Chapter 45

• When the first chill days of late autumn crept over the land, Jack, Ellie, Grim Fang, and Nightfall found themselves reunited beneath a sky streaked with leaden clouds. In the background, Ricky and old Joe Harrington provided the steady, unspoken support that had bound them together through endless trials. The wedding, long promised yet indefinitely deferred at Joe Harrington’s earnest request, hovered like a fragile hope_ an enigma Ellie sensed even as her heart ached with foreboding. For she knew all too well that despite the seeming warmth of reunion, shadows still lurked in the recesses of Jack’s soul.
• Day after day, as autumn advanced in a slow, relentless descent, Jack slipped away with his wolf and his wild black stallion to range the solitary hills. Ellie never pressed him for details, for she understood that this need for isolation was as vital to him as sleep is to the weary. And yet, an inexplicable terror grew within her_ a cold fear that gnawed at the edges of her hope. In fleeting moments, when she caught the gaze of Ricky or her father, their eyes shone with infinite pity, and they whispered in secret tones that sent shivers down her spine. Until, on one stifling evening when the fire’s glow barely pierced the gathering gloom and Jack was absent_ vanished into the embrace of the hills_ the weight of uncertainty finally broke her silence.
• "Do you really think," she burst out, voice trembling, "that the old wildness is still in Jack?"