wait for hi

slope, mint and mud smearing across her face

of the garden on

rner. Gran'

hoods nodding in the dark. Monkshood. Wolf

a gap in the wire and ripped

palm, crawling up to her wrist. She bit her lip so ha

use, the cra

rolled dow

ra

Needles under her boots. Br

gathering yarrow and feverfew and chanterelles for Gran. Left at t

ng big crashed thro

yet. Lopin

laying w

hip with every step. Her wolfsbane hand throbbed like she'd s

t the

went

ing went

he dee

aught her boot and pitched her forward, and she twisted

unched the a

the needl

le

her own ragged breathing and th

fted h

t her from the dark under the

olf was

d fight. His lips peeled back from teeth as long as her fingers.

e slow ste

r elbows until her spine hit a

ad. Sniffed at he

stom

mble started deep in his

lease. They haven't done a

ned hi

and she slammed her

is nose. Wolfsb

like metal tearing. He reared back, pawing at his face, shaking his head so hard spit

already on

n't loo

ar of the river grew unti

, the

er at the bottom swollen white with snowmelt. To the north

r half a second, because

ee of them.

son

his torch and point

he

Toward the tra

n front of

raw. He wasn't playing anymore. He hit the trail between her and the

dge, boots p

wants her breath

curled. A lo

back

step

l hit n

boot and fell. She didn't hear it la

g on the very l

er, icy and wet, whipping

ree men. One wolf. One rejected healer in a torn green dress

ard held out his hand. "Nobody's gonn

never left

flat over the place where two tiny hearts were be

hed for

six weeks of reaching for him in the da

s nothin

e used to be. Like probing the gap

roat l

from the direction of the pack

olf.

l. It went on and on, ragged and cracking, like s

ze. Bram's ears went f

new tha

lls, low and laughing, say

ngers curled into the

he thought. You don't get t

wl bro

lun

a ju

for a l

her mouth. Long enough to see the torches shrink

her stomach. Arm

old on, ho

t the

slamming into every inch of her at once. The force drove her down

her, and she couldn't tell up from down. Rock scraped her shoulder. Her back. She b

s starte

black water. Whi

it

n and savage, like a fist closing aro

scre

ured into he

torches crowded t

his face swollen and blistered where the wolfsbane had

?" the tall

urvives t

na skin us. She

ut

pulled something loose. A strip of pale green cotton, torn

he jacket one of the gua

ang

orge," Bram said. "T

the other end

. The kind of voice that

e something of hers. When the Alpha w

tightened on

woman? She

nough that the

one," the voice

ne wen