Chapter 6: Mira

I didn't take the seat.

I took the truck.

The next morning at six, my father was out walking the fence line.

Emmett was asleep in the guest room after a night in the chair by my bed.

I took the keys off the hook.

I left a note on the guest mug.

Gone to Blackfen. Back by lunch. Don't send anyone.

I knew they'd send everyone. I just wanted an hour first.

The upper bridge was empty. The river was low and loud over the rocks.

I'd crossed it a thousand times as Ransom's mate, with Rue sitting up in my chest.

This time I crossed it alone.

The Blackfen pack house is a long cedar lodge on a rise above the river. Ransom's grandfather built it. Ransom liked to tell people that.

There were wolves on the porch when I pulled up.

Six of them. Young ones, the kind he puts on the door to look tough.

They stood up when they saw the truck.

Then they saw it was a Shrike farm truck, and they saw me get out of it.

They looked at the road behind me for the other trucks.

"She's alone," one of them said.

"Doesn't matter," said another. "You want to be the one?"

Nobody wanted to be the one.

I walked between them up the steps, slow, one hand under my belly.

"Where's Mira?"

Nobody answered.

"I can find her by smell," I said. "Oh, wait. Somebody cut that out of me. So you're going to have to tell me."

A girl of maybe nineteen pointed down the hall without looking at me.

"His office," she whispered.

His office.

I'd decorated that office. I'd picked the rug.

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