Taylor woke to the baby crying. Hours of interrupted sleep made her particularly groggy as she aided him in latching onto a nipple. Although she was accustomed to feeding a much larger pup, Shadow was far better at emptying her breasts than the new pup which meant that they were bordering on engorged and terribly sore.

Her mouth was bone dry from the frequent nursing, and probably from all the crying she’d done. Hale was gone, but he had left water and a bowl of walnuts by the bed. Taylor guzzled down the water and then emptied the bowl a moment later, feeling a rush of gratitude towards her absent mate.

For once, Henry didn’t fall asleep when he finished nursing. His golden eyes were wide and alert, his gaze alternating between Taylor and the dimly lit room. After making a few silly faces at him and planting kisses on his too-soft skin, Taylor changed him into the last clean linen. She noticed that the other dirty linens had been spirited away, which told her that Sarah or one of the females must have come in while she’d been sleeping. Hale had many strong suits, but diapering was not one of them. In the months before the pups were housebroken, he had never once handled a diaper.

Once Henry was clean, she managed to tuck him comfortably into her shirt, needing only one arm to keep him properly supported. He burbled contentedly as she left to head down the tunnel, in search of either Shadow or Hale.

Without noticing it, she passed by the washroom. A second later, she came to a stop as she heard Sarah call out to her.

“Shadow is playing outside. Don’t worry! My daughter Carina is watching him and she’s very responsible.”

Taylor stepped back a few paces and peeked around the narrow entrance to the room. There were no candles, only two large, bright lanterns that illuminated every corner of the cavern which was higher than it was wide, and very drafty. Two tin tubs were against the wall and clothing was strung on at least a dozen lines that ran in every direction.

“Wow, you read my mind,” Taylor remarked.

Sarah was bent over one of the tins, wringing the water from a tiny pair of pants.

“Mom vision. I saw you with the eyes in the back of my head. You had the where-the-heck-is-my-kid look. I’m quite familiar with that one. How’s the little one doing?”

Taylor hadn’t wanted to get sucked into a conversation, but she didn’t want to be rude. She stepped into the room, weaving around dripping clothes to get to where Sarah was standing.

“He’s doing well. He seems to be getting enough to eat. Still waiting for him to poop.”

“I’m sure he will any time now. I’ll bring you some clean diapers as soon as I’m done in here.”

Sarah dried her hands and then moved to get a closer look at Henry. While she cooed over him, Taylor looked around at all the laundry and wondered if Sarah had cleaned it all on her own. Not since the earliest days of her pregnancy had Alder or Hale allowed her to do her own laundry. Even most of the household chores were divided between Quinn and Lark, the latter of which usually just stood around and chatted while Quinn did most of the work. Taylor had protested in the beginning, but around the time the twins had been born, she’d given up and allowed herself to become accustomed to the pampering.

“I can never get over how tiny they are at this age,” Sarah whispered. “Carina was my first. She was even littler than him, and then one day, blam! She was out hunting hogs with her dad. They grow up so fast. Good thing is, there’s always a new one.”

She gave Taylor a sad smile. Taylor thought she was going to resume lamenting her menopause, but instead, she said, “I’m sorry. I really appreciate you nursing this little guy. I know it will probably mean that you’ll have to wait longer until you can get pregnant again.”

“It’s okay. Actually, I’m kind of glad. I wasn’t ready for another yet.”

Sarah’s brows shot up. “Oh. Sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed.”

“No, it’s really okay.” She hesitated, and then said, “Earlier, you mentioned that you hadn’t planned on having children, or at least, being Cain’s mate wasn’t part of your plan. Can I ask, how did it change for you? How did you go from not wanting kids, to…?”

Taylor glanced around at the fantastic display of laundry. Sarah gave her a sheepish grin.

“It’s hard to say. Once I got over the initial shock of being pregnant, and then the subsequent terror of it, I fell in love with it. As soon as Carina was born, I was already excited to have another. Cain wanted to wait. Back then, we had Caim, Snow, Lotus, and Sable…” She paused, blinking back tears. “There was a lot going on. A bunch of fringe towns sprang up in the east and it pushed a lot of packs around. For a few years, we were always on the move, always fighting for every inch of territory. It wasn’t a good time for another baby, and we went back and forth on the issue. To be honest, I think Cain just got tired of resisting me. After the next one, we just stopped waiting. It wasn’t always easy, but we managed.”

“Weren’t you worried, though?”

“Sure, all the time. But that’s just being a parent. In the end, I just had to have faith that if things went badly, Cain and I would get through it together. May I?”

Sarah motioned towards the pup.

Taylor was quick to extract him from her shirt though it already felt weird handing him over. She really did get attached too easily.

As soon as Taylor deposited him into Sarah’s arms, he began to cry. To Taylor’s relief, Sarah didn’t seem offended, but in fact, pleased.

“Oh, listen to you,” she said, giving him a little bounce. “You already know who’s got the food, don’t you? Smart, little baby.”

After another moment, she handed him back to Taylor, who eagerly tucked him back into her shirt. He was quick to seek out a nipple, sucking on it lazily as she rubbed his back.

Sarah asked, “What did Hale say?”

“I won’t quote him,” Taylor said. “But he’s okay with us taking Henry in. Any chance you know where he is?”

Sarah frowned. “Not really. I know he left the den with Cain a few hours back. Cain said they might not be home until tomorrow morning. He was being very dodgy with my questions, so I think there could be some trouble afoot. You might be stuck here for a few more days.”

“That’s okay,” Taylor said, lying through her teeth. She liked Sarah’s den well enough, and it was definitely nice to spend time with a fellow human, but God if she didn’t miss Alder and Fawn like crazy. However long they had to stay, she’d be counting the hours until her family was whole again.

* * *

Hale stood beside his brother, observing the felled tree, their faces sporting identical expressions of confusion and concern.

What could have done this?

True to his word, Cain had woken Hale in the middle of the night, quietly urging him from the room. Hale had been more tired than he’d realized, and it hadn’t been until they were out in the cold night air that he’d shaken off the last vestiges of sleep. From then, they had traveled east in their wolf forms, picking up the dead wolf along the way. He and Cain took turns pulling the corpse on a makeshift sled, though Hale would haul it whenever they were going uphill, which was often. Yewen’s den was on the other side of the eastern mountain. Compared to the Halcyon and Whiteriver mountains, it was really more of a tall hill and they were on Yewen’s side by midday.

No wolves came to confront them, which was the first sign that something was wrong. Wolf shifters were highly territorial and the presence of intruders would not have gone unnoticed. According to Cain, Yewen’s wolves were particularly prone to accosting trespassers and demanding tribute to use the mountain pass.

As they descended the mountainside, Hale noticed the sour scent of decay on the breeze. It could have been an animal carcass, but the smell never abated and only intensified the farther down they went.

The fresh snow was undisturbed at the foot of the mountain, but several large trees had been uprooted. This was strange because very little wind had accompanied the last few snowfalls. But what was truly bizarre were the markings on the trees. Gouges that looked like claw marks, but were as wide as Hale’s biceps.

“Did Yewen do this?” Hale asked.

Cain was scratching his beard. “I don’t smell him here.”

Hale considered the markings for another moment and then said, “They must have been carved with some sort of tool. I’d bet it’s an intimidation tactic. This is probably how those rumors of the giant wolf were started.”

As Hale spoke, Cain began walking away in the direction of the river. Hale followed him, abandoning the sled as he caught sight of what his brother had noticed.

Bodies. Or rather, parts of bodies. They had gotten caught at a rocky patch of the riverbed, a cluster of waterlogged limbs and severed heads. They counted four heads in total, but there were only enough limbs to make up two bodies. If they’d cared to take the time, they might have been able to piece them together by scent, but what was the point?

Not his pack, not his problem.

“This is a good thing,” Hale announced after a few minutes. “If these are just the ones we’ve found so far, then I’d say Yewen has a bigger problem on his hands than the one wolf that floated downstream to your territory. I doubt he’ll be missing this guy.”

Cain didn’t seem convinced by his logic.

“I recognize that one,” Cain said, pointing at one of the heads. “It is—was one of his betas.”

If one of the betas could be out there, at least two days in the water with no effort to recover his body, then Yewen’s pack was most definitely in terrible shape. Hale didn’t know enough about the situation to guess what could have happened, but his gut told him that he needed to return to Taylor and Shadow.

“We should head back and check in with your pack,” Hale said.

“We’ve come this far,” Cain said. “Yewen’s den is an hour out. Go back if you must, but I need to find out what happened here.”

Stubborn bastard.

Hale pressed on with his brother though every instinct he had protested the move. Only a few years ago, he would have reveled in investigating the macabre scene and finding the wolves that were responsible. He might still have, had he known that his mate and pup were back in Halcyon territory and under Alder’s watchful eyes.

The only consolation he had was that Cain agreed to leave the body behind. There was no use in dragging it any farther. They walked in human form, conserving their energy in case they needed to flee or defend themselves.

The walk to the den was not uneventful. They found five more bodies along the way, all of them in a similar state as the first wolf they’d found. During his time defending Shaderunner, and then securing Halcyon territory, Hale had seen plenty of brutalities. Much of it, he had actively participated in. Only one of the deaths caught him off-guard. It was a large, gray wolf the size of Glenn, ripped clean in half, his upper body crushed flat. It stuck in his mind, not because of the grotesqueness, but because no matter how many scenarios he pictured, he couldn’t imagine how the body had ended up in that state.

He was still puzzling over the wolf when Cain came to a stop, holding his arm out to halt Hale.

“Yewen’s den is just past those trees,” he said, his voice low and his face grave.

The surrounding forest was silent.

Hale had a sense of what they would find past the trees but the reality of it was still somewhat jarring. The entrance to the den was blanketed in untrodden snow. There was no massacre, only three bodies, each strung on its own branch of a tall oak. All three had been disemboweled, their fetid insides hanging from their split midsections. The way they dangled from the tree, Hale was reminded of the ornaments Taylor had been hanging the night they’d left Halcyon.

“Yewen,” Cain said, pointing to the wolf on the highest branch. “And his other two betas.”

Hale was impressed that he could tell them apart. The bodies weren’t quite as well-preserved as the ones they’d found in the snow, and all the faces had been badly beaten.

Cain started towards the den, but Hale grabbed him by the arm.

“Don’t.”

Cain shook him off. “Last I heard, he’d taken a mate and was expecting a pup. She could be in there.”

Hale shook his head. “Listen. Smell. There’s nothing but bad in there, Cain. We need to get back to our own mates.”