Chapter 2: The Test Iris Burned

Nora made it halfway to the old healer's cottage before the first guard caught up to her. "Former Luna." Not Luna. Not Lady Ashford. Not even Nora. Just *former*. She stopped beneath a black pine heavy with snow. The cottage lights glowed across the yard, small and yellow and almost kind. Maeve would be waiting there with a bag. Maeve always prepared for disasters before anyone admitted they were disasters. Nora turned. The guard was young. Tomas, she remembered. His mate had delivered twins last spring after Nora sent extra firewood to their den. He would not meet her eyes. "Alpha Rowan requires you to return to the east wing until dawn," Tomas said. "Requires," Nora repeated. His mouth tightened. "For transition." Behind him, three more guards emerged from the blowing snow. Nora's wolf pressed low in warning. This was not transition. This was containment. "Tell Rowan I'll leave Blackridge before morning," Nora said. "He made his decision." "It's not that simple." A sweeter voice answered from the trees. "It never is, is it?" Iris stepped into the yard wearing Nora's old white fur mantle over her blue gown. The mantle had belonged to Nora's mother. Heat flashed behind Nora's eyes. "Take that off." Iris touched the collar with a soft little smile. "Rowan gave it to me. He said Luna things shouldn't be wasted." One of the guards looked down. Nora understood then. Rowan had not sent Iris to gloat. Iris had come because there was something she wanted before Nora left. Nora's fingers curled over the paper in her pocket. Too late. Iris's eyes dropped to the movement. The smile vanished. "What is that?" "Nothing that belongs to you." Iris moved fast. She had always moved fast when no one important was watching. Her hand closed around Nora's wrist and squeezed the burned mate mark hard enough to make Nora gasp. The paper fell. Iris snatched it from the snow. For one terrible second, the yard held still. Iris read the healer's mark. Her face went blank. Then she laughed. "No." Nora reached for the paper. Iris stepped back. "Give it to me." "No," Iris said again, and this time the word shook. "No, no, no. You don't get this." "This isn't about you." "Everything has been about you." Iris's voice cracked open, ugly under the sweetness. "Poor Nora, good Nora, patient Nora. Even when everyone pitied you, they still looked at you first." "Iris." "Don't say my name like you're kind." Iris held up the paper. "How long?" Nora said nothing. Iris's gaze sharpened. "Does Rowan know?" Nora's silence answered. For one second, triumph and panic fought across Iris's face. Panic won. She turned toward the nearest guard. "Take her cloak." Tomas stiffened. "Lady Iris..." "Luna," Iris snapped. The word hung between them, fresh and rotten. The guards moved. Nora struck first. She drove her elbow into the closest man's throat and shoved past him toward the cottage. Maeve appeared in the doorway, eyes wide, a travel bag clutched to her chest. "Run!" Maeve shouted. Nora ran. Snow swallowed the yard. A guard grabbed her sleeve. Fabric tore. Another caught her hair. Pain snapped across her scalp. She twisted, bit his hand, and stumbled toward the lower path that led to the northern border. Iris's voice followed her. "If she crosses with that child, Rowan will never be free of her." Nora's blood went cold. The guards didn't drag her back to the house. They drove her north. Away from the cottages. Away from witnesses. Toward the old pass. Nora fought until her lungs burned. She was a healer, not a warrior, but five years as Luna had taught her where men forgot to protect themselves when they thought a woman was already beaten. She broke one nose. She split one lip. She nearly reached the tree line. Then Tomas stepped in front of her. His face was gray. "I'm sorry," he whispered. He struck her with the flat of his blade. The world flashed white. When Nora opened her eyes, the pack border stones stood behind her, black shapes under ice. Her cloak was gone. Her boots were soaked. The wind cut through her thin gown as if the cloth were paper. Iris stood on the other side of the border with a lantern in one hand and the healer's test in the other. "You can't do this," Nora said. Her voice barely carried over the storm. Iris held the paper to the lantern flame. Nora lurched forward. The border wards slammed her back. Rejected Luna. No longer protected. No longer permitted to enter without Alpha consent. The paper curled. The healer's mark blackened. Positive became ash. "There," Iris said softly. "Now there's no child." Nora pressed both hands over her stomach. "You won't touch my baby." Iris's eyes glittered. "There's no baby, Nora. There's only a desperate barren woman freezing outside pack land after making one last ugly lie." The guards turned away one by one. Tomas was last. He didn't look at her. The lantern light retreated through the trees. Snow filled the footprints almost immediately. Nora stood alone on the wrong side of the border, shaking so hard her teeth cut her lip. She tried to walk. The path tilted. Her knees hit the snow. *Get up*, her wolf growled. Nora pushed one hand into the drift. *Get up.* She crawled three feet before the storm took the world apart. The last thing she heard before the dark opened under her wasn't the wind. It was a wolf howling from the north. Not Blackridge. Older. Lower. Angrier.