39. Marshall

39

Marshall

August was asleep beside me, his chest rising and falling to the rhythm of the wagon wheels beneath us. I tried to let the sight of his sleep calm me, but the tension inside me refused to ease.

We were in the back of a wagon, bound and shackled, being transported back to neutral territory. There, we were to stand trial for the charges Raol had leveled against us—attacking a fellow alpha. It was all the council would need to turn against us.

The wounds we’d suffered from the fight with Raol were still fresh, stinging with each jolt of the wagon, but it was Elisabed’s fate that weighed most heavily on my mind. We’d failed her, failed to protect her from Raol’s wrath, and now we were powerless to do anything about it.

We didn’t even know where Elisabed was. We presumed Raol would be transporting her back to either the neutral territory or his own, but if so, they weren’t traveling with us.

“Damn it,” Finn muttered under his breath, the words barely audible over the sound of hooves and wheels. “How did we let this happen?”

I looked at him. His face was drawn, the lines of his distress etched deep into his skin. “We all made mistakes, Finn,” I said. “But August wasn’t alone out there. We all went in with our eyes open.”

Finn’s jaw clenched. “But we didn’t think it through. We didn’t think about what Raol might do, what he might have waiting for us. And now Elisabed is—”

“Don’t you think I know that?” I snapped, feeling the familiar surge of anger bubbling up. “We all want to save her, Finn. But we can’t do it if we blame each other for what happened. We need to focus on getting out of this mess alive.”

August stirred next to me, his eyes fluttering open as he groaned softly. “What’s going on?”

Finn glared at me before turning to face August, his voice low and harsh. “What’s going on? What’s going on is that we’re being carted back to neutral territory, and Elisabed’s fate is still hanging in the balance. And you’re the one who keeps putting her at risk!”

August’s face hardened, his expression tense as he glared back at Finn. “I wasn’t putting anyone at risk, Finn. I was trying to save her!”

“You were trying to save her by charging off into a trap?” Finn snapped. “That was your big plan? To run off and take Raol on by yourself?”

“Enough!” I shouted, drawing both their attention.

Finn’s eyes narrowed, his gaze flicking to August and then back to me. “You don’t get it, Marshall. You never do. It’s always about what you think is best, not what’s best for all of us.”

“This isn’t about us,” interrupted August. “It’s about Elisabed. And she’s—”

“She’s pregnant, August!” Finn interrupted. “She’s pregnant , and you keep putting her at risk. Do you even care about that? Do you even care about her?”

August went pale as the implications hit him. “Pregnant?” he echoed.

“That’s why she went after you, you idiot! She knew what was at stake!” Finn snapped.

August’s eyes met mine, his guilt and pain palpable. “I just...I just wanted to save her.”

“We need to be smarter about this,” Finn said. “From now on, we don’t do anything without a plan—a real plan.”

August’s jaw tightened, his eyes wide in shock at Finn’s words. Finn was always the one to make fun of our plans, to taunt our overthinking and hesitation. This failure had changed him. It had changed all of us.

“We also need to work together,” I added, trying to cut through the tension. “If we don’t, we’ll never get her back. We need to work as a team, not as a bunch of individuals. Together, we have a chance. Alone, we’re dead.” I scanned the horizon. “We need to get to neutral territory. Once we’re there, we can figure out our next move. But we need to stick together, keep our heads down, and wait for the right moment.”

Finn and August nodded, a grudging acceptance of the plan settling over them.

“Let’s get some rest while we can,” I said, knowing it was just a fleeting moment of calm before the storm hit. “We’re going to need all the strength we can muster if we’re going to get Elisabed and her sister back.”

August nodded, laying himself sideways on the rough wood of the wagon. Finn followed, leaning his head back against one of the low walls.

I closed my eyes, my eyes racing with plans and possibilities—none of them particularly appealing. I knew we had a fight on our hands; this time, there was no room for failure.