They rested more and more, making less and less progress. The cold was sapping their strength and will. Even Huan Li wasn’t immune to it. He even complained a little, which coming from him was like the incessant crying from a colicky baby. They were all tired and hungry. They found themselves sleeping more every day. Days became shorter and shorter, giving them an excuse to stop more frequently.

Michelle was the first to fall. The blonde woman was walking next to Keva. The redhead was focused on moving against the wind. One minute Michelle was walking in stride with her, then she wasn’t.

Keva numbly looked back over her shoulder to find the other woman lying face down in the snow. At first Keva’s numb mind didn’t register that the woman lying face down in the snow was someone she knew. Keva watched as Javier tried to help her to her feet, but she wouldn’t move. Michelle was exhausted, her strength completely spent. No amount of shaking from the larger hispanic man would force her eyes to open. Javier picked up the smaller woman and slung her across his shoulders. Keva took his back pack and Huan Li carried Michelle’s.

After only a few hours Keva’s sight started to blur. She couldn’t tell where the trees in front of her was, they kept dodging and weaving in front of her, taunting her. She swiped at the trees to make them stop moving. But the swipe only caused her to over balance and fall into a deep snow drift. The snow felt warm and comfortable. She had never felt anything this good and all she wanted to do was curl up in the amazingly wonderful warmth and go to sleep. She let her eyes close as a smile spread across her face.

Javier sat Michelle down next to a tree and tried to wake his Alpha but Keva was out just as badly as Michelle was. He couldn’t carry both of them. He had to wake them up and get them moving. He knew they would die if they stayed in the snow. He looked to the heavens and said a silent prayer for himself and all of them. “Hail Mary full of Grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Please help us.” He looked to Huan Li who had taken the opportunity to rest as well. The old man’s eyes were closed and he was leaning against a tree. Only his legs were touching the snow but Javier knew that if he was left like that hypothermia would set in.

He tried to move over to Huan Li but his legs caught in the deep snow, causing him to stumble. He fell to his knees. The three wolves laid down together under a tree. Their eyes shut and they breathed raggedly in their sleep. Javier looked up into the sky. Asking one last for from the only person who could give him any, “Almighty God, give me strength.” He tried to get up but the snow weighed him down and he found that he couldn’t stand up. He tried to force his body to move, to stand up. But all the movement did was cause him to fall face first into the snow. He couldn’t move, but the snow felt really soft and comfortable. He didn’t really want to move. His eyelids were so heavy and he was so tired, too tired to move. His eyelids fluttered and shut.

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The first thing Javier felt was warmth. He stretched out his arms and expected to find wetness from the snow, or some ethereal clouds because he was now dead. But his fingers stretched out and found soft warm dirt underneath him. This came as a bit of a shock but his eyes were slow to open.

When they did finally obey him and flicker open his vison was blurry. From what he could make out he was in a dark space. It was sparsely furnished. The walls were bare and they curved around strangely. He slowly lifted his head and blinked his eyes.

His stomach rumbled loudly as he propped himself up on his elbow. His eyes slowly focused and he saw that the walls were made of a combination of stone and wood. Two candles flickered happily next to him on a small shelf. Looking back, he saw that Huan Li was sleeping easily next to him in the dirt. Scanning the rest of the small room he could see no sign of anyone else.

He startled as he fully realized what this meant. Huan Li slept soundly next to him as he slowly, gingerly pushed himself up to his feet. He was barefoot and was wearing no shirt. He stumbled forward out of the small room, clinging to the wall for support.

He was only able to take a few steps before he felt a strong hand stop him. “You’ll only hurt yourself if you don’t calm down. You’re safe for the moment.”

Javier turned around and saw a tall, rather broad shouldered, blonde woman gently but firmly hold him in place. She was just as tall as he was and in his current condition, she was much stronger than he was.

“Please,” Javier said trying to pull away from the woman, “I have to find my friends.”

“The only one I found with you out there was the elderly man who is in the room with you right now.” Her accent was thick and some of her words were a little hard to understand but the main gist of what she was saying was perfectly understandable to him.

His brain wasn’t functioning too well and he knew he was not understanding things as fast as he usually was. “There were, there were two women with us, and three wolves.” He shook his head trying to clear it, to make sense of what it was he was being told. “You have to take me back to where you found me.”

“Listen, I don’t have to do anything.” She gently, but with surprising strength, guided him back to the room he just stumbled out of.

“No, you don’t understand,” Javier struggled against her grip, which quickly tightened into something akin to pure iron. “I have to find my friends. They’re still out there.” He struggled weakly against the much stronger woman.

“I told you, there was no one in that forest with you but that elderly man in here with you. I didn’t see anyone else.”