Chapter 67: Blood in the Snow

The wind carried no scent of warning.

That was the first sign something was wrong.

I’d taken to checking every few steps—pausing, inhaling deeply, testing the wind for signs of prey or predator, damp or blood or fur. But the air was clean today. Too clean. As if the forest was holding its breath.

Talon slept against my chest, wrapped in layered furs and cradled tight beneath my coat. I hadn’t let him leave my body since the snow started falling harder—his warmth was my heartbeat now, and I couldn’t afford to be careless. Every instinct screamed for caution, but I had no den, no border, no pack to call home.

Only trees.

Only cold.

Only silence.

Until the snap of a twig broke it all apart.

I froze.

So did the forest.

One heartbeat. Two.

Then three more footfalls crunched through the snow.

I stepped back slowly, clutching Talon closer. My eyes scanned the tree line—left, then right—searching for movement, shadow, shape. My breath ghosted in the air. The moment stretched, thin and taut as a blade.

Then they stepped into view.

Five of them.

Male. Rogue. One older, thick through the chest with gray streaks in his beard. Two younger, lean and cocky, flanking him like wolves eager for their first taste of blood. The fourth hung back, sniffing the air like a dog. The fifth—tall, wiry, dark-eyed—watched me with an expression I couldn’t read.

I didn’t move.

Didn’t speak.

Not with Talon in my arms.

The leader stepped forward. “Didn’t think anyone else was mad enough to be out here.”

I didn’t answer.

He smiled. It was not a kind smile.

“Name’s Oren,” he said. “We saw your tracks.”

He took a step closer.

“Didn’t know we’d find a she-wolf with a pup.” His eyes flicked down to Talon, then back up. “That’s bold.”

“Back away,” I said.

The one behind him laughed. “She’s got fight. Good. Been a while since we hunted for something that bit back.”

I shifted my stance, bracing against the icy slope behind me. My fingers flexed beneath Talon’s cloak, touching the knife sheathed against my thigh.

“Keep walking,” I warned. “You don’t want this.”

The leader raised a brow. “No pack. No guards. Just you and a babe.”

“He’s not just a babe,” I said softly. “And I’m not alone.”

A shimmer sparked beneath my skin—my wolf rising.

Oren noticed it. His smile faded.

“Shift, and we’ll rip the pup apart,” one of the others sneered.

I stilled.

Every muscle in my body screamed to protect him. My breath turned to steam in the cold. My wolf’s fury boiled in my blood.

But they didn’t expect me to fight.

Not with a newborn.

Not as a mother.

And that—was their mistake.

“You shouldn’t have followed me,” I whispered.

Then I moved.

Knife in hand, I lunged forward before Oren could finish blinking. Steel flashed once—across his arm—then I spun, ducked beneath a wild swing from the younger one beside him, and slammed the hilt into his jaw.

He went down hard.

Talon never left my chest.

I dropped to a crouch, knees screaming in protest. The next rogue dove at me—fast, strong, but careless. I pivoted and buried the blade into the meat of his thigh. Blood sprayed. He screamed. I ripped the blade free and shoved him backward into the snow.

Oren growled, shifting.

I could see the wolf in him now—coiled, snarling, fast—but I was faster.

My wolf roared inside me.

Let me out. Let me out. Let me out.

“No,” I hissed. “Not yet.”

Another rogue charged.

I threw the knife.

It caught him in the shoulder.

He dropped.

Two down. One injured. Two still standing.

And then—

A scream.

Not mine.

The youngest had tried to circle behind me. I hadn’t seen him.

But my wolf had.

She exploded through my skin.

I didn’t shift fully.

Not yet.

But my limbs surged with inhuman speed. My eyes burned gold. My fingernails ripped into claws as I turned and caught the boy’s throat in one hand and slammed him into a tree so hard bark exploded behind his skull.

He didn’t rise again.

The last two froze.

One limped, clutching his bleeding leg.

The other—the dark-eyed one who hadn’t spoken—just stared.

“What are you?” he whispered.

I bared my teeth.

“Run,” I growled.

He didn’t need telling twice.

He dragged the injured one to his feet and disappeared into the woods.

The clearing fell silent again.

Only my breath.

Only the soft, stunned sound of Talon waking against my chest.

I dropped to one knee.

The dead rogue lay at my feet.

Another groaned nearby, clutching his thigh.

I looked down at my hands.

They were soaked in blood.

My pulse roared.

“You killed him,” my wolf whispered. Not proud. Not mocking. Just truth. “You protected the pup.”

Talon let out a little cry, rubbing his face against the cloth wrap. I pulled him free of the bundle and held him close, rocking on my knees.

“It wasn’t supposed to happen like that,” I whispered.

But it was.

Because this was the wild now.

There was no law here.

No mercy.

Only survival.

And I had survived.

But the shaking didn’t stop.

The dead man’s blood soaked the snow. I could still see the look in his eyes—the disbelief. The final question.

How?

I’d moved like a weapon.

Like something born for death.

Kael would’ve—

No. I couldn’t think that.

Not now.

Talon whimpered again, louder this time. I kissed his cheek, stood, and walked to the edge of the clearing.

One body.

One injured.

Three gone.

It wouldn’t be the last time.

And I would have to be ready.

“You felt it,” I whispered to my wolf. “The strength. The shift.”

We are changing, she said. We are becoming what the wild demands.

“Do you hate me for it?”

She was quiet.

Then: Never.

You’re mine.

I watched the forest, my arms tight around Talon.

I was no longer a Luna.

No longer just a mother.

I was something else now.

Something brutal.

Something alive.

And the forest knew it.

Because nothing dared move again.