Wolf sniffed the breeze as it blew across his face and through his thick fur. His prey was close and he moved as silently as a ghost, slinking from tree to tree. He could hear his prey just around the next bend, completely unaware of his presence or its own fate.

He came around the bend and caught sight of his prey feeling a jolt of excitement race through his muscular body. The alpha stood there looking down at the water as the female splashed around and made lots of noise in the otherwise silent lake.

The alpha was the prey and this time he would not know that Wolf was coming. This time Wolf would surprise him for sure. He took his position behind a bush and crouched there, as still as the rocks surrounding him, his golden eyes locked on his target.

Wolf felt his muscles bunching and coiling as he prepared to spring from his hiding place and then the alpha turned his head and looked directly at the bush Wolf was hiding behind.

"You are getting too old, Wolf. You make too much noise." Wolf huffed and came out from behind the bush. He was upset that the alpha had caught him again but then again the alpha was the alpha for a reason.

"Wolf." the alpha said and Wolf tensed and looked up at him expectantly. He understood that when the alpha used that tone he was about to give a command. "Hunt." The alpha said and Wolf gave a happy wag of his tail before running back into the forest.

"Hurry up and finish your swim." Hawke said as Lily swam toward the edge of the lake. "Wolf is going to track some deer and I need to join him."

"You're hunting today?" Lily asked trying to hide her disappointment. They had spent much of the last seven days lost in each others arms in the tiny bed inside the cabin and she had been hoping today would be the same. Hawke smiled and nodded.

"If I do not hunt the smokehouse will soon be empty." he reminded her. Lily pulled herself up out of the water and she saw Hawke's eyes turn dark and hungry as they roamed over her wet, naked body.

"You sure I cannot talk you into hunting tomorrow?" she asked, swaying her hips suggestively. Hawke growled (sounding an awful lot like a wolf himself) and picked her clothes up off the rocks.

"Put your clothes on, devil woman." he said gruffly. Lily sighed and pulled on her white lacy bloomers and her newly made blue calico dress. This dress wasn't as comfortable as the doeskin dresses she had been wearing but it was not as constricting as the long sleeved, high necked dresses that Nathan had forced her to wear. The sleeves on this dress were short and the neckline was low but still modest.

"We need to go to town soon." Lily said matter of factly. "Allie will be here in three days and I would like to have the house stocked up before she arrives." Hawke nodded as he took her hand in his and they began walking back toward the cabin.

"I will take you when Wolf and I are done hunting."

"Wouldn't it be easier if I just went by myself while you hunt? I could be back before you finish." Hawke shook his head.

"You do not leave the cabin while I am gone. You do not enter the forest alone. It is not safe." Lily rolled her eyes.

"You say it isn't safe but I have yet to see anything dangerous out here."

"Because the dangerous things know not to mess with you when I am around." Hawke replied. "When you are alone it will be different." Coming from most men, Lily knew this statement would have sounded cocky and arrogant but coming from Hawke it just sounded like a simple fact and it was a simple fact that she believed… She had no doubt that even the grizzly bears and mountain lions that lived in these woods knew better than to mess with her man.

"While we're in town you can look for someone to help you with the cabin." Lily said. Hawke frowned.

"Why do you think I need help?" he asked as he opened the cabin door and motioned for her to step inside. She did and then turned in the doorway to face him.

"You haven't made much progress." she replied, looking out at the pile of barkless logs lying in the yard. Hawke followed her gaze and then looked back down at her with amusement in his green eyes.

"I have been busy with other things, naakiiwa" he reminded her as he lowered his lips to her neck and pressed a gentle kiss to the hollow behind her ear. Lily trembled and grabbed the doorway for support.

"Are you complaining, ninaa?" she asked breathlessly. Hawke smiled against her skin. He loved it when she called him her man in his mothers language.

"Never." he replied. He heard her smile.

"You're a big tough man, surely you would be just fine without me." He wondered why she said that. Maybe he needed to tell her just what she meant to him.

"If you knew how much I needed you, naakiiwa, then you would know how desperate I am to keep you forever. My every thought is of you. You are in my blood and you flow through me with every beat of my heart." Lily felt tears fill her eyes at his words.

"I guess that means you should hurry and finish your hunt then so that I can show you just how much I need you." she replied. He moved his lips to hers and gave her a gentle kiss before pulling away.

"I should be gone no longer than three hours." he promised and then quickly walked away. Lily noticed that he took no weapons other then the knives on his legs and she hoped he wouldn't run into any trouble that required a bigger weapon.

Once he was out of sight, Lily walked inside and ran her comb through her tangled hair before pulling it up on her head. She slipped into her ankle boots and took some money out of the jar on the mantle and put it into her dress pocket. She knew that Hawke had said to stay home but if she hurried she could be in town and back before he ever made it back from hunting and then they could spend the rest of the day locked up in their room.

She grabbed Hawke's rifle from where it rested against the wall and hooked the sling over her shoulder. If she ran into any bears or mountain lions she would have protection. She walked out to the barn, brought out Trigger and hooked him up to the smaller of Hawke's two carts and then started down the narrow path toward town.

It was a beautiful day and Lily was enjoying her peaceful ride through the woods. The air was full of birdsongs that made her smile. She laid her hand over her stomach and sighed.

Life was looking better. Hawke had shown her how incredibly wonderful life could be when you had a man who loved you by your side. Even the morning sickness didn't seem so hard now because he would follow her and whisper soothingly while he rubbed her back or held her hair.

Her sister would be here in just three more days and Doctor Mason had spoken to his lawyer friend in Helena who had agreed to come to Great Valley and grant Lily her divorce. He was due in a weeks time and much to Lily's relief she could sign the papers without Nathan present and as soon as the ink dried on the paper she would no longer be Mrs. Nathan Yeary. She had been surprised by how simple the process was but was grateful for it nonetheless.

Yes, life was finally starting to look up and she had Hawke to thank for it. She could not wait to have her little family with Hawke, Allie, the baby and even Wolf. She was thinking about all of these things when she heard a twig snap to her right.

She looked in the direction of the sound but could see nothing. She turned her gaze forward and a small scream escaped her lips at the sight of the filthy man standing in the road. He was tall and broad and his face was covered in a thick black beard and mustache that was encrusted with dirt. His hair was also dirty and a mass of tangles and knots around his face. He was wearing deer hide clothes that were stiff with filth. He smiled revealing a mouth full of rotting teeth.

"Well what do we have here?" he asked as he leered at her with his tiny black eyes and they roamed over her body. He reached out and grabbed Trigger's reigns, bringing the gelding to a stop. Lily's heart was racing… Was this the danger Hawke had been talking about?

"I was just on my way to town." Lily said hoping her voice sounding more confident to him then it did to her. He chuckled and the sound was like rocks rubbing together.

"Afraid we can't let you do that can we, Tom?" he asked and much to Lily's horror another man stepped out of the woods to her right. He was the same size as the first man and had the same heavy beard and mustache only his was red and his head was nearly bald. His smile revealed that most of his teeth were missing. Lily could smell both of them on the breeze and the scent made her stomach roll.

"Naw, Festus, we can't just let a pretty thing like this go wandering around alone in these woods. We've seen you a few times, beautiful, but you've always had that savage with ya… We were wondering when you'd be foolish enough to come out alone." Lily reached for the rifle on her back but Tom was too fast and grabbed her by her arm, yanking her off the cart. She tried to fight against him but he crushed her body against his filthy chest with one meaty arm and took the gun off of her with the other. He tossed the rifle into the bushes and then looked over at his brother.

"This one is going to be fun." he said running a finger down her cheek. Lily turned her head and bit down hard, gagging when she could taste dirt in her mouth. Tom howled with pain and slapped her hard in the face before shoving her toward Festus.

Lily's heart was beating out of her chest and her mind was racing as she thought desperately on how she was going to get away from these two men. Her head was spinning from the hit that Tom had delivered and all she could think of was that she had to protect her baby.

"You are so pretty." Festus said leaning in close to her face and causing her to nearly vomited when she smelled the thick foul odor of his breath. She spit in his face and then raised her knee as hard as she could and caught him between his legs. He let out a howl of pain and released her and she took advantage of her freedom and took off running into the woods with the sounds of her pursuers footsteps right behind her.

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Hawke took a stance as still as a stone as he looked at the large doe pawing through the leaves on the forest floor. He pulled his hunting knife from its sheath and took a deep breath to steady himself. He was just pulling his arm back to send the knife on it's deadly arc to the deer's heart when the silence of the forest was shattered by a man's pain filled yell.

"Come back here you little whore!" a voice called out and Hawke knew that whatever was happening was happening not far from him. His instincts told him that he needed to get there fast. He ran as quickly and silently as the gray wolf by his side toward the danger, hoping that Lily had not disobeyed him and gone out into the woods alone.

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Lily knew she could not run much longer. She had already fallen several times and her legs and arms were cut and bleeding from being hit by sticks, branches and thorny bushes. Her head was pounding and her lungs were starting to burn but still she could hear the heavy footfalls of the men behind her and she could hear their shouts and promises that she would pay for running away from them.

Just when she was certain she could not run anymore the body of a man jumped silently from the bushes to her left and two strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her into a hard body that felt familiar and smelled like home. She looked up and saw Hawke's green eyes full of a mixture of anger and worry as they glared down at her.

He shoved her into the bushes he had just jumped out of.

"Stay and be silent." he hissed and Lily was more than happy to do just that.

Hawke waited for the men to come around the bend with Wolf by his side with his fur raised and his teeth bared. Both of them ready and eager for a fight. Hawke had seen the new bruise forming on Lily's jaw and he could smell the scent of these men on her and for that they would pay with blood.

The two big men both came stumbling to a stop the second they saw Hawke and Wolf standing in their way. It was clear they wanted to turn and run away but Wolf growled low in his throat and kept their feet rooted to the ground. They kicked themselves mentally for leaving their rifles in camp. The only weapons they had were their hunting knives and they both knew they were no match for Hawke in a knife fight….Especially when he had that giant beast on his side.

"Did you see which way our deer went, Hawke? Festus shot him but he didn't do a good enough job and the deer took off." Tom said hoping to lie his way out of the situation. Hawke's face gave away no emotion as he stood motionless and stared at the two men.

"I heard no shot." he said. Tom scratched at his red beard and shifted his feet.

"Yeah well it was a few hours ago so…."

"Which one of you hit my woman?" Hawke asked his, voice cold and hard.

"A woman? I didn't see a woman. Did you see a woman Festus?" Tom asked with a nervous chuckle. Festus shook his head.

"Nope. No woman… Just a deer." From where Lily was hiding in the bushes she could see Festus reaching for the knife that was stuck into the waistband of the back of his pants. She knew that Hawke would not be able to see the knife and she wanted to shout out a warning to him but he had warned her to stay silent and she did not want to distract him.

"You lie as badly as you smell." Hawke growled. "Now which one of you hit my woman?"

"There wasn't no woman." Tom said again and even Lily could sense the fear coming off of him in waves. Before Hawke could say anything else Festus made his move. He pulled his knife and Lily could not keep herself from screaming as he threw it through the air, straight for Hawke's chest. Hawke squatted down as the knife came at him and it sailed harmlessly over his head.

As Hawke moved he drew one of his own knives and threw it so quickly that Lily blinked and her eyes missed the action. She heard Festus let out a gurgle and she felt bile rise in her throat when she saw the knife sticking from his neck. As his body fell lifeless to the ground Tom went for his knife, but before he could draw it Wolf lunged through the air and brought the big man to the ground.

Lily squeezed her eyes shut as Wolf's snarling and the sound of ripping flesh filled the air. The coppery scent of blood filled her nostrils and the thrashing noise stopped… She knew that Tom was dead. She did not open her eyes until she felt Hawke's big hand on her shoulder.

"Stand up." he said and she couldn't hear any emotion in his voice. She looked up at his face but whatever he was feeling he was keeping masked. She rose to her feet on shaking legs , still feeling in shock over all that had happened. She realized that he was using his body to block her view of the two men lying dead on the ground and when she tried to look around him he kept himself in the way.

"You do not want to see." he said in that same cold, emotion free voice. Lily stared at the fringes on his buckskin shirt, unable to meet his gaze again. She was barely holding back her tears as it was. She had never wanted to give him any reason to be angry with her and she knew that by going against his wishes she had done just that. She had been both foolish and dumb to come into the forest alone and she knew that now.

"Come on." he said and began to pull her through the forest and back toward Trigger and the cart. She climbed up into the cart and he did the same without speaking a word. Lily caught sight of Wolf and his red, blood covered muzzle and felt her stomach churn. She folded her hands in her lap and kept her eyes locked on them for the rest of the trip back to the cabin.

Hawke jumped from the cart without saying a word to her when they arrived home and after helping her down he pointed to the cabin.

"Get in the house and stay there." he ordered. Lily nodded quickly and then ran to the cabin with tears burning her eyes. She slammed the door behind her and then fell to her knees on the floor and burst into tears as the shock of the day wore off and she realized just how closely she had come to being killed… or worse.

Hawke could hear her crying but he was not ready to deal with that yet. He was angry with her for disobeying him but more than that; he was scared to death at how closely he had come to losing her. If she had not gotten away from those men and run into the woods he would have never known that they had her…

Hawke did not like feeling helpless but Lily had been in their filthy hands and he had been helpless to save her because he had not even known. He swallowed hard, surprised by the emotion rising up in his throat. Hawke had never felt close enough to someone to fear losing them but the thought of losing that woman filled him with a fear so deep it nearly stopped his heart from beating. He unhooked Trigger from the cart and then saddled him quickly before grabbing his shovel from the wall of the barn and jumping onto the gelding.

Those men did not deserve to be buried… They deserved to be eaten by the scavengers and bugs and have their bodies rot on the forest floor. But if they were found on Hawke's land dead it could cause trouble that Hawke really did not want to deal with. He knew the trappers and they had been poaching his land for years and had been a constant pain in his side. He had always let their crimes go before but the moment he had seen Lily come running toward him so frightened and desperate, he had known that the men had seen their last sunrise.

Wolf began to follow Hawke into the woods but Hawke stopped and shook his head.

"Wolf, stay." he said pointed back toward the cabin. "Protect Lily." he added. Wolf turned quickly and loped back to the cabin before flopping himself down in the yard and scanning the surrounding forest, his golden eyes missing nothing.

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Lily pulled off her soiled dress and used the left over water from washing the breakfast dishes to clean the dirt and the smell of those men from her skin. She pulled on another calico dress she had sewn during the last week and then curled up in the bed.

She was scared of what was going to happen when Hawke came back. She had disobeyed him and he was angry. She did not think he would hurt her but then again she did not really know… She had never broken his rules before. What if he decided she wasn't worth the trouble she had caused and he kicked her back out on her own? She didn't think she could live without his touch, his voice, his kisses.

She sobbed into her pillow and prayed that he would forgive her for her stupidity.

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It took several hours for Hawke to bury the men and then he had to find their camp and do away with all evidence of their presence. He stopped by the lake and washed the blood and dirt from his skin before heading to the cabin. He took his time rubbing down Trigger and preparing his stall for the night as he thought about what he was going to say to Lily. He shouldn't have left her while she had been crying earlier….

She had needed his comfort and he had walked away from her but dammit he had known that if he had gone to her then he probably would have cried as well and that was unacceptable. He was a man and it was his duty to be strong at all times and never show a weakness as strong as tears.

He walked into the cabin and realized instantly that she must be in the bedroom. He opened the bedroom door and saw her lying on her side in the bed with her back to him. She was curled up with her knees pulled up tight into her chest.

He crossed the room and sat on the bed in front of her but her eyes were closed and she did not look at him. He could tell by her breathing that she was not asleep and so he just sat there and stared at her beautiful face, waiting for her to open her eyes. When she finally did, he reached his hand toward her cheek and she flinched away with fear in her eyes.

Hawke drew his hand away quickly, as if he had been burned and then without another second of hesitation, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his lap. She put her arms around his neck tightly and sobbed into his chest.

"I'm sorry, Hawke. I'm so sorry I disobeyed you." she said quietly. Hawke hated the way her voice sounded.

"Lily, why did you flinch away from me? Did you think I was going to hit you?" he asked. Lily pulled her face away from his chest and wiped her face with her hands.

"No…" she lied and Hawke's lips became a thin line as his brow furrowed.

"I would never hit you, Lily." he said matter of factly. "I do not expect you to blindly obey me. Do I ever give you orders that are not meant to keep you safe?" he asked. Lily shook her head.

"No."

"If I tell you not to do something it is because I am worried about keeping you safe."

"I know. I love you." Lily replied. Hawke squeezed her tighter and pressed a kiss to her hair.

"If I had lost you… If those men had killed you.." Lily was shocked when she heard the thickness in his voice and when she looked up into his green eyes she saw that they were red rimmed and full of tears that he was trying to fight back. She laid her hand on his smooth cheek.

"I am right here, Hawke. I am safe because you saved me and I promise from now on if you tell me to do something, or not to do something, I will listen to you." Hawke covered her hand with his.

"I love you, naakiiwa. If I lost you I would have nothing." he said as he lowered her back onto the bed and moved himself over her.

"I'm not going anywhere, ninaa." she promised and he gave her one heart stopping smile before crushing his lips to hers