Eight days had just become seven.
And my father wasn't waiting for the witch to finish us first.
The scout stood there panting, torchlight flickering across his face. "Gamma Voss himself, my kings. Five hundred wolves. Silver chains on every saddle. He says he's coming to collect his daughter and burn the rest."
My stomach dropped so hard I felt the flutter inside me kick in protest. The witch's mark on my chest flared hot, like it knew the clock had just sped up. Darius's arm tightened around my waist until I could barely breathe. Kane's knife was already out. Rylan's grin turned ugly.
"Seven days," I said, voice flat. "He's giving us seven days to hand me over or he'll try to drag me back in those chains himself."
Darius didn't waste breath. He turned to the scout. "Sound the horns. Every able wolf on the walls by dawn. Bar the gates. Double the silver stores." Then he looked at me, eyes hard. "You stay inside the keep."
"Like hell I will." The words came out before I could stop them. My hand was still pressed to my belly, shielding the tiny life that had only just started kicking. "I killed Thorne. I killed the shadow-thing the witch sent. I'm not sitting in a fucking bedroom while my father marches five hundred wolves up here to finish what he started."
Kane's jaw flexed. "Oh for God's sake listen to me this once. The child —"
"Is the reason I'm fighting," I snapped. "You think I'm going to let him put silver chains on me again? On any of us? No. I ride with you. I stand on the wall. I shoot the bastards myself if I have to."
Rylan let out a low laugh, but there was no humor in it. "That's my girl."
Darius stared at me for a long second. The bond pushed his fear and rage straight into my chest, but underneath it I felt something steadier — respect. He finally nodded once. "You stay between us. No hero shit. If it gets bad, you go inside. That's an order."
I didn't argue. I just grabbed a fresh cloak and followed them down to the bailey.
The pack was already moving. Torches flared. Wolves strapped on armor, tested blades, muttered curses about Shadowpine. I felt their eyes on me as we passed, some still wary, some hardening into something closer to trust. The beta from before gave me a short nod. Small, but it landed "I trust you and am accepting you as one of us".
We climbed the southern wall again. The night was black and cold. Snow crunched under our boots. From the ridge below, distant torchlight flickered like a river of fire crawling toward us. Five hundred wolves. My father's entire war army. He'd emptied Shadowpine to come get me and for what reason?
Darius stood at my left, Kane at my right, Rylan a step ahead. The bond hummed tight between us, feeding me their tension and the new, sharper protectiveness that wrapped around my belly like armor. I could feel the child kicking harder now, like it was angry too.
"They're testing us," I said quietly. "Father thinks the witch's mark makes us weak. He thinks the pregnancy makes me slow."
Kane's scarred hand brushed my lower back once. "Then we show him different."
Rylan's axe rested on his shoulder. "I want to see his face when he realizes the girl he threw away in chains is the one who ends him."
The first wave hit just before dawn.
.... The army of wolves came screaming out of the tree line, half-shifted, silver-tipped arrows flying. I stayed on the wall like I promised, bow in my hands. My shots weren't perfect, but the latent alpha blood made my aim steady. I dropped one rider. Then another and another. The bond roared approval every time.
Below us the brothers led the counter-attack. Darius shifted and tore through the front line like black death. Kane moved silent and deadly between them. Rylan laughed as he swung his axe, splitting helms and shields and their army fought beside them.
In the process, a Shadowpine wolf clandestinely made it up the wall near me and tried to take me out but I met him with my knife, drove it under his jaw and twisted. Blood sprayed across my face. He held his jaw spasming and finally dropped twitching at my feet. Dead.
The fight lasted until the sun came up bloody. They broke and fell back, leaving bodies in the snow but we didn't chase, we let them run like the cowards they are.
Back in the bailey the pack cheered when we walked through. I had blood on my hands, blood on my cloak, but I kept my chin up. The beta thumped his spear once in approval. More joined him. The sound rolled across the stones.
The four of us went straight to our chambers. The door shut heavy. Darius turned me to face him, hands rough but careful on my shoulders. "You fought well. But the child —"
"Is still safe," I said. My voice came out raw. "And I'm not hiding while my father marches on us."
Kane was already pouring water. Rylan dropped onto the bed, watching me. I let them clean me up again, the bond humming warm and fierce. My hand kept drifting back to my belly. The flutter was there, steady now. The kid was fighting too.
Darius's palm settled low beside mine. "We have seven days until the full moon. Seven days until the witch demands her price. We can't fight both fronts at once."
I looked at the three of them — tired, bloody, still feral, still mine. "Then we don't. We hit my father hard enough that he crawls back south. Then we ride east and finish the witch before she finishes us."
Rylan's grin came back, slow and mean. "That's my girl."
Kane nodded once. Darius pulled me closer, forehead against mine.
Outside, the horns sounded again. It was distant but angry. My father was regrouping.
Seven days. We had seven days to make the North remember exactly who the hell I was now.
And I planned to use every single one of them.