Chapter 3

"If our guards won't come, we send for aid from the Shadow Pack."

I was the one who said it. My voice wasn't loud, but it carried far in that cavern.

It was the only option.

One of the she-wolves raised her head, and for the first time, something other than despair moved behind her eyes.

Sophia was on her feet immediately. "I'll go—"

Her voice cut off.

Because in the instant she stood, her leg buckled. She nearly went down. A nearby she-wolf caught her just in time.

That was when everyone noticed the faint irregularity in how she had been walking — a slight outward tilt in her right leg.

"What happened to your leg?" someone asked.

Sophia waved it off. "Nothing. Just a fall. I'll walk it out."

Norman's mate didn't believe her. She stepped forward and crouched down, rolling up Sophia's trouser leg.

The entire cavern inhaled sharply at once.

Both shins were swollen — bloated like dough about to burst its skin. The ankle of the right leg was mottled purple and black, clearly a severe injury. Someone carefully lifted the back of her shirt to check — a long gash ran from her right shoulder to her flank, opened by a branch, already seeping dark blood at the edges, the skin around it beginning to redden.

She had taken a bad fall on the forest trail.

A very bad one.

And she hadn't said a word.

"You…" An older she-wolf's voice thickened. "How did you *get* back?"

"I walked," Sophia said. Her expression was placid, as though she were describing something that had happened to a stranger. "It's nothing. I can still walk."

She tried to push herself up again.

I held her down.

"You're not going," I said. "I am."

Voices erupted from all directions — I was pregnant, the mountain trail was too dangerous, the Shadow Pack was too far, there wouldn't be time—

I had already stopped listening.

Of all the wolves remaining, I was the fastest.

And right now, time was life.

The Moonlight Pack and the Shadow Pack had long been allies.

Shadow Pack's Alpha, Gabriel, was known for his fairness and his firm hand. His beta guards were the most well-trained unit in these mountains.

If I could bring them here, there might still be a way out of this.

I shifted in an instant.

A she-wolf reached out to stop me. "Ella, your body—"

"I know," I said, meeting her eyes. "I'll be careful."

Norman caught up to me. He held my gaze. There was a great deal in his expression — helplessness, guilt, and something deep and ineffable that only an elder who had lived long enough could carry.

"Ella," he said. "Two hours. Bring the rescue back within two hours. The wall won't last much longer."

I gave a firm nod and plunged into the mountain trail.

The wind surged up to meet me, carrying pine resin and wet earth, and from somewhere beyond, the iron tang that made every hair on my body stand on end.

I lowered my body and drove with my legs, letting my speed strip every thought from my mind.

The pups in the cavern. Sophia sitting in silence with her swollen legs. Norman's shoulders, still squared under the full weight of what he was carrying—

Two hours.

It would be enough.