Chapter 74: Blood in the Snow

The next day the wind shifted.

I felt it before I heard anything—my wolf bristling beneath my skin, instincts rising fast and sharp. I sat up straighter on the furs, heart drumming. Talon was still curled against me, warm and unaware. Mira and Ria lay huddled nearby, Mira murmuring something in sleep.

The fire had nearly died.

The barn was too quiet.

Fenn hadn’t returned.

I rose slowly, easing Talon onto the bedroll. I grabbed my blade and crossed to the barn door, pressing my shoulder to the frame as I listened.

Then I smelled them.

Wolves. Too clean. Too trained. Too familiar.

Nightfall.

The scent of pine and iron, leather and authority.

My stomach turned.

I backed away from the door just as the first voice rang out from beyond the trees.

“Lyra Fenwyn. By command of Alpha Coren Darius, you are to surrender yourself and the rogue-born pup.”

My hands tightened on the hilt of the blade.

Another voice, deeper, sneering: “Come quietly, and we won’t drag you out by your throat.”

I stepped back further, fast, and turned to Mira. “Wake up. Take Ria and stay behind that trough.”

She blinked, dazed. “What’s happening—”

“Now.”

She obeyed, clutching her daughter as they disappeared into the shadows near the far corner of the barn.

I crossed to Talon and kissed the crown of his head. My wolf whined low in my chest. I pressed my blade to my thigh, eyes burning.

Another voice, now closer.

“We tracked you for weeks. You really thought you could just vanish? Take what doesn’t belong to you?”

I stepped into the open space just inside the barn’s entrance.

“I didn’t vanish,” I said, loud and clear. “You buried me. There’s a difference.”

A flicker of movement at the doorway.

Then four shapes emerged from the dark—three men, one woman. All in faded Nightfall leathers, the old crest still stitched to their chests. The leader, tall and broad with rust-colored hair, stepped forward, blade already drawn.

“Your son carries the Alpha bloodline,” he said. “He’s a threat to Coren’s claim.”

“Coren’s claim is forged.”

“We’ll let the High Council decide that.”

“You mean the same council that exiled a grieving Luna in the middle of a snowstorm? No thanks.”

He tilted his head. “We don’t want you, Lyra. Just the boy.”

The fire in my belly exploded.

“You think you can take him?” My voice trembled with fury. “Over my dead body.”

“That was the idea,” the female scout muttered.

I didn’t wait.

I lunged, blade flashing.

Steel met steel with a brutal clang. I ducked under the first swing and slashed low, catching the red-haired scout across the thigh. He shouted and fell back, giving me just enough time to pivot and block the second attacker.

Pain ripped down my arm as a blade grazed my shoulder—hot, wet. I didn’t stop. I turned into the movement, elbowed him hard in the throat, and drove my knee into his gut.

The woman came next. Fast. Too fast.

She caught me in the ribs with the hilt of her knife, and I hit the dirt hard, breath bursting from my lungs.

The third man circled, slow and ready.

“Thought you were a Luna,” he sneered. “You fight like a rogue.”

“I am a rogue,” I snarled, spitting blood.

Then I shifted.

Not fully. Just enough.

My claws tore through my fingertips. My vision sharpened, burning silver. My teeth lengthened as I leapt to my feet with a guttural snarl and drove my claws into his side.

He screamed.

The woman tackled me from behind. We rolled across the floor in a tangle of limbs and rage, smashing into crates and splinters. I threw her off, but not before she raked her blade across my back. Heat flared—hot and sharp and deep.

I staggered.

She lunged again.

Fenn arrived like a storm.

He tackled her mid-air, slamming her into the stone wall with a crack that echoed like a snapped tree. She crumpled.

I turned—barely.

The red-haired scout was back on his feet.

His blade sank into my side before I could dodge.

I screamed.

Talon cried out. My wolf howled inside me—wild, writhing, blind with pain.

I lashed out, clawing his face, and he fell away cursing, blood pouring from his cheek.

Fenn roared, drove his blade through the man’s shoulder, then kicked him into the dirt. “You touch her again, and you die.”

The last man bolted for the trees.

Fenn started after him, but I grabbed his wrist. “No. Don’t leave me.”

He spun to face me—and his eyes went wide.

Blood poured down my side.

I couldn’t feel my arm.

The world tilted.

I dropped to my knees.

Fenn caught me before I hit the ground.

“Shit—shit, Lyra, stay with me—”

Mira rushed forward, clutching Talon. “They’re gone?”

“Yes,” Fenn snapped. “But we need to move. She’s losing too much—”

Talon reached for me, whimpering.

I cupped his cheek with a trembling hand. “I’m okay, baby. I’m okay…”

But I wasn’t.

Fenn wrapped his cloak around me, pressing it to the wound. “We can’t stay. They’ll send more. This was a scout team. They’ll expect a signal.”

I blinked up at him. His voice blurred at the edges. My chest was tight. My wolf was trying to hold me upright, but even she felt far away.

“Where?” I whispered.

He looked down at me. “There’s one place left.”

His jaw clenched. “Iron Hollow.”

The name rang like a bell in my chest.

“I don’t have a choice,” he said. “You won’t survive another night here. Not like this.”

He lifted me carefully, cradling me to his chest. My blood soaked through his shirt, and I felt the tremble in his arms.

“You’ll be safe there,” he murmured. “Or as safe as a wolf like you can be.”

I let my head fall against his shoulder.

Not because I trusted Iron Hollow.

Not because I believed in safety.

But because I had no other choice.

And because Talon needed me alive.

The barn faded behind us.

And the road to Roran Vale began.