I could barely sleep, but I dozed for long enough that I felt energetic and wild-eyed when I woke a few hours later. Rafe and Luke were both fast asleep on either side of me and I reached over to touch Luke, brushing a strand of hair away from his face. He looked so peaceful when he was asleep and I didn’t want to wake either of them, but to my surprise, as I went to climb from the bed, Luke reached out for me, mumbling something in his sleep and brushing his fingertips against my body. That was almost enough to get me to stay – I could almost convince myself it was a sign and that I shouldn’t go anywhere, that I should stay with these men who I adored so deeply and who seemed so committed to protecting me. But I knew I had to get out of there. I couldn’t, in good faith, put them in danger after everything they’d done for me.

Anton had mentioned a snowmobile the night before, and I had spotted a large set of keys dangling from a hook near the door. I quickly gathered a few clothes from where some were drying on hooks, stuffing them in a bag I had left out for the occasion. I knew they would be furious when they woke and found me gone and it pained me to leave, but I had to. They didn’t know what these clans were capable of, of the kind of havoc they would wreak on their lives if they got the chance.

I had no idea where the snowmobile was, but when I found the keys I drew them to my nose and inhaled deeply, hoping I might be able to catch the scent. Sure enough, when I closed my eyes and focused in, I could pick out something, the bright, lit-up smell of what I needed. It was dark in the cabin and I wanted to go to Ethan and Anton too, to wish them goodbye, but I knew I couldn’t risk it. I had to get out of there and fast, before I lost my nerve.

Hooking the bag over my shoulder, I walked out into the snow, past the small pile of clothes that Luke, Rafe and I had left out there the night before. I knew I could have left there on foot, that I likely should have left them the snowmobile, but I wasn’t an idiot. It was the only thing that might get me somewhere else fast enough that the cold wouldn’t kill me – not to mention the bears, and the wolves, and the other shifters out in this place. And it was about the only thing I could think of that might get me far enough away from the Robicheaux brothers that I wouldn’t be tempted to turn back.

I hurried towards the source of the scent, and found a large vehicle covered with a tarp; I whipped it off, fumbled the keys with my cold fingers, and pushed them into the ignition. It started up with a deep, low rumble and I hopped on at once. I hadn’t driven one of these things before, but I knew that if I hung around for much longer, one of them would be woken by the noise and would come out to investigate what the hell was going on.

I grabbed the handle, testing it, and the engine roared beneath me. I twisted it into action, and the snowmobile shot forward beneath me, practically throwing me into the snow. I tried again, slower this time, and had more luck, the vehicle moving quickly but smoothly across the snow. I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to ignore the deep twist in my heart as it really sunk in that I was leaving them behind, and pulled away from the cabin as fast as I could control. I needed out of here. Long gone from here. I needed to put so much space between us that they wouldn’t come looking for me – another benefit of the snowmobile was that the fuel and smoke would throw a different scent onto the snow, obscuring my own a little, making it harder for them to track me. Because I knew they would try.

The snowmobile tore through the forest and I did my best to control it; it was slender and sleek but in between the tightly-packed trees it felt bulky. But I was glad to have something to focus on, something that wasn’t the thrumming pain burning through my system at having left the Robicheaux brothers behind. Should I have stayed? They would have let me, but that didn’t mean that it was a good idea. I knew that they would have stood by me no matter what, and that was why I had to remove myself from the situation. They didn’t know – couldn’t know – the danger they were putting themselves in by keeping me around. I wasn’t going to be responsible for one or more of them getting hurt – or worse.

I realized that there were tears pouring down my face, icy-cold in the freezing air of the early morning. I couldn’t believe I was actually doing this. Out of nowhere, the memory of that book I had been reading the day before, the one that I would never finish, stuck in my mind, ugly and stark, and I had to force myself to keep my eyes on the space in front of me and not to crash. I needed to keep going. I just needed to keep going.

I wasn’t sure how long I was on that snowmobile because I came back to reality. Time seemed to drop away around me until I couldn’t focus on anything but the movement of the trees whipping past me and the crisp, clean snow in front of me – there had been another fall while I was asleep and any footprints or indicators of life had been wiped away by it. I wasn’t quite sure where I was going yet, but they had told me there was a town not far from here – maybe one that neither of the packs frequented, somewhere I could hide out and start a new life. I knew neither the Kellums or the MacLarens would conduct their feud on human turf, after all.

Suddenly, I scented something nearby. My head snapped up and I let the snowmobile roll to a halt. The last thing I needed was to crash and draw even more attention to myself. I didn’t get off the vehicle, peering around in the sallow half-light of the dawn and trying to figure out what had caught me. The scent of the fumes from the snowmobile slowly drifted away into the air and cleared, and I tried to center in on what it was that had drawn my attention. And then, it hit me.

Shifters.

I knew that smell anywhere. And I knew without a doubt that these were not shifters out to help me – no, that thick, heavy smell, like matted fur, was firmly a MacLarens trait. They were here. Close. Close enough that I could already smell them. I looked around fearfully, half-expecting one of them to reveal themselves from the black cover of trees about me, but there was nothing. I swung one leg off the snowmobile, knowing I was courting trouble but needing to check, and peered into the darkness. And that’s when I saw it.

Two eyes, glowing yellow, peering out of the undergrowth at me. My heart stopped, my frigid fingers turning solid with panic. Fuck. Fuck.

I hurriedly swung my leg back over the snowmobile, grabbing for the ignition and shooting it off into high. I knew I was asking for trouble, moving this quickly with the trees this close together, but I needed to put as much space between me and them as I could. I had to lead them away from the cabin. God knows, if any of the guys had woken up and realized that I was gone – they might already be out looking for me, and if they had tracked my scent this far…

The snowmobile whipped across the snow and I glanced over my shoulder to see that four wolves were flanking me – I had no idea how they were able to keep pace with the snowmobile, but they were. They were likely trained for this kind of shit, to hunt, to kill. We passed through a patch of light and the glimmering morning sun glinted off their teeth. I turned to focus on the path in front of me. If I crashed this thing, I couldn’t be sure it would finish me quickly, and if they got their teeth into me…

My mind was racing as I steered the vehicle as carefully as I could through the trees, pushing up the speed with every chance I got. I needed to lose them, or at least lead them far away from here. How had they found me? I glanced around again and saw that two more wolves had joined the attack. Where the fuck had they come from? Had they been waiting in the bushes for me to flee?

My heart pounded hard as I tried to figure out what to do. The adrenalin was so heavy in my head that I was having trouble thinking straight. More than anything, I wanted to throw myself from the vehicle, shift, and run off into the woods. It was tempting as hell, my natural state my wolf form. I considered it for a moment, what would happen if I slammed this thing into a tree and tossed myself from the wreckage – I might heal quickly enough to get away, to put some space between me and the pack pursuing me. But I would have to leave my pack behind and I wasn’t sure how long I’d last out here without it. Not to mention, it would be way easier to track me if I was in my wolf form, without the thick smell of the fuel to cloud my scent. And that was if I could even outrun them, which I wasn’t sure I could. They were trained for this, for the hunt, and I was weak and slow in comparison to them.

The trees suddenly became denser and I had to lower my speed – I would have crashed otherwise, but the wolves behind me gained, the two in front so close to me that I could hear them panting. I didn’t look around, but I didn’t have to. Their scents were heavy in my nose, thick and choking, the threat of them, the promise, bearing down on me. Their paws were quick and fast in the snow around me, and I glanced down to see one of them snapping up at me hungrily. I looked forward, maneuvering through the trees as best I could. I wasn’t exactly skilled with this thing, and if they got hold of one of the skis that let it glide across the ground with such speed, I was fucked. My fingers were frozen, frigid to the handlebars. I couldn’t have moved them even if I wanted to.

How had they found me? Either they had tracked my scent after we left the day before and were coming to hunt me down, or they were planning some kind of sneak attack and had just run into me on the way there. I wondered if they knew who I was. Maybe they were just looking to clear the place of any witnesses. Maybe they just wanted to get a taste for blood before they got rid of the brothers. Either thought was enough to make my stomach turn. They could have pounced on us all in our beds and torn us to shreds without a second thought. And they would have done it, too, if they thought they could get away with it, and all because the four males back in that cabin wouldn’t instantly roll over and take what they were offering.

It felt as though the snowmobile had dropped to an almost painful crawl below me as I slowed to make my way in and out of the trees, ducking here and there to make sure that I didn’t get clubbed in the face by branches as I went. I snuck a look over my shoulder once more – they were catching on me, the two wolves at the back closer than they had been before. They looked like they were in formation. Like they had planned this. I knew if I didn’t gain some distance soon they would take me.

Suddenly, a glimmer of light caught my eye and I turned my attention forward – up ahead there was a break in the trees, the bright white snow shining pure through the gaps in the branches. I turned the snowmobile to the right, shifting to head in that direction, and jacked up the speed once more. Either I would be out onto open terrain again and could finally get this thing seriously moving, or I would-

Before I had a chance to think about the other possibilities, I burst out of the forest and into the crisp, clear white of open ground. I felt my heart leap. Finally. I sped forward, moving faster, letting the engine roar and tremble through my bones. My pulse picked up. I could do this. I might actually be able to outrun them.

I turned to see, to my surprise, that all six of them had come to a sudden halt just outside the forest. I furrowed my brow. Why weren’t they chasing me? They didn’t seem like the types who would give up easy. I pushed the engine up another notch – and heard a loud crack. And, with a sinking sensation, I realized why they weren’t chasing me.

I let the engine die at once, bringing the snowmobile to a halt and peering around. I was on top of a frozen-out lake, the entire thing solid as far as I could see. But not solid enough to keep a snowmobile afloat. I watched with horror as a long crack darted from beneath the vehicle towards the shore, and felt a lurch beneath me – I wasn’t sure if it was my stomach or the snowmobile, but I had no intention of waiting to find out.

I moved slowly, desperate to run but knowing that I would only send this thing under the water faster if I went quickly. I had all but forgotten about the wolves eyeing me from next to the forest – until I heard a sudden howl, the noise reverberating the air around me. My head snapped up and I saw them, charging towards me, skittering slightly as their claws hit the ice. What were they doing? And then I realized. The crack spread as soon as they hit the ice, the ground shifting out as they added their weight to the mix. They knew precisely what they were doing. The snowmobile lurched once more and I had to scramble to get off of it. Shore was a dozen feet away, and I could make it if I just-

I slipped, my chin meeting the ice with an agonizing crack that was instantly numbed by the freezing cold against my skin. I heard a deep, ugly snapping sound, and the ice split in two, swallowing the snowmobile as I looked on helplessly. And before I could get back to my feet and run for the shore, it spread, engulfing me whole and dragging me down into the unthinkably cold water below.

The panic that had been keeping me moving seemed to drop away as soon as I slipped below the water; I made a vague attempt to claw my way back up to the ice but my body was heavy and my limbs frozen stiff. I could hear the scratching of the claws of the pack who had been chasing me. They were retreating. Where were they going? Probably to the cabin, to those men – the men I had left behind, the ones I had likely led that pack straight to. As the coldness seeped deep into my bones and I felt the frigid wet blackness consume me, I tilted my head back to look at the brightness of the morning light pouring through the hole in the ice. I reached up towards it, impotently, one last time. And the only thing I could think of was that I wouldn’t get to warn them of the nightmare headed in their direction. I closed my eyes, let my hands droop down to my sides, and allowed the blackness to overtake me.

If only I could have warned them…Jesus, if only I could have warned them.