Part 2
The wolf at the back steps did not bare its teeth. It lowered its nose to the crack beneath the mudroom door and breathed.
On the other side, Ash lifted his head. His whole body trembled as he answered with a thin cry.
Eight more shapes emerged along the tree line.
“Are they hunting us?” Rachel asked.
Eli shook his head, though he kept his eyes on the camera feed. “They followed his scent. They’re looking for their pup.”
The nearest wolf stepped into the fading porch light. A scar crossed its left shoulder.
Avery recognized the animal from the trench.
It looked toward the kitchen window, then settled onto the ground to wait.
The pack remained until dawn. They did not charge the porch, scratch at the doors, or circle the house in the way frightened people later imagined. They moved through the trees, rested in the meadow, and approached whenever Ash made a sound.
That was enough to keep everyone inside.
At first light, the wolves withdrew beyond the ridge. Eli waited another hour before allowing June to open the door. He walked the property with Deputy Marla Benton while Rachel watched from the porch.
Avery was ordered to stay on the couch with her leg elevated.
“I’m not five,” she muttered.
“No,” June said. “At five, you listened occasionally.”
Dr. Maya Brooks arrived before noon in a mud-streaked truck bearing the name of a regional wildlife rehabilitation nonprofit. She examined Ash in the mudroom while Avery held a towel and tried not to flinch when the pup struggled.
He weighed only twelve pounds. The cable had bruised his hind leg, and his lungs sounded congested. Dr. Brooks gave him fluids and medication, then sat back on her heels.
“He’s stronger than he looks,” she said. “But if we release him now, he may not keep up with the pack.”
“How long?” Avery asked.
“Four days if everything goes well. Six if it doesn’t.”
Rachel glanced toward the window. “Can they wait that long?”
“No one knows.”
The nearest rehabilitation center was more than fifty miles away. Eli worried that moving Ash could draw the pack toward the highway or the outskirts of Alder Creek. After several calls, he secured permission for temporary supervised care at June’s cabin.
The mudroom became a makeshift wildlife station. Towels covered the windows. A folding barrier separated the crate from the rest of the house, and a handwritten schedule went onto the refrigerator.
Avery measured small portions of food under Dr. Brooks’s supervision. She kept her movements quiet and resisted the urge to touch Ash unless necessary.
By evening, he had enough strength to growl at Eli.
“That’s a good sign,” the biologist said.
“He likes me better,” Avery replied.
“He’s afraid of me more.”
“That still counts.”
The wolves returned before sunset.
This time, the scarred female came only as far as the woodpile. Two younger animals moved behind her, appearing and disappearing among the trunks. When Ash whimpered, all three stopped at once.
Avery sat inside the darkened kitchen with June.
“She was at the trench,” Avery whispered.
June nodded.
“Do you think she’s his mother?”
June took a long time to answer. “I think we should wait for Eli to tell us what he knows.”
That answer bothered Avery more than a direct no.
The next morning, Eli and Deputy Benton returned to the trench. They removed the false cover and photographed the cable, feed sack, and tire tracks pressed into the dry soil.
Beneath the collapsed branches, they found an adult female wolf.
She had been dead for several days.
Eli saw immediately that she had been nursing. The pup had either fallen into the trench after her or followed her scent to the edge and broken through the cover.
They dismantled what remained of the trap before leaving.
At the cabin, Rachel met them behind June’s shed. Avery watched through the living-room window as Eli spoke. Her mother’s shoulders dropped, and June covered her mouth.
When they came inside, Rachel smiled too quickly.
“They removed the trap,” she said.
“Was anything else in it?” Avery asked.
Rachel busied herself with a bottle of water. “There was old debris.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“We’ll talk later.”
Avery knew adults used later when they hoped a child would stop asking.
That night, she woke after midnight and heard voices in the kitchen. She slipped out of bed, careful not to put too much weight on her injured leg.
Eli stood near the counter with Rachel and June. His voice was low, but the cabin was quiet enough for every word to carry.
“The female in the trench was still producing milk,” he said. “There’s no question she was nursing.”
Avery’s hand tightened around the hallway rail. Ash had not been abandoned. His mother had died beneath him…
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