Knotting His Rejected Breeder

The rider on the ridge did not move. Destiny watched him until her eyes began to burn. He was too far away for her to make out his face, but there was something deliberate about the way he sat there, completely still while their wagon continued along the road.

Her father noticed the angle of her body and glanced back. "What do you see?"

"Nothing."

The lie came too quickly. Her father didn’t respond, but Destiny saw his hands tighten around the reins. His knuckles paled before he loosened his grip again. He had seen the rider too.

She looked back once more, but the ridge was empty. The rider had disappeared behind the hills. Destiny waited for the relief to come, but it never did. Her father kept his eyes on the road, although his shoulders remained tense, and every few moments he glanced over his shoulder.

"You know who that is?" Destiny asked.

"No."

The answer came too quickly to sound honest.

Destiny looked at the back of his head but didn’t push.

They continued along the road. It should have felt familiar. They had traveled this route countless times over the years, and Destiny knew most of the fields and landmarks between the market town and home. Today, everything felt wrong. Her father checked behind them more often than he watched the road ahead, while her mother kept the wagon’s thin curtains closed even after the morning sun climbed high enough to fill the fields with light.

When they reached the turn toward a small village where her father usually stopped for water and news, he drove straight past without slowing.

Destiny looked at him. "Why aren’t we stopping?"

"We don’t need anything."

"We always stop there."

"Not today."

His answer was final, and her mother remained silent.

Destiny’s unease hardened into something sharper. This wasn’t new caution. This was fear, and judging by the way her parents moved around it, it wasn’t fear that had started yesterday. It had been waiting for them for years.

"How long have you been expecting someone to find me?"

The question slipped into the silence.

Neither of them answered. Her mother looked at her while her father kept his eyes ahead. Destiny waited, but the silence stretched until it became an answer of its own.

She looked down at her bag. When neither of her parents was watching, she opened it and checked inside. The stone was still gone. She had checked for it so many times that she already knew what she would find, but the empty space still made her stomach tighten.

Her fingers moved deeper into the bag and touched the wooden wolf. She pulled it out and immediately noticed something was different. The carving felt warm against her palm. Not hot, but warm enough for her to notice.

Destiny frowned and turned it over. The faint mark carved into the back looked darker than it had the previous evening. She rubbed her thumb across it, wondering if the changing light was playing tricks on her.

"Where did you get that?"

Destiny’s head snapped up.

Her mother’s face had changed. For half a second, recognition was written plainly across it before she quickly looked away.

"Mother?"

Her father turned. "Put it away."

The sharpness in his voice startled her.

Destiny closed her fingers around the carving. "How do you know what it is?"

"I said put it away."

She slid the wooden wolf back into her bag, but her suspicion had already deepened. Her mother knew it. Her father knew it. And neither of them wanted to explain why.

By midday, Destiny couldn’t hold the questions inside anymore.

"I am twenty-two," she said. Her father glanced at her, but she continued before he could speak. "I’m not a child. Strangers are following us. The stone is gone. You both look like you’ve been expecting this for years, and every time I ask something, you tell me to stop."

Her father exhaled slowly through his nose. "There are things about your past we were told never to speak about."

"By whom?"

He didn’t answer.

"Who told you?"

His jaw tightened.

"Father."

He stared at the road for several seconds before finally speaking. "When we found you, someone was already looking for you."

Destiny went still.

The wagon continued rolling beneath her, but for a moment she barely felt it.

"When you found me?"

Her father nodded once.

"You never told me that."

"You were too young."

"I was twenty-two yesterday too."

His eyes flickered toward her.

"You don’t understand what you’re asking."

"Then help me understand."

Her mother reached across the seat and took Destiny’s hand. Her fingers were cold.

"We wanted you to have a normal life."

Destiny stared at her. "A normal life built around a secret?"

Her mother’s eyes filled with something that looked painfully close to guilt.

"We loved you."

"I know."

Destiny’s voice softened. "That isn’t what I’m questioning."

Her father said nothing. Destiny looked between them, and for the first time she wondered whether her entire childhood had been built around keeping her hidden. Not because she was unwanted, but because someone had wanted to find her.

Near evening, one of the horses suddenly stumbled. The wagon jolted hard enough to throw Destiny against the side, and her father immediately pulled the reins and brought them to a stop. The horse lifted one leg, restless and breathing heavily.

Her father climbed down and crouched beside it. After a moment, he swore quietly.

The horse had thrown a shoe.

"We can’t continue like this in the dark," he said. He looked toward the surrounding fields before pointing toward an old farmhouse set back from the road. "We’ll shelter there until morning."

Destiny climbed down and followed her parents toward the farmhouse. It looked abandoned from the road, its roof sagging slightly and weeds growing around the broken fence. But as they approached, Destiny noticed something that made her stop.

Footprints.

Several sets.

Fresh ones.

Her father saw them at almost the same time. His entire posture changed.

"Back to the wagon."

Destiny barely had time to turn before hoofbeats sounded behind them.

Multiple horses.

Her father’s hand closed around Destiny’s arm. "Inside."

"What about Mother?"

"Go."

He grabbed her mother’s hand and pulled both of them toward the farmhouse. They barely made it through the doorway before the first riders appeared on the road.

Her father pushed them into the shadows near the broken hearth. Destiny crouched beside her mother, barely breathing as the horses slowed outside.

Voices carried through the thin walls.

"Did they come this way?"

"The trail ends here."

Destiny’s stomach dropped.

They weren’t looking for a wagon.

They were tracking her.

Her father’s hand covered her mouth before she could make a sound. Outside, several riders continued down the road, but one remained.

Boots struck the ground.

Slowly, it was easured, Coming closer.

Destiny’s fingers closed around the wooden wolf inside her bag. Her breathing became shallow as the footsteps stopped outside the door.

Then her hand slipped.

The wooden wolf fell from her fingers and struck the floor.

The sound was tiny, but in the silence it might as well have been a scream.

The footsteps stopped.

Her father’s eyes snapped toward her.

The door handle moved. Metal scraped against metal. Destiny’s pulse roared in her ears.

Then she felt it.

The Heat.

The wooden wolf had warmed sharply against her palm where she had snatched it back up. Not light. Not sound. Just heat, sudden and focused, almost as though the carving had responded to something outside.

The door handle stopped moving.

For several seconds, nobody breathed.

Then the footsteps slowly moved away.

A horse snorted outside. The rider mounted, and the hoofbeats faded into the distance.

Destiny didn’t move until she could no longer hear them.

Her father finally lowered his hand from her mouth. Nobody spoke. He remained by the window, watching the road through a crack in the broken shutters before finally turning toward them.

"We aren’t going home."

The words frightened Destiny more than the riders had.

Home had always been the one place that felt solid. Safe. Unquestioned.

"Where are we going?"

Her father looked toward the east.

"Somewhere they won’t think to look."

Destiny followed his gaze. East. Toward Silvercrest territory. Toward the market. Toward the black feather, the missing stone, and the stranger she had collided with in the crowd.

Dane.

She still remembered the cold authority in his voice and the way his eyes had measured her as though he were trying to understand something she couldn’t explain herself. She hadn’t liked him. She hadn’t trusted him. But now the pieces were beginning to feel connected.

The people following her had appeared at the market. Dane had been there. The hooded man had disappeared toward the eastern forest. Now her parents were taking her toward Silvercrest.

Destiny didn’t know what it meant. She only knew that nothing about her life felt accidental anymore.

They left before sunrise. Her father repaired the horse’s shoe as best he could, and they abandoned the main road entirely, taking a narrow farming route that wound between fields and wooded hills. Destiny barely spoke, and neither did her parents.

By late morning, they reached a crossroads where a patrol passed in the opposite direction. The riders slowed when they saw the wagon, then continued on. Destiny caught only fragments of their conversation as they passed.

"The new Bloodmoon Alpha is still asking about the girl from the market."

Her head snapped toward them.

One rider glanced at the other. "Why?"

"Apparently he thinks she may have seen something."

"Does he know who she is?"

"No."

The riders continued down the road.

Destiny sat completely still.

The new Bloodmoon Alpha.

Dane.

He was asking about her.

Her first instinct was fear, but confusion quickly replaced it. If Dane wanted to find her, why?

She remembered the market. The way he had looked at the chaos. The way he had noticed things other people ignored. He had seen the hooded man. He had probably seen her too.

Maybe he wasn’t looking for her because he wanted to hurt her.

Maybe he wanted answers.

But that didn’t mean she could trust him. She had no idea what he knew, what he wanted, or what he would do if he found her first.

Destiny looked toward the road leading deeper into Silvercrest territory.

For the first time, she wondered if the stranger she had collided with at the market was not the threat she needed to fear.

She didn’t know whether Dane was looking for her to help her or because he wanted answers of his own. But if the people hunting her were afraid of him finding her, perhaps that meant something.

Perhaps, for now, she needed to find him before they did.

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