“Because I was born into a pack of wolves. My parents, my brother—they all shifted young. Strong. Proud. But me…” He swallowed hard. “I never got an animal.”
My breath caught. “You… have no wolf?”
He looked away. “In my pack, that’s worse than death. A shifter with no form is a disgrace. A defect. My family disowned me the day I turned seven. Left me in the woods to die.”
“Oh gods,” I whispered. “You wereseven?”
“I should’ve died out there,” he said, voice hollow. “But I had the instincts. I knew how to move, how to survive. So, I stayed close to the castle grounds—stealing scraps, sleeping in hollows.”
He looked up at me then. The boy I once knew flickered behind his older eyes.
“And one day, my path took me near the woods, to that old cottage no one was allowed near. Everyone knew about it. Tall hedges. Iron gates. A place whispered about—but never approached.”
“Vael’s cottage,” I said, my throat tightening around the words. “And mine.”
Finn nodded slowly. “No one knew you were there. Not until that day I threw the ball back over the hedge.”
I was trembling now, my whole body aching with the weight of what I already knew—and didn’t want to know.
“I was… a prisoner?”
His silence said more than words. Then, quietly: “He kept you in a tiny room. Almost no windows. You hated it. If you disobeyed… if you fought back… he’d lock you in the cupboard. Chain you to the walls.” Finn’s voice cracked. “That was your punishment space.”
I recoiled instinctively, pulling back as if the memories themselves could reach through the air and claw at me.
“I couldn’t do anything,” he whispered. “I was just a kid. But we talked—through the hedge at first. You’d sneak me food. We played guessing games. You told me stories. And then…”
He hesitated, swallowing hard. “Then you started to tell me what he did to you.”
The world blurred.
I shifted away from him, from everything, my arms wrapping around my chest. My voice barely broke free. “What did he do?”
Finn looked away. His face contorted like the words physically hurt.
“Please,” he begged, “don’t make me say it.”
“Ineedto know,” I whispered. “Please.”
He closed his eyes.
“You told me… he touched you. Sometimes. And you didn’t like it.” His voice broke. “You didn’t understand why. But I did. Even then, Iknew.”
“Touched me?” I echoed, horrified. My voice was small. Distant. Like I wasn’t in my own skin anymore.
“Vael’s sick, Elle,” he said, trembling. “He’s been sick for years. But what he felt for you? That obsession—it was twisted.It still is.”
I wrapped my arms tighter around myself, as if I could hold in the pieces of me breaking apart.
“I don’t remember,” I said hoarsely, tears pricking hot behind my eyes.
Finn looked at me with shattered sorrow.
“Good,” he said softly. “Ihopeyou never do.”
“Tell me more. What happened.”
“The years went by,” Finn said quietly. “And I met Liora. She was… different. A mind mage.”
