Danika's heart raced and her feet pounded the hard packed earth. Her mother had taught her to never look back. And she hadn't. Not once. Like the sound of a million flapping wings, a relentless beat drummed behind her. Her small body ached and her stomach cramped in knots. Blood streamed into her eyes, but her arms were too busy propelling her through the dry pine forest to wipe it away.

Ozzy followed his father through the forest in the dew-covered morning. The sun had barely risen.

Yellow and pink light streaked over the pale gray mountains, greeting the coming day. He carried a bucket of traps, and his father had a shotgun slung over his shoulder.

Ozzy had a nightmare and was spooked that morning. Every cracking twig and broken branch made him jump, and his stomach twisted with anxiety.

“I don't want you to leave,” Ozzy said, holding tight to Danika's hand. He looked over the high wooden fence at the forest beyond.

“It will only be a week,” she said, squeezing him back. “Don't worry so much, or I'll be distracted the whole time I'm gone.”

They sat on the roof of the two-story log house his father built before the turning. From this vantage point, she had a view of the entire five-acre compound.

Danika looked back over her shoulder. She hoped to catch a last glimpse of Ozzy, but he remained hidden behind the fence. Disappointed, she turned forward, gripping Snowflake's reins more tightly in her hand. The sharp scent of pine filled her nostrils as her horse's hooves crunched on the needle-littered dirt road. Even in September, the Sierra Nevada mountains were hot, dry, and prone to wildfires.

“Don't think I don't know what the two of you have been getting up to,” Hank said, speaking for the first time since leaving the compound. “Can't say I'm surprised by my son, but I'm disappointed in you, Danika. I'd always thought you'd choose a better man. Luckily for you, it's not too late.”

Ozzy stared at the road from the rooftop. His stomach hurt because he couldn't stop thinking about the possibility that Danika was carrying his baby. His father used to travel the fifty miles into the nearest settlement alone. But he was ambushed one night by a group of bandits and only narrowly escaped. After that, he'd determined it would be better to make future trips with a partner to keep watch. Ozzy, being his son, had been his first choice.

The journey was frightening. Ozzy had never been away from his mom for more than a few hours, and his father was a harsh man, given to violence and belittlement. Without the buffer of his mother, every moment felt like a fight for his life.