Chapter 5: Mud

"Juno! Juno, stop! Help me!"

Odette thrashed in the brown water, one arm reaching for the bank.

The current wasn't even strong there.

She could have stood up.

Branches cracked on the path.

Torin came through the trees first, running flat out.

He didn't even look at me.

He went into the river in his boots and jeans and came up with Odette in his arms.

She clung to his shirt and coughed.

"She pushed me," she sobbed. "Again. She said I stole her life. She said I should drown."

"That's a lie," I said.

Kendrick reached the bank.

Behind him came half a dozen wolves from the hall, drawn by the screaming.

The old Beta's widow was one of them.

So was the warrior who guarded the path.

They all saw the same thing.

Odette, soaked and shaking in Torin's arms.

Me, standing dry on the bank with my phone in my hand.

"Again," Kendrick said. "You did it again."

"I didn't touch her. She said she jumped. Three years ago too. She just told me."

Odette buried her face in Torin's shoulder.

"I didn't," she wept. "Why would I? Why would anyone jump into a river?"

Torin looked at me over her wet head.

For one second, something went across his face.

A question.

Then Odette whimpered, and it was gone.

"Get her away from me," he said hoarsely. "Kendrick, get her away."

Kendrick crossed the bank in three strides.

He put both hands on my shoulders and shoved.

I went down.

The riverbank was all mud from the snowmelt.

I landed on my back in it, hard enough to knock the air out of me.

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