Luna smelled the horses before she heard them. Iron, oiled leather, and the sour sweat of men who had ridden all night. She dropped into a crouch at the ridge above the den and counted six riders threading the pines. Royal trackers. They were half a mile out and moving straight toward the crystal-mouthed cave where she had hidden Astra three days ago. She slid down the slope on her heels and ducked under the low stone arch. Pale blue crystals threw cold light on the walls. Astra sat against the far wall in a stablehand's brown tunic, the silver diadem gone, her long hair tied back. A small gold chest sat open beside her, half-buried under a folded cloak — coins, a ring, a sealed letter she would not explain. Luna had stopped asking. "Trackers," Luna said. "Six. Coming up the north draw." Astra closed the chest. "How long." "Twenty minutes. Maybe less." "Can your father hide me." "He won't." Luna's ears flattened. "He said bloodlines matter. He said no." Astra stood. She did not look afraid. That was the thing that gutted Luna every time — Astra never performed what she was feeling. "Then we run." "They'll cut our trail in an hour." Luna's hands shook. She pressed them flat against her thighs. "Unless I give them a different one." Astra's cold blue eyes settled on her. "Explain." "I go north on foot. Loud. Wolf-shape, wolf-scent, my tunic dragged behind me. They chase me instead of searching the den. You stay inside until dark, then take the east cut to the river." "They'll catch you." "They'll catch a wolf. They won't know it's me." Astra was quiet for a breath. Then she crossed the space and took Luna's face in both hands. Her palms were cold. "If you die for me I will not forgive you." "Then I won't die." Luna pressed her forehead to Astra's. "Stay in the dark part of the cave. Don't touch the chest again until I come back." She stripped off her deer-hide tunic, balled it around a stone, and ran. She broke cover a hundred yards from the riders and let them see her — grey ears, grey tail, yellow eyes bright against the pines. A tracker shouted. Horns went up. She dragged the tunic through mud and pine needles and led them north, away from the crystal mouth, away from Astra. An hour later she doubled back through the creek and climbed to the ridge above the den. The trackers were gone north, following a false trail that would hold until morning. But a new scent hit her on the wind. Wolf. White fur. Her father's musk, close and familiar. Bone Greymane stood at the mouth of the den, one hand braced on the crystal arch, looking in at the girl in the stablehand tunic. He had found them first.

Luna climbed the last ridge on her hands and knees. Her father stood at the mouth of the den, one broad hand on the crystal arch. His white ears turned toward her before she made a sound. Inside, Astra sat very still against the far wall, the gold chest closed at her hip. Bone Greymane did not turn around. "Come out of the trees, pup. I smelled you a mile back." Luna stepped into the open. Her tunic was gone. Mud streaked her arms. She kept her body between him and the cave, though he was three times her weight and could throw her aside without breaking stride. "Move," he said. "No." "She is not pack. She brought riders to our door. You hand her to me, or I drag you both back and let the circle decide." The circle meant the pack ring. It meant Astra on her knees and Luna beside her while her father read the charges aloud. Luna had stood in that ring before, for smaller things. She remembered the smell of the torches. "You'd give her to the king," Luna said. "I'd give her to the pack. What the pack does after is not my business." "It's the same thing." He finally looked at her. His blue eyes were tired, not cruel. That was worse. "Bloodlines matter, Luna. I told you that when you were a cub. I am telling you now." Behind him, Astra rose to her feet. She did not run. She walked to the cave mouth and stopped at Bone's shoulder, the gold chest cradled in both arms. "Alpha," Astra said. Her voice was level. "I killed a man in my father's house. I have a letter that would end his reign if it reached the right hand. Take it. Give it to whichever lord you owe. Then let us go." She opened the chest. Coins caught the crystal light. The sealed letter sat on top, wax intact. Bone looked at the letter for a long moment. He did not touch it. "I don't sell my daughter's mate for paper." Luna's breath stopped. "But I don't shelter her either." He stepped back from the arch. "You have until sundown to be off my range. If the pack finds you after that, I did not see you leave. If the king's men find you, I did not see you at all." "Father—" "Go, Luna." His voice cracked once and settled. "Don't come back until she's not with you." He turned and walked down the slope. His white tail disappeared into the pines. Astra closed the chest. Her hands were shaking, which Luna had never seen. "Sundown," she said. "Four hours." Luna took her hand. "We go east. The river will kill our scent." Astra looked at the empty trees where Bone had stood. "He called me your mate." "I know." "You never asked." "I will," Luna said. "When we're alive."

Luna led Astra east along the river as the sun dropped toward the hills. The gold chest slowed them both. Astra carried it against her chest, her royal robes torn at the hem, her diadem tucked away in her pocket. She did not complain. But she stumbled twice on the wet stones, and her breath came short. Luna's ears twitched at every sound in the pines. Sundown was close. Once it came, her father's word ended, and the pack would hunt. "We need cover before dark," Luna said. "Not open ground." "Then find it." Astra's voice stayed level, but her knuckles were white on the chest. "You know this land. I don't." Luna dropped to a crouch and pressed her palm to the ground. She shifted her weight and let her nose work. Under the smell of moss and cold water, she caught something older. Empty stone. Trapped air. She rose and pointed downstream. They followed the water around a bend. There the bank fell away to a low mouth of smooth grey stone. A stream ran across the entrance in a thin sheet. The cave was small and dark, half hidden by a lip of rock. Trackers on horseback would ride past it. The running water would break their scent at the door. "There," Luna said. "The stream covers the smell. They won't look under it." Astra studied the black opening. "How far back does it go?" "Far enough. Come on." They waded the shallow stream and ducked inside. The floor was dry two steps in. Astra set the chest down and sat against the wall, finally letting her shoulders drop. Luna crouched at the mouth and watched the trees turn grey, then black. No riders came. The sun went down, and nothing found them. For a long while neither spoke. Water ran across the stone in a steady hush. "Your father gave us until sundown," Astra said at last. "It's sundown." "I know." "So now we're inside his rule, or outside it." Luna turned from the entrance. "Outside. From here on, if the pack finds us, they take us both. He won't stop them. He can't." She sat beside Astra. "He meant it. I'm not his daughter anymore. Not while you're with me." Astra was quiet. Then she reached over and rested her hand on Luna's, on the cold stone floor. "You said you'd ask me," Astra said. "When we were alive." Luna looked at her. "We're alive." "We're hunted in a hole in the ground." "That's alive." Luna almost smiled. "Ask you what, then. Say it." Astra held her gaze, and for once her control slipped, just at the edges. "Ask me to stay." "Stay," Luna said. "Yes." Outside, an owl called. Somewhere north, a wolf answered it — one, then two. The pack was moving. They had shelter for the night. Come morning, they had a whole kingdom hunting them, and nowhere left that was home.