Chapter 22: Morwen's POV: Silver

Morwen's POV

I woke with fire in my veins and my daughter's scent in my nose.

The drug was still in my blood.

My wolf burned it out of me in under two minutes.

I did not stop to dress.

I went out through the broken back door and shifted at the edge of the yard.

It hurt for one breath.

Then I was running on four silver legs, and I had never moved so fast in my life.

The river road came up under my paws.

I followed Lark's scent, milk and wool, and under it the sour cloves of the Dowager's spiced wine.

I smelled Rowan's blood before I reached the mill.

My wolf's lips curled back from my teeth.

I came down the riverbank in the dark and saw him on the stone floor with his hand over his head.

Bram sat beside him, doing nothing.

I did not stop for either of them.

The bridge lay beyond the mill, an old iron span over the black river.

The Dowager stood in the middle of it with Lark in her arms.

Two enforcers waited at the far end, where a truck sat with its engine running.

She was out of breath.

Her fur collar was crooked.

She saw me coming and her face went slack.

I had never been seen by her in this shape.

"You can't," she said. "Not a lender. You're meant to be tamed."

I did not stop.

The first enforcer ran at me with a pole.

I took him by the arm and threw him over the rail.

He hit the water, and I heard him shout.

The second backed away with his hands up.

"I'm paid to drive," he said. "I don't do this."

He ran for the truck and drove away without her.

The Dowager stood alone on the bridge.

She backed against the rail and held Lark out over the edge.