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was in his wolf form, sitting on a stony hill. Nearby, the young female from the night before sat with her knees pulled up against her chest. She had her head turned away from him and her shoulders were hunched. Ginnifer tried to get a look at her face, but there was too much distance between them. Gradually, Kuva sped up, and soon Zane and his sister had vanished beyond the hills.
    They caught up sometime later, when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. Zane bounded up alongside them, his sister lying on his back with her arms wrapped loosely around his long neck. Ginnifer offered her a greeting, but Indigo’s face flushed and she looked away without responding.
    The group made two stops during the daylight hours, only brief enough for Ginnifer to pee and take a few swigs of water. Boaz had the food bag, and during the afternoon he’d tossed her a protein bar that had somehow made her feel hungrier than before she’d eaten it.
    Her digital watch read 19:00 in neon green digits when they finally began to slow again. This time, they were more deliberate about choosing a place to stop, and she sensed that they’d be down for the night.
    She was relieved when she slid from Kuva’s back. Her legs wobbled a bit and her thighs ached something fierce, but Boaz was much worse for wear. He fell headfirst off Tallow’s back, his hands coming up at the last minute to spare his face from the stone ground. Ginnifer went to help him, but before she reached him, Tallow had already shifted and was hoisting him up with one arm hooked under his.
    “Is this where we’re stopping?” Boaz asked, sounding both hopeful and skeptical.
    They had stopped in the small basin between two steep hills. Patches of thin snow were scattered across cracked grey stone, and lichen made her steps springy. Although natural buffers flanked it, the cold wind still snaked through the area, slipping right past her faceguard to sting her cheeks.
    “We’ll stop here for the night,” Breeze said, back in her human form and wrapping herself in the tawny pelt of a caribou.
    It was then that Ginnifer realized something else she’d forgotten. Their tents. From the grim look on Boaz’s face, he’d come to the same realization.
    “We can’t be out here in the cold like this,” he said.
    “Not to worry,” Tallow said. She took the oversized pelt that she was wearing and wrapped it around the both of them. As she did so, Ginnifer caught a glimpse of her naked body, and her eyes widened.
    Tallow snorted in her direction. “See something you like?”
    Ginnifer ignored the quip. “Is that really all you need to keep warm? And what about your feet?”
    The shifter eyed her dryly. “Just because we look human doesn’t mean our bodies work like yours do.”
    “It is like our wolf bodies,” Kuva said in a much friendlier tone. “Looks same, but is different. We can run faster, hunt for longer, and go longer with no food.”
    “And the cold doesn’t bother you?” Ginnifer asked. “Even without fur?”
    “It is a bother,” he said. “But only that. It does not hurt us, not like it does a human.”
    As if to emphasize his point, he wrapped a heavy pelt around her neck. It had long grey fur and hung down to below her knees.
    “To keep you warm,” he told her.
    ***
    “I’ll bet he’d like to keep her warm ,” Indigo said in a conspiratorial whisper.
    Zane covered his sister’s face with his hand, giving her a light push. “Does this mean you’re done sulking?”
    “I wasn’t sulking,” she said, batting his hand away. “I was coming to terms with how much I can’t stand you and reconciling it with the fact that I’ll never escape your despotic regime.”
    Zane hid his amusement with a long-suffering sigh. “Run away again and I’ll personally deliver you to Amarok. Survive there for a few weeks and I’ll listen to whatever you have to say on the subject of tyranny.”
    Indigo knew it was only a bluff, but her mouth snapped shut