At long last, the morning had arrived. As soon as I was snuggled against Gale's miraculously warm chest I no longer felt like my fingers were going to fall off, but that doesn't mean I fell could sleep. My body was at rest, but my mind was not- I guess it's not every day you find out your parents were brutally murdered.

I lay listening to the soothing sound of Gale's sleepful breath for what felt like hours. Every now and then he would wake to check on me at which point I would pretend to be asleep so that he wouldn't worry about me and then at least one of us could actually sleep.

At some point, my mind must have got tired of imagining the bloody and violent massacre of Breeze and Dawn Blossom over and over again, because I woke at the early emergence of first light with the absence of Gale's warmth beside me.

"Don't worry. I'm right here," his voice said from the other side of a crackling fire.

"Why and how are you awake before daybreak?" I asked rubbing the exhaustion from my eyes.

"My appetite required more than berries and leaves this morning," he replied as I noticed what looked like a rabbit golden brown above the burning fire.

"You're a seventeen-year-old boy and an Alpha. It amazes me that you've gone this many days on the plant diet," I laughed sitting up from the ground and picking leaves out my hair.  

"After today, we will officially be a weeks travel from the pack territory," Gale announced.

"And how do you know when we have reached the lake?" I asked.

"Well if the water isn't a big hint maybe the fish or the-" Gale joked before I cut him off.

"You know what I mean," I scolded.

"There's a waterfall. The lake is supposedly just by it so my plan is: find a river, follow it North until we reach a waterfall, and there you have it. Our new home," he explained.

"And not to put a downer on things, but if we can find it that easily then surely our enemies can  too...you somehow fought all fives of them off before, but what if they send more than just your brother's, Raven and Thawn. " I said.

"Robyn," Gale said softly crouching down beside me. "Everything is going to be alright. You just have to trust me. We will be happy," he declared with confidence.

"But what if we follow the wrong river?" I asked.

"Ssssh. We don't need the negativity," he said placing his finger on my lips.

"But-"

"No."

"But-" I began for the third time. 

This time, he leant into my lips and placed a gentle kiss there.

"Sssh," he hushed one more time.