The Name I Should Have Called Chapter 03
I was packing my things to leave when Kieran found me.
“Sloan wants to pick moonflowers before she leaves. I’ve arranged a patrol escort.”
“You’re leading it. No one knows those slopes better than you.”
I refused without hesitation.
He pulled a turquoise braided chain from his coat. It was the last gift my mother had left me, the token I had given him years ago to hold.
“If you refuse, I’ll throw this into the frozen canyon.”
I had no choice but to agree.
At dawn, I led the group into the high passes. The moonflowers bloomed at the highest elevations. Snow stung our eyes, and the wind cut like a blade against exposed skin.
Behind me came Sloan’s laughter. Kieran was adjusting her reins, their figures close together in the snow as they laughed loudly.
“Keep your voices down,” I warned in a low voice. “This could be dangerous.”
“Jealousy isn’t a good look on you.” Kieran gave me a cold glance and went back to laughing with Sloan.
Soon we reached the snow line.
“Wow, it’s beautiful up here!” Sloan dismounted and ran off, calling into the mountains.
“Come back!” I rushed over. “Stop shouting!”
“Oh my God.” Kieran whipped my horse aside. “Can you go one second without targeting Sloan?”
My chest heaved with silent fury. In his mind, I really was the bitter, twisted person his mother claimed I’d become.
But I had no time for heartbreak. At Sloan’s shouts, gray clouds rolled in from the horizon, and the ground began to tremble.
My horse sensed the danger and reared up in panic.
“Avalanche!” I screamed. “East. Head east!”
The world turned to white chaos. I was thrown from my horse, my leg slamming against a rock. Agony shot through me, and blood soaked through my pants.
“Kieran!” I shrieked.
In the chaos of white, he turned his horse around. For a moment, hope surged in my chest.
Then Sloan shrieked, “Kieran, I’m so scared!”
He didn’t hesitate. He spurred his horse toward her and pulled her up behind him.
As he passed me, he yelled, “Hold on. I’ll get her somewhere safe and come right back for you.”
But he never looked back.
Then the second wave of snow hit. I buried my face in the snow and let the darkness swallow me. The snow wrapped around me like a frozen coffin.
I shifted, trying to use my fur to keep warm, but as the temperature dropped, my wolf began dying too.
When they finally turned back and dug me out, the blood on my leg had frozen into jagged shards.
Kieran came over and glanced at my wound. “Just a scratch. Bandage it up and keep moving.”
I ignored him. “The wind is too strong. We wait until dawn to leave.”
Kieran snorted. “You’re always so selfish.”
That night, Sloan spiked a high fever.
Kieran burst into my tent and started rummaging through my things. “Your mother was the best healer in the pack. You have herbs on you. Hand them over.”
I was burning up with fever myself, my leg throbbing with pain, but I dragged myself to block him. “No. I need those for myself.”
He stared at my flushed face for a moment. Then he shoved me aside, tore open my bag, and grabbed the pouch of medicine.
“Sloan isn’t used to this cold. You grew up here. You can handle it.”
I collapsed onto my blanket as he walked into Sloan’s tent. She was curled up under Kieran’s thick winter cloak, fast asleep.
Kieran sat with his back against a saddle, his arms around her.
After a long time, I pushed myself up using the tent pole.
I took a horse and rode alone into the storm.
