Book 4: Across the River

Finn

Xandra wakes me in the morning by crawling out of the hollow in the tree to be noisily sick outside. My stomach churns. Empty. And I have no idea what is or isn’t safe to eat in this part of the world.

Worse, I don’t know if she was awake enough to realize how badly I responded to her last night. There’s no reason why. I would do anything for our baby. Keeping both of them safe is my highest priority. But curled up like that, her words sounded so nearly like a confession of love… my tongue just froze to the roof of my mouth.

I squeeze myself out of the trunk as she sits back on her heels, wiping her mouth. She looks at me. I look at her.

“There should only be another few hours of running before we reach the border,” she says.

Probably clever. I can smell other wolves in these woods, and now that we don’t have the protection of the tree, they’ll be on us before long.

I stretch my aching arm. “Do you want to ride again?”