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Kennedy…

Kennedy claimed the seat next to Rig, and Terry placed a plate piled high with eggs in front of her. The biscuits and fresh cut garden tomatoes made her mouth water. She found herself incapable of waiting politely for everyone to seat themselves. The groan she released with the first bite was not fit for polite company. Rig hid a smile behind his hand and slanted a glance in Terry’s direction.

Kennedy ignored the Wolf as she reached for another biscuit. Dropping crumbs into her lap in her eagerness, she asked, “Is Snow still lurking about?”

Guiltily, Rig shifted in his seat. “Why would I know?”

Her fork full of eggs paused midway to her lips. She shot a glance Terry’s way. “Isn’t knowing who is around and what is happening, why you are here, Rig?”

Two high dots of pink rose in his cheeks, and Kennedy tilted her head. “Are you feeling alright?”

“I’m fine.” The Wolf adjusted the set of his shoulders. If she wasn’t mistaken, the man looked sheepish. He didn’t look directly at them as he said, “She lingered in the area for a while, but then headed back up the trail.” He rubbed his nose and looked toward the wall. “She went north.”

Terry sat down with his brow furrowed and placed a full plate on the table in front of himself. He gave a low growl.

“I didn’t do anything to her. She doesn’t even know I followed her.” The man toyed with the eggs on his plate, poking them with his fork.

Kennedy sat up straighter. “How long did you follow her?”

The man shifted awkwardly in his chair and fidgeted with his napkin. Terry leaned forward menacingly.

“Until she quit crying.” Rig rubbed the back of his neck. “I caught the aroma of another woman and watched from a distance. Their scents are similar, so my guess is they are related. The woman she joined was older than her and an excellent rider.”

“Whist.” Terry signed.

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*

Snow…

The two women rode in silence, side by side, as the trail thinned. The night before, they had made camp an hour and a half from the farm. As soon as the sun came up this morning, her mother had shaken her awake.

Sullen and still tired after her restless sleep, Snow kept her pace even with her mother’s animal. Thoughts of her cousin hunting with Wolves had made Snow’s dreams uneasy. Her entire childhood, her family had ingrained the idea that the outside world was dangerous. The horses could feel the unease between the two women. Her mother could have let her come alone. She wasn’t a baby.

Whist’s simmering anger made them twitchy. Snow startled when her mother spoke. “I told you this would happen.”

Snow adjusted her reigns. There was no way to win an argument with her mother. She had been right that Terry and Kennedy didn’t want to see her.

“I smell Wolf on you. Are you ready to explain that?”

Tightening her jaw, Snow kept her silence. She wasn’t ready to talk about any of it. They had traveled all the way from the high camp down to the farm, and Terry wouldn’t speak to her.

The only good part of the whole useless trip was that they now knew that David was alive for certain, even if he was being a complete asshole. Snow winced as she thought of the part she had played in his capture. If she had known that killing members of his family was on the table as an option, she never would have helped them. He had to know that. Not even if Ba didn’t speak to her for thirty years.

Whist said, “How many did they bring back? Ba and old Joe should know. The Wolves are too nosey and they hate to leave things alone.”

“I only saw one, and he was injured.”

Her mother stared straight ahead with her brow furrowed. “Not too injured. He followed you up through the meadows until you got close to me.”

“Why would he do that?” Snow thought of the hot jolt of electricity she’d felt when he was above her, pressing her into the earth. His scent had quickened her pulse.

“You didn’t flirt with that Wolf boy, did you?” Her mother gestured toward the sky as if she were requesting help with her stubborn daughter from the gods.

“Don’t be gross.” Snow hadn’t had a lot of experience with flirting, but she was pretty sure that begging for information about another guy probably didn’t count. The Wolf’s eyes had been flecked with gold.

“You don’t flirt with the boys you know on the mountain.” Her mother slowed her mount and Snow’s horse irritatingly followed its lead. Looking right at Snow, the woman had the nerve to ask, “Do you fancy women?”

“No. I am attracted to men. But on the mountain, I am related to all of them.”

Whist waved her hand. “You are not. That is a spectacular exaggeration.”

The very thought of taking as a partner one of the young men she had known her whole life made Snow recoil. Even at the high camp, where there were more people, she had no good options. If you went back far enough, they shared ancestors. She shuddered. No two headed babies for me.

In four years, she could petition to go out west to a larger gathering of the Bear communities. They would fill the valley with music and campsites. She’d seen pictures and heard stories. There was no way she was going to date a boy from Georgia. No chance at all.