Fate must have been smiling down on her. When Ryleigh woke, she was lying on the riverbank. It was dark around her, the stars and moon hidden behind thick clouds. She brought a trembling hand to her head and flinched.

She rested her cheek on the sandy bank. Her legs were still hanging in the water, the stream tugging at them like dead wood. She stretched out her arm and dug her nails into the soil. After a deep breath, she dragged herself further out of the river. Everything hurt and she gave up, closing her eyes. She didn't even have the strength to lift her head and look at herself. She wasn't sure she wanted to.

How much more did she need to suffer before her body called it? She was tired – not just physically, but mentally. But giving up was against her nature, and she blinked her eyes open again. She lifted her head just enough to be able to glance around her, and she realised she'd come out of the river on the opposite side of where she'd gone in. Drat.

She looked over her shoulder, her head protesting against any and all movements. Her back was littered with shallow wounds, and so were her legs. Claw marks ran down her right shoulder, garish and long. She sighed.

How would Austin be doing? Was he dead? But no, she'd know. Surely she'd know. He better pull through. If he died, all of this would have been for nothing.

Ever so slowly, she started pulling one of her legs up, out of the water. She clenched her teeth, her breath hitching in her throat. She planted her elbows in the dirt and pulled herself up a bit. A strangled cry escaped her when she dragged her other leg out of the river. At least she was officially out of the water now. It was a start.

She looked around her again and noted the wolf was absent. She'd rather have seen it dead, but at least it couldn't hurt her anymore. Had it drowned? She hoped so. If it walked away from this without a scratch, she would be very put off.

Swallowing a groan, she dragged herself to hands and knees. She contemplated shifting, but her wolf made it very clear that wasn't happening.

Crawling was better than sitting still, so Ryleigh struggled a few paces on all fours before pausing, breathing heavily. Her shoulder burned like, well, like a feral wolf had scratched her open. The rest of her body hurt like she'd fallen on an ant nest. She looked ahead. The riverbank smoothed into the forest again and she didn't look forward to scraping her hands and knees on the pine needles and twigs. Perhaps if she sat there till morning, they'd find her. When the sun rose, they'd only need to look across the water to see her. But maybe they would have given up by then and just assume she was dead. Besides, she would much prefer saving herself anyway. She didn't want to be rescued.

Sitting still wasn't an option anyway. Who knew if there were more feral wolves out there? Or what if Golden Dawn patrol would find her? No, it was better to hide between the trees. She pulled one of her knees up, kneeling. Planting the palms of her hands firmly on the ground, she pushed herself up.

She swayed on her feet and stretched out her arms for balance. She lurched towards the treeline, clinging onto the first tree she came across. The tree was the only thing keeping her upright and she leant against it, catching her breath.

The next problem was how by the Goddess she was going to find her way back. Following the river seemed her best bet. There might be a bridge somewhere. She nodded a few times, trying not to think too far ahead. If she let herself think about how far she needed to go before she'd be back at the pack, she was almost tempted to throw herself back into the river.

Tree to tree, that was her plan. One foot in front of the other, from one tree to another. The forest was pretty dense on that side of the river, and she could usually grab hold of another tree without having to let go of the one to which she was clinging. It was tiring and progress was slow, but at least she was moving.

The black of night slowly turned a dark grey, then a light grey, cautiously moving towards blue. It was the only indication she had that time was passing. Her surroundings stayed the same no matter how far she got. The more time passed, the more everything inside of her screamed for relief.

She pressed a hand against her chest, bargaining with her wolf to just stop. A few tears slipped past her lids, trailing lines down her dirty cheeks. She hadn't often been as tired as she was right then. She'd been walking for Goddess knows how long and still hadn't encountered a bridge or anything else that would allow her to cross the river. Her shoulder was aching so badly she had stopped moving her arm a while ago. Many of her smaller wounds had started to heal already, and though she couldn't be sure without daylight, it looked like they disappeared without leaving many scars.

She tripped. She wasn't sure over what – maybe a branch or a mole hill, or her own feet – but she tripped and fell to hands and knees. Her head hung down, her sand-streaked hair falling in front of her face like curtains.

Her wolf urged her to get back up, but she honestly, truly, couldn't. So instead of getting back to her feet, she let herself fall to her side, then to her back. She stared at the canopy of leaves above her head, clouds drifting by over the gaps between the trees. She was just going to rest for a little while. Just a few minutes.

*****

Austin woke up in the infirmary to Ridge checking his wounds.

"Hello, Beta," Ridge said, not bothering to look at him. "You took quite a hit, but you'll be alright."

"How long have I been out?" he asked, his voice so raspy the words were hardly intelligible. Ridge turned to the nightstand and poured him a glass of water.

"Drink. You were out for, well, most of the night, really. Eight hours? Nine?" He shrugged.

Austin nearly choked on the water. "Nine hours?"

"Yes. I've already cleaned your wounds and stitched them up. They should heal nicely. You have two broken ribs – quite a feat – but I expect they, too, will heal without much trouble. Give it a few days and then you should be fine."

"Have they found Ryleigh?" He returned the cup to the nightstand and looked around him, heart full of anticipation and dread. All the other beds were empty.

"Not to my knowledge."

Austin struggled up to his elbows. "I need to go look for her."

"You're in no state to be going anywhere. I'm not to let you leave this bed. Alpha's orders."

"I don't care what Ellis said. I'm not going to sit here while my mate's out there." He attempted to sit up fully, but his ribs screamed and he fell back, panting.

"And then what?" Ridge said. "Say you go out there now, looking for her like you so desperately want to. There are already more than a dozen people looking for her. You'll be slow in your current condition. You're never going to be able to cover as much ground as they are, and you're already very far behind. But sure, say you go anyway. What if they find her and bring her back? Ellis has informed me of the situation, and if she's survived – which for the moment we'll assume she has – she's probably badly injured. If that's the case, I'm going to need you here. Your presence will aid her recovery."

Austin's face twisted in a frown.

"I don't have the authority to stop you," Ridge said, "but if you really want to help her, you'll stay here."

"Fine," he said, scowling. "But if they haven't found her by morning, I'm going."

To Austin's great annoyance and slight surprise, Ridge just chuckled.

"What?"

Ridge shook his head and handed Austin the cup again. "I'm going to need you to drink all of this."

"Why did you laugh?"

Ridge held out the cup until Austin took it. "Because that's a mighty fine speech to make for someone who can't even walk."

"That's not funny, Ridge."

"No, there's little humour in this situation, is there? Lots of irony, but little humour." He turned away from Austin and started putting his supplies away.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that earlier today, Ryleigh insisted she's going to reject you, and not hours later she risked her life for you." He shrugged. "Ryleigh would have laughed at that."

"I doubt Ryleigh is having a good time right now."

"She's tough." Ridge dropped his smile. "If she survived all that silver, she'll survive this."

"What if the silver has weakened her too much?"

Ridge didn't come with a clever retort on that one. "I don't know. But what we do know is that she's not dead yet. You would know if she were. So she's found a way out of the river, because she wouldn't be able to swim for nine hours."

"I don't think she can swim at all," Austin said. "She's scared of water." He swallowed hard. "She must be so afraid right now."

"She's tough," Ridge said again. It was the only consolation they had.

______

A/N: Thanks for reading!