Forager
Book 1.5 of the Benignitas series — a novella
Two people who cannot stand each other, six thousand miles from help, with a shattered leg and a wolf pack closing in.
Eight colonists are stranded fifty-seven light-years from Earth on an unfamiliar world, cut off from home with no way of knowing whether rescue is coming or when. After a winter storm destroys the greenhouse meant to carry them through to spring, Chief Petty Officer Alex Guerrero and botanist Dr. Teri Culpepper set out on a dangerous expedition to find ripening food six thousand miles away, in country no one has surveyed. Neither asked for the other.
Culpepper is certain she does not need looking after. Guerrero has rules, which she routinely ignores. The cost is a shattered leg that leaves the one man trained to protect her immobilized in the wilderness, six thousand miles from help — with a wolf pack closing in and limited resources left between them.
If they're going to survive, much less secure the supplies their eight-person team needs to make it through the winter ahead, these two strong-willed adversaries will have to overcome their mutual antagonism and trust each other with their lives.
Forager is a hard science fiction novella about humility, partnership, and what one person's pride can cost another. It stands alone while connecting to the broader series, following the novel Two and preceding the novel Forerunner.