"He comes with us," I said. "We can't leave him behind. His mind won't survive it."
Neal opened his mouth — probably to argue about the impossibility of bringing a feral on a rescue mission. Then he looked at Cal. Really looked.
“Okay,” he said quietly. “He comes. I’ll make something up—tests, an overnight therapeutic wilderness excursion.”
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “That works. Thank you.”
I found Ivy in our room an hour later.
She was sitting on her bed, arms crossed, expression caught between worry and fury. She'd clearly been waiting.
"So," she said. "You're doing something stupid."
"Yes."
"Something dangerous."
"Probably."
"Something you can't tell me about."
I hesitated. "Yes."
Ivy was quiet for a long moment. Then she stood, crossed to my closet, and pulled out my warmest jacket.
"I figured," she said. "I’ll help you pack, you’ll need your cold-weather gear. Extra socks, thermal layers, that ugly hat."
"Ivy—"
"I don't need to know where you're going." She shoved the jacket into my arms. "I just need to know what to tell people when they ask."
"I'm at the Healing Center. Spending extra time with my internship patient. You haven't seen me since this morning, but that's normal — I basically live there anyway."
"And if Twilson asks?"
"You don't know anything. I don't tell you details. You're just my roommate."
Ivy nodded slowly. Then she pulled me into a hug — tight, fierce, the kind that said everything words couldn't.
"Come back," she whispered. "Whatever you're doing, whoever you're saving — come back."
"I will."
"Promise me."
"I promise."
She pulled away. Wiped her eyes. "Now get out of here before I change my mind and tie you to your bed."
We left at midnight.
The campus was dark and quiet. Neal had filed paperwork claiming he was taking Cal on an overnight therapeutic excursion — monitoring his responses to natural environments, he'd written, with the kind of medical jargon that would take days to decode.
James had raided the equipment shed. I'd packed supplies until my bag weighed more than seemed possible.
And Cal walked beside me, wolf form steady for the first time in hours. The promise of action had calmed him. Given him something to hold onto.
We reached the edge of campus — the boundary line marked by old stones and beyond it lay the wilderness. The mountain. The pack that had been waiting years for someone to come back.
