed to simply dissolve, and the massive wolf that emerged was something entirely different from the careful,