She found the word chastity. Good. All right. She could do this. She slowed herself down and started translating the words one word at a time, forcing her mind to stay on the page instead of spiraling ahead. Finally, her eyes needed a break, so she looked out at the trees blanketing them. “Where are we going?”
“I have a cabin,” Caidrik said. “Nobody knows about it, including Bulwark. We can hole up there for the night and then figure out our best move.”
She looked up and over at him, really looked. His shoulders were tense, posture forward, like he was already braced for impact. “Do you think Bulwark actually has a chance of becoming the Alpha?”
Caidrik shook his head. “I don’t know, but Bussy sure seemed to think so. The asshole has a point. It’s our word against his.”
Her throat tightened. “About what happened on the cliff? He tried to kill me.”
“Yeah. I’ll take him out. Regardless.” Caidrik glanced down at the grimoire before returning his focus to the road. “Does the book say what happens to the pack if there isn’t a challenger left standing?”
“I don’t know,” she said grimly. “There’s got to be a way out of this. I just don’t know what it is.” She reached across the console and took his hand, threading her cold fingers through his heated one. “We’ll figure it out. How far is this cabin?”
“About an hour. I’d say we should just shift and run in wolf form, but we can’t just leave the grimoire here. It’s too important to the pack, at least until those laws are changed. However, if I do order you to shift, you do it. I’ll consider it life or death.”
“I know,” she muttered. She wished she were at full strength. She wasn’t even close.
Her thoughts kept circling back to the pack. Bulwark was selfish and cruel. He’d burn everything if it meant winning. There had to be a way to stop this. She dropped her gaze and forced herself back to the notebook. Finally, she leaned back and read the words again, slower this time. “I found the passage.” Taking a deep breath, she read:
Chaste they stand till trial be done,
‘Til Alpha’s breath is duly won.
Spill seed or touch ere judgment’s made,
And pack shall hunt the oath-betrayed.
He winced. “Spill seed? Are you fucking serious?”
Her eyes even hurt. “At least it rhymes?”
He grunted. “I’m not sure what it means.”
“I think it means we’re supposed to be killed,” Nadia said as she kept reading “But wait. There’s more.” Dang it. She didn’t know these words yet..
“Oh, great,” he muttered. “It probably explains how they’re supposed to kill us.”
She shook her head. None of this was believable, but ancient laws were ancient laws. Why hadn’t her father bothered to change these?
They reached the cabin not long after. Caidrik turned off the road onto a barely-there trail, branches scraping the side of the car hard enough to make her flinch. Emily would be furious. So much for the paint job. The trees thinned, revealing a dark shape pressed against the rock, half-swallowed by shadow and snow.
“It looks like it goes into the rock,” she said.
“Yeah. It’s hidden.” He cut the engine and kicked open the door. “Wait for me. I’ll make a trail for you. The snow’s up to my chest out here.” He jumped down, circled the rig, and opened her door. “Forget it. I’ll just carry you.”
She scrambled to grab her notebooks and the pack.
He lifted her, keeping her away from the powder. “I’ll get our bags in a second.”
Bussy had already packed them. Had the female suspected what was coming?
Nadia held on to Caidrik as he carried her, tucking her nose into the warmth of his neck. Snow melted into her hair and down the collar of her coat. “I don’t want to live on the run for our whole lives,” she said, the words muffled against his skin.
“We won’t be.” He shouldered the door open and carried her inside, setting her carefully on her feet. The cabin smelled like wood and old smoke, the kind that lingered even when no one had been there for a while. The place was an A-frame with a bed up in a loft. “I’m not joking. I’ll take out every member of that pack if I have to.”
She shivered, and not just from the cold that still clung to her clothes. “But I love the pack.”
“Then we’ll have to reach some sort of agreement,” he said reasonably, already moving toward the stone fireplace. Kindling was stacked neatly inside, just waiting for a flame. He struck a match and the fire caught instantly. Light bloomed and threw shadows across the walls.
