Frostbitten

CAPRICIOUS

AS I BARRELED through the trees, I saw the third werewolf ahead. The figure was as slight as a woman and no more than five foot six. The gait, though, was masculine. His head stayed down as he tramped through the snow, in no hurry to get to the clearing and see what waited there.

When he heard us, he lifted his head. I knew who he was-had known it from the moment I'd spotted his figure in the distance.

His face was young and smooth, with light brown hair hanging into dark eyes. He reached up and impatiently swiped his hair back as he squinted at me, his night vision still poor, his first Change barely behind him.

Noah Stillwell. Joey's captive son-not bound and forced forward at gunpoint, but on his own, ready to help his pack mates take down their prey.

When he realized who was running straight at him, his hands flew up awkwardly, as if he hadn't yet decided whether to stop me, attack me or fend me off.

With scarcely a falter in my stride, I grabbed the front of his jacket, yanked him off his feet and flung him to the side. I couldn't imagine either brother stopping to help the fallen boy, and they didn't, but the path was narrow and as Noah scrambled up, he got in their way, a chorus of grunts and curses echoing behind me. I hunched over, picking a path where the snow lay thinnest over the ground and running full out.

Running has always been my strong point. I'm particularly skilled at running away from things-I've been doing it my whole life, and not just metaphorically.

I've spent the last decade learning to stand firm and face my problems… or at least batter them until they're unrecognizable. So now, when I ran from the Teslers, it hurt-a mental pain so acute it was like running across a bed of nails, the spikes driving into my soles with every stride.

I told myself I wasn't running away, that this was just part of a plan that would eventually end in a standoff, a challenge and, of course, victory. The only part missing? The actual plan.

I darted through the trees, steering for the thickest part to hide my pale shirt and hair. Gradually, the sounds of pursuit faded, then stopped altogether.

I didn't kid myself. I hadn't lost them-they could easily follow my scent trail. They'd just stopped chasing me. I was miles from any populated place, running through the frozen Alaska wilderness dressed in a shirt and sneakers. They would regroup and come up with a plan to track and capture me. And I'd use this time to change into something a little warmer.

I just needed to get a little farther from them, so I could relax enough for the Change. I'd gone about twenty more feet when bobbing lights ahead had me plunging into the undergrowth. Once I was hidden, I peered out.

I could see a cluster of three distant lights, bobbing at waist level. Flashlights? A fourth joined the group, then a fifth and as I squinted, I heard the faint rumble of engines. Snowmobiles.

I remembered what Dan had said-that the Teslers had two other mutts in their group, currently in the Lower 48 setting up trade routes. Could the Teslers have recalled them when we killed Dan?

Possible, but if he had, they would have accompanied Noah and the brothers to the exchange. Far more likely, this was a group of humans. And if it was, then I'd run to them for help. My pride could withstand that indignity better than what was in store for me if the Teslers caught up.

Still, the small chance it was the mutts meant I slid cautiously from the bushes. The headlights bounced along like giant fireflies, the engines a low and steady rumble.

As I walked, the lights moved farther away. Did snowmobiles have rear lights? I had no idea, but they were clearly heading in the opposite direction. I broke into a slow jog.

The lights kept moving, no faster than me. Yet the engine rumble seemed to get louder, as if I was catching up.

I stopped. The hairs on my neck prickled as I looked around. The forest shimmered under the moon, a dusting of new snow glimmering on every branch. Quiet had fallen-not the unnatural silence that preceded the appearance of the beast, just an odd hush, as if even the night animals were careful not to make too much noise.

The lights stayed exactly where they were when I stopped. As if they were waiting for me…

Whoever was out there couldn't see me from here. Surely they'd stopped coincidentally.

I stepped forward. The lights didn't move. I took another step. Still they only bobbed in place. I could hear the engine, also seeming neither closer nor farther, but the rumble oddly muffled.

I didn't hear any sound of pursuit, though, and that was the important thing. I carefully moved toward what seemed to be a break in the forest. I could see the lights flickering through the last curtain of trees.

I stepped to the edge. A laugh came from the other direction. I wheeled. No one was there. The clearing stretched as far as I could see-a ribbon of white bordered by trees. Not a clearing, but a road. Perfect. I grinned. The skin over my cheeks pulled sharply with the sudden movement, as if my face had been mere seconds from freezing solid.

I turned back toward the headlights… and found myself staring down an equally long expanse of winding empty road, with no sign of the lights.

The rumbling of engines continued. I started following the road, looking for a place the snowmobiles could have turned off. Then I spotted the lights again, moving deeper into the woods on the other side.

I glanced each way, assuring myself no one was around, then I started across. A crack ripped through the night, loud as gunfire, and I spun, realizing I was in the middle of the road, too far to dive for cover on either side.

A long, bubbling laugh sounded off to my right, barely audible over the dull roar of the engines. I peered into the night.

Another crack came. Not from my left or my right…

I looked down. The laugh sounded again, the bubbling burble of water flowing over rocks. With a third crack, a spider web of fissures shot through the "snow" at my feet.

This wasn't a road. It was a river. And I stood in the middle of it.

I looked around, keeping the rest of me perfectly still. The "engines" continued to rumble, water, running fast and free some where in front of me. I could see those lights dancing in the forest, and the babble of water still sounded like laughter-taunting laughter now.

I told myself it was Tesler and his buddies with flashlights, but that creeping feeling down my back said otherwise, recalled the lights leading us through the forest two nights ago. There were no humans here. No werewolves. No mysterious beasts. Just something… else. Something primitive, capricious and cruel. Some magic, deep in the forest that cared little for my survival.

The lights danced for a moment, then winked out.

The ice beneath my feet groaned. I took a careful step. Then slid my other foot forward as slowly and carefully as I could, shifting my weight-

With a tremendous crack, the ice under me gave way and my legs plunged into the water, the cold so unbelievable that my brain shorted out, my gasp ringing in my ears. Then I felt ice under my fingers and under my cheek and I snapped to. I lay half on the ice, blessedly solid-

Without even a warning crack, the piece broke away and dropped into the river, me still clinging to it. I felt the water surge over me, so cold it was an ice pick to my brain. And then, nothing.

I came to hurtling downstream underwater, caught in the current. I fought, twisting and writhing, but it was like tumbling through space. I had no idea which way was up. The agony of the cold was indescribable and my barely functional brain could only stutter through half-remembered statistics.

It took twenty minutes to die in icy water. Or was that two minutes? No, it had to be ten. At least ten. Please let it be ten.

I finally got my eyes open enough to see the way up-faintly lighter than the other directions. I propelled myself toward it. Up, up-

My fists bashed against solid ice.

I kept bashing, so close to freedom, those statistics circling my head like vultures. But it was like trying to break a window with a feather. My superstrength didn't matter. The water kept me from getting up enough momentum to break the ice.

I was trapped and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it. All my strength, all my powers, all my instinct to survive-all useless.

When we die, we're supposed to see the faces of our loved ones flashing before our eyes. I wanted that. I so desperately wanted that. Everyone I cared about-Clay, my children, Jeremy, my Pack, my friends.

But my brain wouldn't let me picture them. It just kept screaming that I was going to die and I had to do something.

I opened my eyes a slit again and saw one patch of ice overhead that was lighter than the rest, as if I could see the snow through it. I swam toward it, fighting the current, barely moving but keeping at it, inch by inch. I knew that patch was probably an illusion-the reflection of a star through the thick ice. I knew I probably wasn't even going to make it that far.

And then I saw my family's faces, not a serene, smiling final portrait of my loved ones, but Kate's blue eyes wide with panic, Logan's dark with worry, Clay's blazing, furious as he snarled at me to stop thinking I wouldn't make it, stop thinking it wouldn't be a hole, just swim, goddamn it, swim!

I reached up. My hands broke the water's surface, then came down on an edge as sharp as a steel blade. I gripped it, but the ice shattered under my fingers.

I pushed my head up, out of the water, gasping. The air felt like red-hot pokers shoved down my throat, the pain nearly making me black out. But I lifted my head above the water until I caught my breath, then felt along the edge of the icy hole. I found the thickest spot and managed to get my chest up onto the ice, but when I tried to push out farther, the ice groaned and cracked.

"Hold still!" a voice shouted.

I turned my head to see a figure running along the river's edge. It was Noah, stripping off his jacket as he ran. I tried to wriggle farther onto the ice.

"Hold still!" he yelled. "If it breaks, you're going under and you aren't coming back up."

He stopped parallel to me, then shimmied out on the ice until he got as far as he deemed safe. He tested it, rocking back and forth, then crouched. Holding one cuff of his jacket, he tossed it toward me. The other sleeve sailed out like a life-rope… and fell six inches short of my hand.

I wiggled, trying to reach it, but he yanked the jacket back with an angry "Stay still."

Moving on his stomach, he inched farther out, then threw it again. This time, it brushed my fingers. I caught the edge of the cuff, something I could tell by sight alone, my fingers too numb to feel the fabric between them.

I managed to get enough of a grip to tug myself nearer, then wrap it around my wrist. Noah pulled. I kicked, wriggling onto the ice, hearing it crack behind me. Noah kept pulling, carefully, then he heaved. The ice cracked and fell away as I shot toward him.

Noah backed up, still pulling, still telling me not to move, his face taut with concentration, tendons bulging as he dragged me to the riverbank.

"Okay," he said as I came to rest, huddled at the edge. "We need to-"

"What'd you pull out of the river, boy?" a voice echoed from the forest. "Is that my girl?"

Tesler stepped from the woods, his brother at his heels. Noah straightened. He turned from me, and there was my chance to escape. Leap up, knock Noah down and run… and I was no more capable of doing that than if I'd been bound hand and foot.

I huddled there, shaking violently. I tried to concentrate, but it was like standing on the precipice to oblivion-it took everything I had just to stay conscious and breathe.

"She fell in," Noah called back. His voice had changed, concern falling away, the timbre deepening, like a teen boy with his buddies. "Stupid city bitch. She ran out onto the river and fell through. If you want her alive, you're going to need to get her back to the cabin, pronto. She needs to get out of those wet clothes."

Tesler bent over me, teeth and eyes glittering. "Well, then, that's what we'll have to do. I wasn't planning to keep her in them for long anyway."