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He stood there blinking, then said, “Is that what you were doing? In the middle of the night?”

I stared at him. He was a clan favorite. Old women slipped him extra honey rolls and men reach out to slap his shoulders as he passed. This ass who couldn’t even deign to worship outside of normal waking hours. That made me hot. And here I was struggling to feel like a part of Toke’s clan, despite my devotion. What bullshit it all was.

“I have to dress,” I said through gritted teeth.

He took in air to argue with, then stopped short, looking at my wet hair and clothes once more. Then he just floundered. His jaw was unhinged. His face looked conflicted or maybe dazed; I couldn’t tell.

“Hello?”

He narrowed his eyes on mine. “Fine,” he said. Then he stalked out the door and into the rain.

I didn’t know how long he was planning to give me, and I didn’t want to be caught with my drawers down, so I hurried. I peeled off my wet pants and my shirt and wiggled into a new set as quickly as I could. It wasn’t easy. My skin was still wet, and the linen wanted to stick and not slide. I swore as I stumbled.

Roan rapped on the door.

“Don’t you dare,” I growled, fighting to get my arms into my sleeves. When the shirt was over my head, I breathed a sigh of relief before heading over to let him in.

What I really wanted was to pull the lock and climb into bed with Roan stuck out in the storm. It would serve him right. I turned the handle instead, let the door swing open a bit, and headed back to the fire.

He came in behind me.

“We have a problem.”

I turned back. He stood with his hands at his side, all of him soaking wet. The storm had picked up.

Shit.

“I’ll just—” go outside, I was going to say. But then I’d get wet again. And it hit me. One of us was going to have to change in this hut while the other sat close by.

My cheeks burned.

“Do it in your loft,” I said. “I’m hide—hiding in my bedroll.”

He smiled at that. I turned my face away so he wouldn’t see, but—dammit—so did I.

Roan must have ratted out my maps, because I’d been found tending to the birds and was told to make for the meeting house to see Baer.

My heart dropped. I didn’t want to, but I knew I had to go. Like a lamb to slaughter, I followed the hunter they’d sent to fetch me back through the village.

He cleared his throat. “Roan’s a good friend of mine. I think of him as a brother.”

He said it casually, like he hoped to pick up a conversation with me. He must have known I wasn’t mute, but that didn’t change the fact that I had nothing to say. I gave him a sidelong glance. He was studying me intently.

“We started hunting at the same time. Now we’re both being considered for positions as wolf hunters. I’m Thaas.”

Wolf hunters? The news shocked me, though I supposed it shouldn’t have. Of course they would consider Roan for a position as wolf hunter.Of course they would.

“Fenli,” I said quietly.

He smiled at that. “I know who you are, Fenli.”

Embarrassed, I looked away, but he seemed unbothered by my awkwardness. He carried on, leading me to the place where I’d surely be made to pay for my transgressions, and I thought about what he’d said.

If he and Roan were chosen as wolf hunters, they’d be set apart from the others and lauded. It was a high honor for the men in Toke’s clan, who had a kind of hierarchy amongst themselves. Those who stayed with the women to tend to the animals and the crops were either the average sods, or they were older, having already had their glory in the woods. The hunters were the ideal, and to be elevated to wolf hunter—they were the best of the best. The only greater honor was to become an elder, and most of them had been wolf hunters first. I should have been proud to be the wife of someone achieving so much.

I was not.

Toke’s children versus the wolves had been our story for ages. First our men had been warriors, defending all four Caed clans from the raiderswho had tried to take our coastal lands. When our enemies had been beaten back, Toke’s warriors had turned to hunting—and to eradicating the wolves. I’d grown up on tales of the beasts, same as everyone else, but I’d never seen one. Just pelts hung on walls and ears strung on cords. They’d been close to wiped out near the southern village when I was just a babe. Once, during my fifteenth winter, I’d heard one howling deep into the night, but never again. The wolf hunters had done their job thoroughly.