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“Her drafts,” she explained. I thanked her and slipped everything carefully into my pack. “I’ll do some investigations of my own back at the university,” she said. “This place … No one knows I live here. There aren’t many vampires in these parts, obviously. So, if you find her, just bring her back here.”

I nodded, though I couldn’t bring myself to think that far ahead yet.

“Bring her back,” she whispered again. “If the Lobofebris gets bad, she should be around people who love her. Not captive, and not all alone in the middle of gods knows where.”

“Agreed,” I said. Rather than say anything else and make the situation more emotional, I shifted again and took off.

I let my nose and my senses lead me. Her soul was a beacon. I couldn’t explain it, but it felt like I was looking for the other half of mine. I didn’t stop running, keeping to the forest that surrounded Aethermore. Night bled into morning, bright colors painting the sky, and still I ran. I was exhausted, stomach clenching with hunger and exertion, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.

Whenever I paused to snag a squirrel or lap up water from a stream, it was like her voice was screaming at me. So, I pushed onward almost endlessly. I didn’t recall ever running so fast in my life, but there was no stopping me.

I was beyond the bounds of the city, somewhere in the wilds, and something very strange was hanging in the air. An uneven heartbeat, a halted breath, then as soon as I felt the presence of someone or something in the vicinity, I turned quickly, but it was too late.

A smaller wolf barreled right into me in a tangle of white and black fur. I was pinned to the ground while I evaded gnashing teeth that just barely missed my throat. I was hit with an overwhelming wave of something that reminded me so much of my awakening when I’d fallen into my alpha role.

My entire world shattered only to piece itself together more firmly than it ever had been before.

Mine, my soul screamed. This wolf. This hybrid.

Her body morphed, fur shifting to pale, flushed skin. Blood crusted from her chin to her neck, eyes as bloodshot as her red pupil, her right eye glowing gold.

I shifted back into human form as she started trembling all over, her reddened cheek against the grass, a sheen of sweat over her skin. Her eyes darted back and forth beneath her eyelids, shoulders and chest moving with rapid, erratic breaths. I placed my hand on her arm and called to her. She didn’t move at first, but she jolted upright, eyes flaring wide, the right one glowing in the near darkness.

“Shit,” I whispered under my breath.

She doubled at the waist with a pained groan. When I reached out to her, she scooted back, a clawed arm across her body, eyes brightening. “Don’t,” she whispered. “I’ll hurt you. I can’t control—” Another pained groan, dissolving into a pitiful whimper, came from her lips as she raked her claws across her side.

She jumped to her feet, wild panic on her face as ragged breaths forced their way in and out of her system. Then she was staggering off, back in the direction of the main town. “Aura!”

“Let me go!” she said, swatting her hand back at me as she kept stumbling through the forest.

“I’m not letting you go.”

She collapsed to her knees, and I rushed toward her. I scooped her into my arms, and gods she was burning up. Her face was even redder, her eye still glowing, claws still elongated. Something shifted in her scent, but before I could guard myself, she flung me onto my back, legs and arms pinning me in place.

Gods, she was strong. Dark purple veins spiderwebbed out from beneath her eyes and up along her neck and jaw. They spread out along her arms like broken glass. Her heart rate had slowed to an almost eerie tempo, claws digging into me. Bloodlust.

“Aura?” I called. “Look at me.”

She bared her fangs, a terrifying combination of lycan and vampire. Insatiable hunger overshadowed her scent, those terrifyingly mismatched eyes trained on my neck. She was in full predator mode, and if there was one thing a predator enjoyed, it was a chase. So, I couldn’t run, and I refused to fight unless I absolutely had to. I kept my breathing slow, calming my heart rate.

“Aura?”

She let out a low growl, and a line of saliva dribbled from the corner of her mouth down her chin. My breath stalled. The next snarl brought her face close to mine, her pointed teeth at my neck.

“I brace myself within the storm,” I said, shakily. “In an embrace so unexpectedly warm. Hand in hand, eye to eye, a torrential connection beneath the dark sky. A black heart’s ichor, a soul’s uproar. Drawn in—drowning—like never before.”

She went still, teeth still bared.

“I’ll face my mistakes, my fear, my loss. I’ll scream to the heavens until I’m hoarse. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again that you, my wolfsbane, will be my undoing. But I was a fool not to see—to truly see—that it’s yours my heart has been pursuing.”

She’d gone still, and I winced at the droplet of saliva landing on my neck. It was a slow trickle, as if time itself had stalled. Aura remained immobile, a low rumble in her throat. When she pulled back, the glow was still in her eye, but she lifted her hand to her face, wiping away the trail of drool.

“I’m sorry I left you,” I whispered. “Even though you told me to, I shouldn’t have. Nothing we did was out of obligation. It was because I truly care about you. So much it scares me.”

Her eyes stared into my soul.

“We’ll get you better, but you have to keep fighting. I know you’re tired.”