The sound Rivik had made stopped. The absence of it was almost louder.
I became aware of my own breathing. Shallow, too fast. I pressed my fist against my sternum and made myself take a slower one.
Around us, the camp had gone utterly still. Daska had appeared from somewhere to my left. I hadn't heard him move. He moved immediately to my side, his expression utterly unreadable. His eyes moved between Rivik and Nathan's wolf form on the ground, and I saw something pass through them—not surprise, not quite—something more complicated than that.
Nathan lay on his back in the dirt. His wolf was smaller than the pack wolves, leaner, with a rangy, city-dog quality that looked wrong against the packed earth of the camp. His legs were in the air. His muzzle was turned aside. Every line of him screamed submission, and the worst part, the part that I suspected would haunt me later when I had time to process it, was that he couldn't stop it. Whatever Rivik had done, whatever that sound had been, Nathan wasn't choosing this. His body had simply obeyed an authority older and deeper than his own will.
I didn't know how to feel about that.
Rivik stood over him for a long moment. Not crowing. Not performing. He simply stood there and let the silence do the work, let every person in the camp see it and understand it, and the calm on his face was somehow more terrible than rage would have been. Then he looked away.
That was all. He simply looked away from Nathan as though Nathan had stopped being interesting, and turned to me.
"You are hurt?" His eyes dropped briefly to my forearm, where Nathan's fingers had been.
I glanced down. There would be bruising tomorrow, I suspected. Not bad, but there. "I'm alright."
Rivik's jaw tightened fractionally. He looked back down at Nathan, who was still in wolf form, still on his back, and something flickered across Rivik's face that I thought might be contempt. Not hot contempt. Cold. The kind that didn't bother raising its voice.
He looked at Daska. “She needs care. He grabbed her, laid his hands on.”
Daska reached out and put his hand in Rivik’s shoulder. I watched them, slightly confused. It almost seemed as though Daska was comforting the alpha as he leaned forward and spoke in low tones I couldn’t hear. Rivik took a shaky breath and pulled back. He looked over to me and his face was unreadable. He reached up, slowly, and adjusted the fur cloak that had slipped off my shoulder. His fingers brushed against my collarbone, warm and careful, and I froze at the tremor that ran through my body at his touch.
“Ellie, tell your alpha that if he touches you again, I will kill him.”
My mouth dropped open, but Rivik was already turning away. I stood there, confused, watching him go.
"He doesn't like me."
I hadn't meant to say it out loud.
Daska made a soft sound of protest and smiled.
I looked at him. "Rivik. He… he doesn't want me here, but then he defends me."
Daska shook his head. “Wants to not want.”
“What?”
“Come. Come rest.” I sighed, and without looking behind, I followed him.
CHAPTER 18
ELLIE
Ilet him lead me away, conscious of everyone watching us as he led me into the cave, letting the skins fall back into place behind us. There was a small fire banked in the hearth, but it was quite dark in here during the day. I watched as he stoked up the fire causing a sudden wave of warmth and light across the space. I settled onto the edge of the main sleeping platform, and unlaced my boots so I could kick them off. Although I found my new clothes surprisingly warm and comfortable, I still opted to wear my heavy duty hiking boots instead of the leather and fur foot wraps the rest of the pack wore in human form.
My forearm throbbed dully where Nathan had gripped it, and I rubbed at it absently, watching Daska move around the hearth with his usual quiet efficiency. He reached for something on one of the shelves—a small clay pot, lidded and sealed with what looked like birch resin—and set it near the fire to warm.
The cave felt different with the skins closed. More contained. More his. The familiar smell of dried herbs and woodsmokesettled around me like something I hadn't realised I'd been missing until I was back inside it.
Daska came and crouched in front of me, and without asking, he reached out and took my arm, turning it gently to examine where Nathan had grabbed me. His touch was careful, clinical in the way it always was when he was being a healer, but I could see a muscle working in his jaw that had nothing clinical about it.
"I'm fine," I said.
He gave me a look that said he'd be the judge of that.
"Daska, honestly—"
