Chapter five

The forest went on forever.

My wolf stumbled again and again, starved and half-broken, but the fear of being caught kept driving me forward. By now they'd have found the empty cell. By now Corvain would know his purchase had run.

Just reach Hilda. Just make it that far. I kept repeating to myself.

Dawn was breaking as I crossed the lake that marked the border between the packs. Relief hit me so hard my legs finally gave out. I collapsed on the far bank, and no matter how I willed them, my limbs wouldn't move.

So this is how I die, I thought as the pain won and the world went black.

I woke slowly, swimming up through layers of ache into softness. Clean sheets. Bandages. The smell of antiseptic and healing herbs.

I cracked my eyes open. A figure paced beside the bed, fierce and familiar, and something in my chest loosened for the first time in days.

"Hilda?" My voice came out a croak.

She spun around, and her fear melted into relief. "Merliya. Oh, thank the Goddess." She was at my side in a breath, taking my bandaged hand with careful fingers. "How do you feel?"

"Not great."

"What were you thinking, running like that? If the border patrol hadn't found you when they did, if I hadn't been the healer on call—" Her words tumbled over each other. "You nearly died at my doorstep."

The tears I'd held so long finally spilled. "I couldn't stay, Hilda. They were going to sell me. Everyone hated me. No one believed I was innocent, and I just—I couldn't—"

"Shh. You're safe now." She smoothed the hair back from my face. "You're in my house. Outside Silverpine. This is the Alpha King's territory now."

I blinked. "Alpha King?"

"Right. You've been buried in that pack, you wouldn't have heard." She sank into the chair beside the bed. "The major packs came together and elected a king. Someone to settle disputes, enforce law, keep the peace. His lands are neutral ground. And he has strict rules about how Alphas treat their people." Her jaw tightened. "What Alpha Dayn did to you crossed every one of them."

"So he wouldn't send me back?"

"I don't think he could, in good conscience." She squeezed my hand. "You're safe, Merliya. You're going to stay here with me, and we'll figure the rest out together. I promise."

I wanted to believe her so badly it hurt.

But a small voice at the back of my mind whispered that safety was a lie. That nowhere was safe for a girl the whole world had already decided to destroy.

Still. For now, I let myself rest.

The next days passed in a blur of healing. My ribs knit slowly. The gashes closed. The bruises faded from purple to sickly yellow. The wounds inside would take far longer.

Hilda never pushed. She brought food, changed bandages, sat with me when the nightmares came. On the third day, over tea in her small kitchen, she finally asked the question I'd been dreading.

"Merliya. Did you do it? Did you kill your family?"

It shouldn't have hurt. It did anyway. "No. I didn't."

"I didn't think so." She reached across the table. "I've known you since we were pups. You couldn't."

Tears burned. "Everyone else is sure I could."

"Everyone else is wrong." Her grip tightened. "What really happened?"

I opened my mouth to tell her everything. The fight. The woods. Ken's voice on the phone. *It's done. Made it look like an accident.* But the words jammed in my throat, too raw to touch.

"I can't. Not yet." I pulled my hand back. "It's still too much."

Hurt flickered over her face, quickly hidden. "Okay. I understand."

"I'll tell you," I promised. "One day, when I can say it without falling apart. I just need to heal first."

"Take all the time you need."

By week's end I was moving on my own, the pain dulled to a background ache. But I was restless. Trapped inside her walls, afraid to step outside in case a face from Silverpine or one of Corvain's hunters found me.

"You can't hide forever," Hilda said one evening, watching me pace. "You need to live a little. Even just for one night."

"What if someone recognizes me?"

"We're in the Alpha King's territory. No one here knows a thing about Silverpine." She pulled a black dress from her closet. "One night. Some music, some drinks. Let yourself feel like a person again."

Part of me wanted to refuse, to stay hidden until I rotted. But another part, the stubborn ember that had climbed out of a dungeon window, was starving to feel alive.

"Okay," I heard myself say. "Let's go."