I stood, giving her a quick smile to reassure her, then walked over to where Rivik was knocking down the shelter the two strange wolf shifters had been using.
"We need to speed up," I said to Rivik. Kept my voice level, professional. "I need to get her back to my hearth."
Rivik's eyes flicked to Ellie, then back to me. Something moved through his expression too quickly to read. "How bad?"
"Bad enough. She has the blood curse and its spreading. She needs rest, but I don’t have the herbs to treat her properly."
"We're two days from home, but we’re carrying heavy loads and the other injured human. She was struggling yesterday. If we push, won’t she collapse before we get there?" He met my gaze directly. "Is that what you want?"
“If we don’t, she could die before we get there. Is that whatyouwant?”
For a moment, tension crackled between us. Rivik was alpha, and I was challenging his judgment in front of the pack. But I was also healer, and in medical matters, my word carried weight.
He looked at Ellie again, and this time I saw what Jarak had been talking about. The way his gaze moved over her, the way his expression softened.
“I’ll let the others know. Get packed up, we can eat while moving.”
We set off, moving at a faster pace than yesterday. The pack adjusted without complaint, but Ellie’s alpha and his mate didn’t seem happy with the new arrangement, even when Rivik tried to explain why. The male wolf kept pace at the front with Rivik, his jaw set in a hard line, gesturing sharply at the terrain ahead and then back toward Ellie with obvious frustration. His mate walked beside him, her expression tight and thin-lipped. I didn't need to understand their words to read the body language. He wanted to slow down and he wasn't happy about being overruled by a stronger alpha.
Rivik ignored his initial protestations. He simply pointed forward, said something short and final, and kept walking. The wolf’s shoulders went rigid, but he followed. He had no choice. Out here, in our territory, with his pack broken and dependent on ours, the strange alpha's authority meant nothing. I wondered if he knew that, or if he was still clinging to the illusion that he had any say in what happened next.
Aside from a few checks throughout the day on Dev, I stayed close to Ellie, helping over harder ground, ready to catch her if she stumbled. Which she did, more and more as the morning wore on.
The fever was climbing. I could see it in the glazed look in her eyes, the way she shivered despite the layers of fur we'd wrapped around her. Her injured leg dragged, and twice I saw her nearly go down, catching herself only through sheer stubborn will.
Torin took her pack without asking the first time we stopped for a brief rest, and Fen moved to her other side when we started off again, offering silent support. I could tell that even though she was human, they admired her endurance, as did I. But endurance had limits.
By the time we stopped to make camp that evening, the fever had her swaying on her feet like a sapling in a gale. She'd stopped talking, stopped doing anything except putting one foot in front of the other with grim determination. Her skin had taken on a waxy pallor beneath the flush of fever, and when I touched her arm to steady her over a patch of loose scree, the heat coming off her nearly made me flinch.
She stumbled again and I caught her, lifting up her into my arms as I had the day before. She was burning. Even through her strange clothing, the heat rolling off her body was alarming. Her eyes found mine, glassy and confused, and she said something in her language. The words were slurred, running together, and I didn't think she knew where she was anymore.
"I've got you," I said quietly. "I've got you."
She tried to push away from me, tried to stand again maybe out of stubbornness, but I thought more from confusion. I tightened my grip and shook my head.
"No."
She knew that word now and she didn't have the strength to argue. Her head dropped against my shoulder, her forehead pressing into the curve of my neck, and I felt the furnace-heat of her skin against mine. Too hot. Far too hot. The blood curse was working faster than I'd hoped, feeding on her weakened state, on the exhaustion and the cold and the days of pushing through pain she should have been resting through.
I settled her on a thick pile of furs Miska laid out for her, near where Rivik was building the fire. He kept glancing over ather and I caught his eye and saw the same knowledge reflected there.
We were running out of time.
The strange alpha came up next to us, his mate at his side as always, and said something sharply to Ellie. Even though I couldn't understand his words, the intent was clear enough. He was giving her an order. His mate stood beside him with her arms crossed, watching Ellie with an expression that bordered on contempt.
Ellie responded to his authority with an instinctive obedience that made something dark and hot coil in my chest. She immediately struggled to sit up, but I pushed her back down. The male didn't like that. He spoke again, louder this time, and reached toward Ellie's arm. I intercepted his hand before it made contact, closing my fingers around his wrist with enough pressure to make my meaning clear.
Don't touch her.
His eyes widened, then narrowed. The wolf spirit behind his gaze was small and uncertain compared to the bear that rose in my chest. He yanked his wrist free and said something fast and angry, gesturing between himself and Ellie, then at the direction we'd been travelling. His mate put a hand on his shoulder, murmuring something that sounded like a warning, but he shrugged her off.
I didn't need to understand his words. The tone was enough. He wanted Ellie up. Wanted her moving. Getting to the camp was more important to him than the woman lying on the furs with fever eating her alive.
I rose to my full height and stepped between them and Ellie.
The alpha's eyes widened slightly. He was tall for a wolf, lean and sharp-featured, but I had a full head of height on him and considerably more mass. My bear spirit stirred beneath my skin, pressing forward, and I let just enough of it bleed into myposture to make the message clear. I didn't need to speak his language. I didn't need words at all.
Back off.
