Winter's Bite

With the wind kicking up and the heavy snow pelting down on us, it took almost fifteen hours to get to Margin. A little better than a mile per hour. We had to stop several times for Grady to pick up the town’s scent again and to let him rest since he pulled all of us on the sleigh while injured.

It was a good thing I’d stolen the coat from the brothel at Old Man’s Den, or otherwise, I don’t think I would’ve made it. As it was, by the time we arrived in Margin, I couldn’t feel any part of my body despite Archer shifting to keep me and himself warm. After bursting through the door of an inn with winter savaging our backs, the innkeeper took pity on us and put us in a room for one night in exchange for the nearly full bottle of booze I’d also stolen from the brothel.

That was eight days ago. Archer, the magician that he was, had charmed the innkeeper’s wife into letting us stay longer. He was hurt. He was beautiful. I couldn’t blame her for not being able to resist, though I had noted how her gaze lingered, how she giggled and fretted.

She made me want to put an arrow through her eye.

Which was why I sat in the bar area with Sasha on my lap while the woman doted on him in our shared room upstairs and while Grady stomped around them and snapped everyone’s heads off.

We were a touch high-strung, the three of us, after starting a war and barely escaping with our lives. I was especially edgy, since all I thought about was poison and sex, sex and poison. That was the result of sharing a room with two wolf shifters and scouring the inn’s kitchen for things that could kill and coming up empty. What kind of kitchen didn’t have some kind of toxic ingredient?

Someone entered the inn then, a smudge of brown in the whited-out backdrop behind them. The animal skins hanging on the walls swayed with the surge of wind, and the many bushels of dried herbs and vegetables hanging above the fireplace fell to the stone floor. Most of the candles in the circular chandeliers above went out in puffs of smoke.

“Shut the goddamn door,” an old man hunkered at the bar yelled.

Good to know I wasn’t the only one cranky at winter.

The innkeeper bustled out from behind the bar to help the newcomer close the door against the wind.

I folded Sasha farther into my coat, away from the stranger, and sealing off my borrowed vision. She was half asleep in my arms anyway and already hidden from the innkeeper by the angle of my body. Easier to cover up her existence down here than up in our room with the doting wife since I seriously doubted wolf pups were allowed here.

The door finally closed and latched, and the innkeeper breathed a loud sigh of relief. “It’s rough out there this year, isn’t it?” He bumped into one of the many wine barrels edging the room. A habit of his, I gathered, since it happened so frequently, like he wasn’t aware of the space his own body dominated. “Do you need a room? A drink? I have a mean pot of stew that will be ready within the hour.”

The stranger didn’t say a word, just lumbered toward the fireplace against the wall.

I bent my head over the table so my hair curtained my face. My heart stuttered a warning beat. My muscles tensed as I almost stood to slip out, but I decided against it. I didn't want to draw attention to myself, not any more than I already had. As if sensing my unease, Sasha squirmed once and then stilled, her warm little body as stiff as mine.

Ever since that morning Baba was shot, I trusted no one outside my wolves. This person… Why were they wandering about in winter?

Once again, the door to the inn burst open.

“Shut the fucking door,” the old man at the bar shouted.

“Relax, Bartle.” The innkeeper rushed to meet the newcomer.

It was becoming much too crowded in here. Time to slip aw—

"You have the best seat in the house, I reckon."

A male voice, unfamiliar, from the direction of the fireplace. The first stranger. His voice had a soothing quality, but it didn't take effect since he was addressing me. Me, not the old man at the bar or the innkeeper who'd run over wine barrels on his way back into the kitchen. I dug my fingernails into the underside of the table and prepared myself to snatch the map from the top and run upstairs. A part of me wondered, though, what if this was Thomas? What if this was Archer and Grady’s missing alpha we’d heard howling several days ago?

"You can see who's coming and going,” the man continued. “See anyone of interest lately?"

I shook my head, more of a spasm than a forced movement.

The second stranger headed toward us over the creaky floorboards toward the fireplace, and a buckle on his left shoe must’ve loosened because it clinked. At least, I thought it was a he. No, it was definitely a he. I could often just tell. His steps thudded deliberately as if he were listening, watching.

A weighted silence passed around the room, then the stranger who’d spoken moved toward me. I flashed my hand to the tabletop, crumpled the map in my fist, and slid it onto my lap.

A low chuckle emanated from him. "All I'm interested in is who's coming and going. Not whatever you had there."

"Ask the innkeeper."

"I'm asking you." The legs of the chair opposite me screeched over the floor, and he sat heavily upon it. The chill from his coat shoved outward, bringing the smell of fresh snow and sweat with it.

"I haven't seen anyone."

"Hm." An undertone of disbelief lined the sound, but I'd told him the truth. "Shame."

This wasn't Thomas. If it was, Grady would have seen him. He would have come downstairs by now instead of sticking his face to the window trying to search between the snowflakes for his alpha. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, because whoever this was, he'd come to me for a reason.

"I'm looking for a girl,” the stranger said. “Black hair. Brown eyes. About your height. You haven't seen anyone like that?"

My body went numb. Questions flooded my mouth, but I didn't dare ask them. Could he be talking about Jade?

"No," I managed to say.

"A real beauty. But she escaped Margin's slave auction and ran off wearing a thin blue coat. Angered quite a few potential buyers." He sniffed. "Doesn't matter, I suppose. She's more than likely dead already."

My tongue soured, and I fought down a swallow. He might not be talking about Jade. It could be anyone. Still, my stomach hardened into a worried knot. I couldn't imagine being someone's slave, but to choose winter, choose death, over that kind of life… Well, that told me everything I needed to know.

"Excuse me." I stood from the table abruptly, angling the lump in my coat away from him the best I could, and swept the map behind my back. My hands trembled, and I hoped I wouldn't be sick.

"Of course," the man said. "If you happen to see her, though, I'll be around."

He'd said it with a smile. I could hear it even now. He'd be around watching and waiting, and from the dig of his gaze in my back, he was already watching me.

I skirted between the tables and chairs on the way to the stairs, having already memorized the way. As quick as I could, I strode up to the room and breathed somewhat easier as the distance between me and those men grew.

"It's okay," I breathed to Sasha and myself. That man had been just a man who wasn’t interested in us and had been talking about someone other than Jade. She was too smart to run, too dedicated to her brother, Lee, to surrender to death.

After twelve steps from the top of the stairs, I skimmed my fingers over the door of our room and turned the knob. Girlish laughter sounded from within as well as Archer's easy voice. I ground my teeth together and slammed the door behind me.

"Aika, you're back," Archer exclaimed from the bed on the right.

"And now the whole inn knows it," the innkeeper's wife muttered. She didn't sound as happy to see me as Archer.

"Time to go," I told her, none too politely.

She harrumphed. “But Archer…”

I opened the door again and waved her out. Couldn’t get much more obvious than that.

“I’ll be back first thing tomorrow.” She left then, leaving a trail of sickly sweet perfume behind.

"Aika, she treated my wounds,” Archer said with a note of humor. “Shouldn't we be nice to her?"

"I thought the word please as I said it."

He chuckled. “No. You didn’t.”

I unbuttoned my coat so Sasha could wriggle free, and the sight on the bed through her eyes pulled me up short for a moment. He lay in bed shirtless with the blankets puddled at his hips. His long, silky midnight hair feathered his tawny skin and the ripple of powerful muscles along his chest and arms.

"Are you jealous of her?" he asked, studying me just as closely with his dark, mischievous eyes.

Why wouldn't I be? Having working sight just so I could stare at him all day without Sasha's bouncing would be a dream.

I released Sasha into his waiting arms. "It doesn't matter."

"She's just trying to help. That's all, to me anyway. Honest."

I nodded sharply, my tongue souring at the bitterness this foreign feeling left me with. It would be impossible not to fall for him. I had, quickly, and what amazed me was that I suspected he liked me too.

He pulled me down next to him on the bed, cradling Sasha close, and his gaze kindled something softer and warmer than jealousy inside my heart. "Now why did you come bursting in here?"

"There are two strangers downstairs. One of them knew about the slave trade and said one female slave who looked similar to me escaped, and I can't help but think—"

"He thought you were an escaped slave?" His whole body tensed.

"No, at least I don't think so. He might be talking about Jade. But…maybe not. It makes me so sick that I don't know where she is."

"We'll find her." He released a long breath and glanced down at Sasha, who stared at him adoringly. "And the second stranger?"

I didn't miss the note of hope in his voice. Despite his doubts that the howl we'd heard the first day of winter had really been Thomas, he still held hope his alpha was alive. He hadn’t said anything though. He didn’t have to.

"Nothing but silence." I couldn't leave it at just that since I never wanted to crush his hope, sliver that it was. "It could've been anyone, but…"

"But?"

"I take a lot of my cues from Sasha. If she's relaxed, if she's tense. She perked up downstairs when the strangers came but was still kind of half asleep, so I wonder if Thomas really is nearby—maybe he rubbed herbs all over himself to mask his scent."

"Like we did in Old Man's Den, you mean."

I nodded. "Wouldn't a wolf pup immediately recognize their alpha and react in some way?"

"Probably," he sighed. "Maybe. It depends on if Thomas wants to be found or not, I suppose. If he’s really alive."

“If he's here, he can't stay hidden forever. Maybe Grady saw something out the window?" Speaking of Grady, I didn’t smell his almond scent, feel his anger biting at my skin.

"Doubt it. He's down the hall in the shared bath probably taking a cold one. I couldn't stand him snapping and stomping, so I told him to just go away."

I stood from the bed. "Is there a window in there?"

"Yeah."

"Then he might've seen something, like if the two men came from the same side of town or were together before they came here."

"What makes you think the second stranger's a man?"

"A feeling, I guess. The noise level around him. Women think louder than men." At least in my experience. When my ama wasn’t shouting at me, she was thinking, and that was usually worse. In my own head, my thoughts were deafening.

"Really?" Archer chuckled. "You can hear that?"

"Just the volume, not their actual thoughts. I think it's because women have so much to say and very few who will actually listen. So we pent it up."

"I'll listen."

"I know, and it means so much to me." I leaned down, hoping he'd meet my kiss.

He did, vigorously. His warm breath sighed over my lips as he claimed them. His tongue stoked fiery heat to the end of every limb and back then surged to my center in a tight, greedy ball of need. With one touch, he made me feel things I didn't even know I craved until I did. He slid one hand to the back of my head and rested the other on my hip, gently tilting me toward him and the bed.

Sasha rolled away from us, plopped to the floor, and howled toward the window.

"Hush, big girl," Archer hissed.

She immediately stopped and stood rigid, but her thoughts buzzed in a wild flurry, same as mine. Out in the hallway, a door closed, and Sasha released a quiet whimper.

"I'll see to her,” Archer said quietly. “You go check on Grady? If this place gets too much more crowded, we may have to leave. Just be sure to knock first at the bath door. Who the hell knows what he's doing in there."

Nodding, I climbed off the bed and crossed toward the door, my cheeks flushed from Archer’s kiss. I opened then closed the door behind me—and I all but froze two steps down the hallway.

Someone was here with me. They were breathing the same air, touching their feet to the same creaky floorboards, yet they weren't moving. Whoever it was stood behind me, their gaze whittling down my back with a sharpened blade. Not Grady. I didn't smell his almond scent, didn't hear his silent broodiness. This was different. This was silent and predatory.

My steps hesitated, but I couldn't turn back. I didn't want to shout for Archer, either, because he shouldn't be getting out of bed yet. I had my thoughts, as loud as they were, and they were telling me to act natural, to pretend everything was okay, to let the predator feel like this would be an easy victory.

The air closed in slightly from ahead, signaling I was drawing closer to the bath door at the end of the hall.

I knocked. "Anyone in here?"

I tried to make my voice sound as cool and calm as possible. A grunt sounded from within followed by a loud splash of water. I tried the door, but the rattle of a chain on the other side prevented me from opening it very far.

"Hello?" I didn't want to confirm Grady's name in case the stranger in the hallway already suspected it. I didn't want to turn back and reveal my face either. With the door opened a crack, more sounds filtered out—a groan, water slapping the lip of the tub. "Grady?" I mouthed. Why wasn't he answering me?

The hair at the back of my neck bristled, and I sensed more than heard the stranger behind me take a step closer.

"Grady?" I whispered into the crack.

More grunts, more splashes, and a squeak along the bottom of the tub. Could he see me? What was he doing? It almost sounded like he was…pleasuring himself with abandon, completely lost to the sensations.

But the next few moments dashed that thought away.

"Run," Grady choked out, and then went into a terrible coughing fit.

There was a violent splash and sputtering as well as the sound of boots slapping wet tile. Grady wasn't alone. Someone was trying to drown him.

Run. There was nowhere to go. Certainly not anywhere behind me. The floorboards creaked again then again, faster.

Without thinking, I drew back my leg and kicked the door with more determination than strength. My boot must've struck it just right because the chain snapped, and the door swung open. I rushed inside then skirted left, with what felt like fingers skimming through the ends of my hair from behind. A him. A stranger him. His boots hit the wet tile at top speed, and he slid and splashed toward the middle of the room.

With a choked cry, Grady surged up out of the bath. Two bodies toppled to the floor with heavy grunts. Fists smashed into flesh over and over, but whose?

The stranger who’d been behind me moved to block the door, his steps loud through the water on the floor but slow and calculating.

I needed a weapon, something to get us both out of here alive, but without my bow and arrow, I had nothing. Nothing but my hearing. Keeping the wall at my back, I circled the room, knocking onto a low wooden table topped with fluffy towels. I took one and twisted it as tightly as I could between my hands.

"Who do you work for?" I asked.

"I think you know," a different voice than the one I’d heard downstairs answered.

The punches slowed, and then someone staggered to their feet.

"Faust," Grady said, his voice wet and hoarse. No movement from the man on the floor next to him. "He sent you after us in winter?"

"You burned down his town."

"Will he send more after I kill you?" Grady bit out.

"Confident words for a half-drowned naked man with a severe limp. You and your pet blind girl are hardly a match for us."

Burning rage seethed a hole right through my stomach. Pet blind girl?

"Yeah?" Grady rasped. He kicked the man beside him. "Tell that to this guy."

"That worthless sack of shit?" The man tsk-tsked. "Faust wants the three of you dead or alive for what you did to Old Man's Den. Either way, I intend to deliver."

He took a single step toward me, and then in a splash of movement, Grady was on him. With a lethal growl, he shoved him up against the wall, the air around him tight with livid tension.

"Deliver this message instead." Grady's voice bit viciously, raw with the water he'd been forced to swallow and the intensity with which he hated this man. "We will destroy Faust and everyone associated with him. The Crimson Forest is my pack's, and we will take it back. Tell him to be afraid, because when it's my pack's again, we will see him suffer." Violent emotion cracked his voice and vibrated off of him like a war drum.

I trembled because I felt it, too, this vicious beat inside me that constantly reminded me of all I'd lost. It wasn't much, but it was all I'd had. Baba, Jade, Lee, Hellbreath, my home, a chance at surviving. All gone. I knew Grady's desperation well.

"You'll tell him this?" he demanded.

Silence from the man, but when he shifted his gaze to me and crawled it all down my body, the vileness of his thoughts spoke volumes. For those seconds, I was glad I couldn’t see. Feeling it, hearing it, was terrible enough.

"Only if your pet blind girl rides my cock," the man finally said.

There was a moment of dead calm, the quiet before the storm while I digested those words. Then, hell shattered the small space in the flash of a second. A window along the wall exploded, and a blast of wintery air swirled through the room.

"Wh-What?" I whispered, unable to say more.

"If he can get up, he'll deliver the damn message." Grady roughly took my hand and charged us out of there.

"You threw him out the window?"

He said nothing, dragging me behind him as he limped heavily along down the hallway. It was worse now after we’d narrowly escaped Old Man’s Den, the drags and thumps of his stride much more pronounced.

Once he shoved open the door to our room, he turned as I followed him inside, anger rolling off of him. He pressed closer, the water clinging to his naked skin soaking through my threadbare clothes. In one fluid motion, he backed me into the door as he shut it. "Have you ever done what you're told in your entire life?"

Behind him from the bed, Sasha's head had swiveled toward him, and her vision clicked into my eyes. He towered over me, completely nude, his powerful muscles tensed. He was terrifyingly beautiful, even more so since he stood so close. My breaths grew ragged as my heart charged its way out of my chest. Even though he'd attacked two men, possibly killed them, I wasn't afraid of him. But I was afraid of what he was doing to me. Around him, I felt as untamed as a wolf.

“What happened?” Archer demanded from the bed. “I heard breaking glass.”

Grady slapped his hand against the door next to my head, his seething breaths rushing past my cheek. "When I tell you to run, you run. Don't come breaking down the door and inviting more of Faust's men in."

"He was drowning you," I hissed.

"What?" Archer said. "Someone was drowning you?"

"I solved that problem, didn't I? Me." Grady gritted out. "I don't need you."

He pushed off the door, leaving me bared and vulnerable to Sasha's eyes while his words penetrated deep. I don't need you. Did anyone? Through Sasha, the falling expression on my face answered that plainly enough. Even Archer, who glowered after Grady with a murderous look, would be fine without me. He could have anyone, someone a lot more useful than a pet blind girl.

So useless and broken…

I’d wanted to stop believing what Ama had told me again and again, but that was proving really fucking difficult with even more words sharp as corners flung my way. Heat swallowed up my neck and scorched the backs of my eyes.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, Grady?" Archer shouted. "You don't have to be such a fucking bastard all the time. Now tell me what happened in the bathroom."

"I was cornered and attacked by one of Faust's men." Grady slammed around the room while searching for his clothes. Sasha bounded off the bed and followed him. "Aika here brought in another."

"I didn't bring in anyone,” I said, my throat thick with emotion. “He was watching me go down the hall, probably a lookout for the other man. I didn't want to go back and face him again, and I didn't know what was happening to you. I was just coming to ask you a question."

"What?" he demanded.

"If you'd seen anyone enter the inn. There were two strangers downstairs."

"No, I didn’t see them coming until it was too late."

"No, the two up here and the two down there aren't the same,” I insisted. “One of them had a loose buckle on his shoe, and the other had an eerily soothing voice as he talked about slaves."

Grady grunted. "This inn's getting way too crowded." He snatched the towel from my hand, unraveling it, and ran it over his head. "And small."

I glared at him through Sasha's and my eyes. "So you're saying we leave?"

"That's what I'm saying."

Wind battered the side of the inn and rattled the frosted window. When I'd lived in Margin's Row, I hated having to go to the outhouse in winter and would hold it as long as possible. Even with a rope to guide me from our cabin, I became disoriented as blowing snow knocked me this way and that. Without a rope, I would've surely died. Without the wolf shifters, I didn't stand a chance. If we became separated, if they decided they both didn't need me…

"Wherever we go, it will have to be close,” Archer said. “I'm healed, but not completely."

I crossed toward the little nightstand and picked up the map we’d stolen from Faust’s tavern. "We go where Lager's map leads us. The circled places, even the one in Slipjoint Forest since who’s to say there aren’t ruby caves there too?"

"We don’t know what's there," Grady snapped.

"He's right,” Archer said. “If we go there, we could be walking into anything, and we'll likely be tailed by Faust's men if we do. I don't know about you, but I don't like being surrounded."

“Where, then?” I asked.

"The nearest town we haven't burned down is about sixty miles away.” He sighed. “And the shortest way there is straight through the Crimson Forest."

"We could stay in Margin, but not here." Grady took his place by the window and rubbed the glass while Sasha yipped about his heels.

"This is the only inn in Margin." I tapped the nearest circled spot on the map. "This is close. The trees in the Slipjoint Forest will help give us cover from winter and anyone who follows us."

"There's nothing there, Aika," Grady rumbled. “That’s just a stupid map.”

"There could be,” I fired back. “It was at Faust’s tavern, so it's probably important."

"Not the ruby caves…" Archer said. “Faust wouldn’t be that stupid to circle them on a map, would he?”

I sawed my teeth across my bottom lip, considering. Only female wolf shifters knew where the ruby caves were, the only place where breeding among shifters was successful. The caves were the reason Faust's pack had taken over the Crimson Forest in the first place by force with the help of my mother's poison.

"No,” I decided. “Faust's woman, the redhead, hadn't yet found the caves."

Grady chuckled, a dark, bruised sound. "And you believed her?"

"I did. Unless the map was brand new, why keep it for the two years they've been in control of the forest and not go see why those places were circled?"

The headboard creaked as Archer shifted. "Unless the map was brand new and winter was coming the very next day."

"I could see the caves through Sasha's eyes to help guide us there," I said pointedly to Grady's back. "You might need me after all."

He stayed quiet for a long time because he had to know I was right. And I hoped me being right was killing him, slowly.

"We could hole up there if we make it, but come spring, I'm through hiding. I want my home back.” Grady turned to face us and picked up Sasha. “I want what's ours."

"And if it's not the ruby caves circled on the map?” Archer asked. “If it's nothing but the Crimson Forest in winter with Faust's pack hunting us?"

Neither Grady nor I had an answer, it seemed. Here in the inn, we'd be hunted until we were dead. Out there, facing a wintery unknown… If we didn’t find shelter fast, we'd just be dead.

"We're heading south," I told the innkeeper and his wife. “We're heading out at daybreak tomorrow."

"In winter?" she screeched. "But Archer—"

"Is fine." But was he fine enough for hard, grueling travel? Was Grady? If they weren’t, I doubted they'd admit it.

"You'll settle your bill before then," the innkeeper said. "Including the cost of the window and the door's lock in the bath. Your man's story about slipping and falling, twice, doesn't hold much water."

"We'll pay for it all," I promised.

We wouldn't. Between the three of us, we had nothing but ourselves.

The innkeeper’s wife clicked her tongue. "If you find yourselves short on money, I will gladly accept that coat of yours. The red one with the white fur collar? I would trade you for mine. It's warm."

"We won't find ourselves short." I turned and headed in the direction of the stairs while I gritted my teeth at the gall of her. I'd seen her coat. It was hardly thicker than a flimsy curtain, but since she'd helped heal Archer, I forced out, "Thanks for your hospitality."

"I'll come say a proper goodbye to Archer later," she called.

Sure. “Proper.” I gripped the stair banister tightly. No, she wouldn't, because we weren't leaving at daybreak. We were leaving right now, and we weren't heading south. We'd go east toward the first circle and see how far we made it. If more of Faust's men showed up at the inn asking questions, my lie might throw them off for a little while. The wind always blew northeast, so even with their wolf senses, they'd have a more difficult time picking up our trail, especially if we covered ourselves with leftover star anise. Since it seemed to be mostly males hunting us, if they couldn't even find the ruby caves, we could hide out there. If we made it. There was too much riding on that word—if.

Like Sasha. If anything happened to the three of us… My hand trembled as I opened the door to our room.

"We're ready when you are, Aika,” Archer said from the bed. “Grady tells me you did a fantastic job keeping the innkeeper and his wife distracted so he could raid the kitchen. Isn't that right, Grady?"

He grunted from the window. "Also got me a walking stick from outside. It's mine. If you want one, go find your own."

Ignoring him, I strode toward the bed where my coat lay and closed my eyes so I couldn’t see through Sasha. She was spinning in circles at the foot of the bed and giving her tail a good chase. I wanted to watch her and laugh, but not from up so close.

Archer snorted. "So thoughtful, this one. Did you only take enough food for yourself, too?"

"And Sasha," Grady muttered.

"He jokes. That's his version of joking. It needs work." Archer leaned over as I sat on the bed and pressed his lips to mine, making my heart jump toward him. "Are you ready?"

No, I thought as I shrugged into my coat. "Are you?"

He hadn't yet gotten up, though I had heard him dress earlier. But even through my thick coat, I felt the tremble in his hands as he buttoned it for me. It wasn't from fear, I suspected, but an onslaught of memories. How close we'd been to getting Ronin back. And how we'd failed. He blamed himself for losing her twice—once in Faust's torturous game of Catch, Kill, Release and the second time in Old Man's Den. We'd just missed the little wolf pup, the only one left of their pack other than Sasha. She'd been whisked away by one of Faust's men in the hopes that she'd lead them to the ruby caves in time for spring’s mating season.

I folded my hands over his to give him comfort, to give him hope. "We'll find her, Archer." Maybe Thomas, too, if he wanted to be found, but I didn’t say that.

"You're right." He slipped his hands over mine and gripped them tightly, almost painfully so. "We'll find your family, too, but not if we stay holed up here for the entire winter. We have to go."

"Can you?" I asked, my voice a whisper. "Can you even walk yet?"

Sighing, he leaned in and nuzzled my cheek. "Yes. I have the will anyway. There for a while, I just wasn't sure if it was worth getting out of bed. The guilt… It feels like it's eating me alive and ripping right through my soul."

His admission, given so freely, stole my breath. Even Grady turned to stare, his weighted gaze a hard pressure against my skin.

"And yet you smile and laugh your way through it." I smoothed my hands through Archer’s silky black hair, my chest cinching at how much inner strength he had after everything he'd been through. "Surely not for Grady's benefit."

 Archer chuckled, the sound reverberating into my stomach and sinking lower. "No, not for his. For mine. For yours. For Sasha's. Mostly for Sasha if I'm being honest. She deserves to have her sister back."

What these two wolf shifters wouldn't do for Sasha. I would do anything for her too. My arms felt empty when I wasn't holding her, and I could kiss the top of her velvety soft head right between the ears for the rest of my life and not complain.

I pressed my lips to his head with no complaints about kissing there either. "Then let's go get her."

He nodded, and I could feel his smile light the room.

I stood and stepped away slightly to give him space, and he pushed to his feet, a tall, steady pillar of strength.

He scooped Sasha into his arms. “I hope you’re ready for winter, Sasha girl.”

"Let's go," Grady muttered, limping across the room. "The sleigh's already by the back door."

We followed, me with my bow and quiver, and the four of us smelling of star anise. It was silly to think we could defeat winter easier than Faust's men, a fact that ripped the breath from my lungs as soon as Grady opened the back door. Wind and snow battered my face. Cold seeped into my thick coat within seconds and drilled into my bones. I threw my hood up, retrieved the wool gloves from pockets, and squeezed my eyes shut as Archer led me up onto the sleigh. Normally I tied my scarf around my eyes to prevent me from seeing through three wolves at once, but now I held it to my mouth, hoping it would help warm my heaving lungs.

Grady secured Sasha in her little box at the back of the sleigh, his movements jerking the sleigh and threatening to spill me off. Or maybe that was the wind. Archer tied the leather harness around my waist and tied it to the wooden rail while shouting something, but I couldn’t hear what. Then he must've shifted, because seconds later, we hurled forward.

The shock of the blustery cold air narrowed my windpipe to a mere sliver of what it had been. I couldn't breathe. Even with my scarf over my mouth, every one of my inhales were icicles, sharp and painful. Much too shallow as well because of the lingering pain in my ribs. My eyes popped open wide as panic burrowed deeper than the cold. A whited-out nothingness carried me forward as I bounced between my wolves' vision. The sound of their panting loosened my chest some. Vague outlines of the town of Margin sprang up out of the snowy void before whisking past. A steep hill angled down to Slipjoint Forest, and I held on to the crossbar with both gloved hands as we gained speed. The chill bit at my face even harder, narrowed my airway even more.

A loud crack whipped through the air. My feet wrenched out from underneath me, and suddenly I was airborne. The snowy ground charged up to meet my back. Hard. The breath I couldn't spare whooshed out, and I lay there, stunned.

Behind me, all around me, Sasha yipped then squealed, the sounds growing louder, then fainter. My heart stalled. Panic twisted my insides. What had happened?

"Sasha!" Archer shouted.

"The stream!" Grady yelled at the same time.

I formed a mental picture—and immediately wished I hadn't. We were on a hill. Sasha had somehow popped out of her box at the rear of the sleigh and had rolled past me…toward a stream. Likely frozen over. If she hit it just right and fell through.

Footsteps thundered away from me down the hill. I opened my mouth to force in air, but nothing was happening. My lungs were too frozen to function. I wanted to scream for help, but the wind would scatter it into a million pieces before freezing it too. I curled my fingers into the snow, raw, shrill terror surging through my body, and begged my lungs back to life. Tears burned my eyes. At least Sasha was too far away to see through. I couldn't bear witnessing her death if she drowned.

Choking noises clicked up the back of my throat. What if I died here too? What if this was the end for all of us, just barely out of Margin?

"Aika!"

Vision snapped into place. A splotch of red on the snow like so much blood, or a red fur coat. The figure’s back bowed up off the hill as they bucked and clawed and fought for breath. Me. That was me.

Hands grabbed my shoulders and roughly turned me to my side. A hard hit to my back triggered sweet, sweet air into my lungs again. I sucked it all down between wheezing and coughing.

“Breathe into your scarf,” Archer shouted, pulling my scarf over my mouth. “Slow and steady.”

When I could speak again, I choked out, "Sasha?"

A small wolf tongue licked my chin as Archer nestled her closer.

"She's scraped up, but okay."

I flipped to my back, relief coursing down my cheeks and then clinging there, completely frozen.

Grady threw something down to the snow. "The sleigh was rigged to fall apart. Faust's men did this. It's nothing but goddamn sticks and could've killed—"

He broke off, his stormy emotions giving the air an extra bite.

A gentle hand smoothed the hair from my face. "Are you all right?"

Before I could answer, a howl ran a warning chill down my back. It came from down the hill, across the stream, and within the depths of Slipjoint Forest. Others joined it, an eerie song splintering through the wind. A whole pack of wolves.

"Fuck." Archer started up the hill toward Margin with Sasha bouncing in his arms. “Come on!”

"Get up." Grady grabbed the front of my coat roughly and hauled me to my feet. "Run. As fast as you can.”

I tried, but with the wintery air once again blistering my lungs as I fought my way uphill, my effort wouldn't last long. Behind me, feet thundered through snow. Too many of them. The wolves were chasing us. Were gaining on us. I refused to slow down even though I couldn't breathe. They'd attacked me before. They'd do it again, especially now that we'd declared war against Faust.

Grady held tightly to my elbow as he practically dragged me behind him. With his long, powerful legs, he limped faster than I could run. The wolves sprinted faster than both of us, though.

We were headed back into Margin, but where would we go? They'd find us, just as they had before.

Archer shouted something from up ahead, and Grady banked us to the right, away from him and Sasha. We were separating, likely to separate the chasing wolves, but I hated that idea. Too many things could happen to them, and I might never see them again.

The ground levelled out beneath my feet. The buildings in Margin blocked some of the wind, but running only became harder. A stitch of pain formed in my side as we burst onto the main street. The wind and snow hurled into us from all sides, now unobstructed. Surely we weren’t heading back to the inn. That would be suicide.

Grady tore us across the street between more buildings. Feet trampled the snow behind us, moving even faster now. We'd never outrun them.

Something snagged at the hem of my coat with a snarl. My balance teetered, and my feet slid backwards. I started to go down, but Grady jerked me back up. A loud crack ripped through the air, followed by a pained wolf whine that stopped short when it struck a wall and fell to the snow.

Grady swung me around what felt like a heavy wooden door and shoved me inside. The smell of shit assaulted my nose, but I breathed it in deep lungfuls, thankful to be out of the blowing snow. Something pounced hard against the door just as Grady slammed it shut and secured it with what sounded like a wooden beam sliding into place. He turned me toward the back of the barn, crossed us swiftly toward the side, and then gripped both my hands and settled them on two vertical pieces of wood.

"Climb," he ordered.

I did, placing one foot above the other until there were no more steps. A loft, I imagined, with a lot of hay bales prickling my palms as I climbed up and over them. The smell and feel of the hay pinched my heart with memories of Hellbreath, but I locked that away for now.

More and more wolves hurled themselves at the door of the barn, the booms an echo of my thrashing heart. Facing that direction, I shrugged off my bow and nocked an arrow.

"Grady," I said between pants, loud so he'd hear me over the wolves' assault on the door. "Where's Archer and Sasha?"

"Safe," he said from below.

"How do you know that? Did you see where they went?"

A beat of hesitation and then, "No."

"But—"

"You don't know Archer like I do. He will do anything to protect Sasha. Anything."

"I do know that, but he was injured," I hissed.

"Injured or not, he's the strongest shifter I know."

I knew that too. He'd have to be to withstand all he had and to find the will to keep from crumbling into tiny pieces. He even found it in him to laugh and joke and make fun of Grady while maintaining the most beautiful spirit I'd ever known. It would crush me if anything happened to him or Sasha.

"I'm worried is all. I just want them to be—"

"I'm shifting now." Sure enough, four padded feet hit the ground below the ladder.

Why, did he think that would save him from the chore of speaking to me? Or to stop me from talking? I'd talk his ear off just to spite him, the bastard.

But as we stood off with the door, now quiet, and the howling winter beyond, the only things I wanted to say were questions. Why did he have to be so hurtful? Why take the time to slip his fingers inside of me and make me come apart in his hand while setting fire to my soul with his kiss if he didn't need me? What if he really didn't need me? All questions I wanted answers to, but I wasn't so sure I had the courage to hear the truth.

So I boiled with frustration while Grady paced underneath me, his limp noticeably better in his wolf state. He must've been too far away to share his vision with me, too far away in more ways than one.

We waited like this for what felt like hours, and eventually I set down my bow and arrow as exhaustion settled in. Night had probably fallen, peak time for wolves hunting their prey. I imagined them circling or holing up nearby with watchful eyes, biding their time. We couldn't stay in here forever. As I made a bed of hay and covered myself with more to keep warm, I realized we couldn't stay here at all. I was still freezing, even with my thick coat. My teeth chattered, and the rest of my bones seemed to rattle just as loudly. But I couldn't very well traipse outside and find someplace warmer.

Wherever Archer and Sasha were, I hoped they were more comfortable. And I hoped all of us survived the night.