We all stared at the young woman.

"Uh, I'm not sure I heard that correctly," I told Anabel.

"I want to come with you," she repeated.

"Why? You already have a home here."

"Lots of people here have the same skills I do. And I wouldn't mind seeing different packs. Alpha Bennet said I can always come back."

"This isn't going to be a leisurely hike," Amber murmured kindly. "We plan on travelling fast with very little rest."

Anabel drew herself up, the very action making her lean frame look younger and smaller. "I was a rogue for five years. I'm faster than I look."

"Perhaps," Josh said, interlocking his hands and stretching them above his head as he limbered up for the run ahead, "but some of us were feral for longer than that. It won't be easy to keep up."

Her face went pale. "Feral?"

Conrad sent a light punch into Josh's side, causing him to gasp and step back. Perhaps it hadn't been as gentle as it seemed.

"What was that for?" Josh asked, rubbing his side.

"You know why."

"Look at her – she wouldn't give up even if we told her no. If she tries to keep up, which we all know she will, your big heart will slow down for her, and if she travels with us, she'll figure it out the moment she asks where we are going. Anyone who can survive in no man's land for five years isn't stupid."

Conrad sighed and regarded Anabel. "You aren't going to give up and stay here, are you?"

"He was feral?" She still seemed to be stuck on that detail, although her traces of fear were rapidly transforming into astonishment.

Josh rolled his eyes. "Why do you think you are subconsciously uneasy around us? Just like a fighter has a slightly different stance, those who were rogues behave a bit differently or notice more than the average wolf – and those who were feral are a bit different yet."

Anabel simply stared at him as she thought hard.

He chuckled and held out his hand. "Think you can travel with people as scary as us?"

A grin split across her face. "You bet."

Their hands met in a firm handshake – and the flare of a forming matebond slammed against my senses.

Conrad glanced between the two of them as they stared at each other.

"They're mates," I whispered through my shock. "But I thought that second chance mates just needed to make eye contact?"

Jenna slowly replied, "I once heard that sometimes contact is needed if both individuals are looking for their second chance mates."

"In that case," I said, "I think Anabel is older than she looks."

Conrad added, "I also think it's safe to say she's coming with us."

Vera carried me in the basket, which allowed me to watch Anabel as she told her story. It had taken only seconds to give her access to the pack link, although Vera had frog-marched Josh out of the clearing so he didn't see the knife cutting into her skin while the matebond was so new.

"I'm actually twenty-three. I just look younger. My first mate was in the same pack as me, so we found each other as soon as we came of age. It was just weeks after my eighteenth birthday. Mere days later, unlawful rogues poisoned our well and wiped out most of our pack."

She fell silent for a while, and I had a suspicion that this was part of the pain I had helped her with when she had visited the Woodhurst Pack.

Eventually, she continued, speaking mostly to Josh, but letting us listen in. "Henry was one of the first to die from the poison. The few survivors scattered. The rogues...captured some of us. They whipped us, although it never went further than that since some other rogues found their camp and attacked them. They freed us and left us with a different group of rogues. They were a quieter bunch and peaceful. Most scattered to nearby packs. Eventually, the rogue group broke up since some found their mates and others had died in various accidents or attacks. So, I joined Greenvale pack. Not as crazy as what you went through, but still not fun."

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that," Josh told her, nuzzling her shoulder with his head as they trotted side by side.

"I'm so relieved to find my second-chance mate. I was beginning to wonder if I had one after all this time."

"Well, I'm here now. Good luck getting rid of me."

"Hah! I ain't letting you go!"

They both wolf-grinned at each other. I rolled my eyes and flopped down in the basket.

"Let me know when they're done gazing at each other with gooey eyes..." I muttered to Vera across the packlink.

"You'll be waiting a long time because I stopped watching them about a minute ago."

"This is going to be a long trip."

Anabel asked, "Where are we going?"

"To find Woodhurst's Beta," Josh replied.

"The one that went feral? That was weeks ago – he could be almost anywhere by now."

"We know which direction he went originally, so we'll just have to track him."

"The trail is weeks old," Anabel pointed out, puzzled. "The scent will be gone."

With amusement in his voice, Josh asked, "Whose sense of smell is better, yours as a former rogue or the average guard from Greenvale Pack?"

"Mine," she replied, as if the answer should have been obvious.

"Now, whose sense of smell is better, a former feral or a rogue?"

"Is your sense of smell good enough to track a feral after several weeks?"

"That is what we are going to find out," Josh said, "and I can be just as persistent as a feral when I put my mind to it."

I popped my head up. "And I'm here for moral support!"

Josh rolled his eyes. "A tisket, a tasket, there's a puppy in a basket."

The matebond must have fried his brains.

"Vera, can you bite him for me?" I asked. "He won't take me seriously if I do it."

"I would have to put the basket down to do that," she replied.

"Is that a no?" My ears drooped.

"That means, 'later'."

My ears perked back up, although Josh was beginning to look rather alarmed.

"Is this his scent?" Conrad asked, sharing the faint smell with me since my nose wasn't picking anything up.

"Yes! That's it!"

"Memorize it," he told the others. "This isn't going to be an easy chase, especially if he runs through heavy vegetation or rolls in leaves as that'll cover his scent."

They gathered along the path and sniffed at the packed dirt, although only the former ferals were likely finding anything. Vera placed the basket beside me, and I hopped in, glancing one last time at the burnt remains of the packhouse in the distance. Faint nostalgia filled my chest, but the pressing need to help the Beta left me with no desire to remain here.

Conrad walked further up the trail and raised his head to the evening sky. A long, wild howl left his throat, and one by one, the others joined in. The former rogues, Anabel, and I also joined the hunting song, although our voices were a far cry from the almost haunting sound of the former ferals declaring the beginning of their chase.

With no warning, Conrad broke off and raced down the trail, sending a few dead leaves whirling behind him. In an eerie silence, the others bolted after him, also intent on finding the one whose scent they had focused on.

"Get on my back," Josh told Anabel. "You won't be able to keep up with this pace yet."

She hesitated, but shifted into her human form and vaulted onto his back, gripping his fur in her hands as her legs pressed against his sides to keep from sliding off.

I crouched down in the basket as Vera launched over a log. Her breathing came harder as we raced through the forest with our pack. I had forgotten just how fast the ferals had travelled when I first joined them, but this reminded me of their speed and insane stamina.

I doubted it would be long before Aimee and Jordan were forced to accept a ride. This pace was something that only a feral – or former feral – could maintain for long, and I didn't doubt my friends' persistence.

It was going to be a long night, and I was glad that I was in a basket where I could nap.