Drake slowed as we approached the rise.
Ahead, a rock formation broke the line of trees, jagged and dark against the night, its base hollowed into a shallow cave. The entrance was low and uneven, more of a crack in the earth than a proper shelter, the kind of place small animals would slip into when the sky threatened rain. For one reckless, desperate second I clung to the hope that the rogue standing there had scented nothing more than a rabbit nest or some half-starved fox hiding from the cold.
I wanted that to be true so badly it almost hurt.
He stood just beyond the lip of the cave, head lowered, nose sweeping the soil in slow, deliberate passes.
A rogue.
The word didn’t form in my head so much as it detonated there.
My stomach dropped so violently I had to tighten my grip in Dra
