Urdon Pov
I tried to move again. I threw everything I had left into it, every fragment of will and strength that the famine had not yet taken from me. My body trembled with the effort. My arms shook. For one moment I thought I might actually manage it, thought my body might finally answer me. Then it gave out and I was back where I had been, flat on the ground, staring up at the dark ceiling of the den, breathing like I had run ten miles.
The famine had unmade me. The injuries had never been given the chance to heal. I was not an Alpha anymore. I was just a body waiting to stop.
"Freda, run," I wanted to shout. "Save yourself. Leave me here and run. You do not owe me this."
But my voice came out barely above a whisper. She could not hear me. And even if she could, I already knew what she would say. I knew it in my bones. She would tell me to be quiet and then she would go back to standing between me and whatever was coming.
