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BY THE TIME THEY REACHEDthe small seaside town, it was late—or early, depending on how one looked at it.
Niko pulled his pants on after shifting, ignoring everything else.
“Let’s go,” he said quietly, gesturing to the stairwell that led to her home.
After a baleful look, she padded toward the stairs. He followed behind her, eyes scanning the area. Although he couldn’t track scents as well in this form, he still had a far superior sense of smell to humans.
The male Atargarian had been up here—often. Niko could taste his scent mingled with Zee’s, along with Meridia’s, the scents of others he hadn’t met. But the male’s and Meridia’s were the most dominant, next to Zee’s. Niko ignored the sharp press of claws inside his skin, the urge to go hunting. Zee reached her door and he watched, mouth gaping, as she went in through a fucking dog door.
Infuriated, he grabbed the doorknob, prepared to wrench it with enough force to break the lock.
But it wasn’t locked. It flew open with ridiculous ease and he caught sight of Zee’s tail just as she disappeared around the corner.
He closed the door behind him, setting his jaw, and telling himself the matter of the door didn’t matter. There was tech that existed that allowed doors to open and close simply with a scan of the eye, in animal or human form. It was basic and easy to install, and not particularly expensive. But Zee chose to use a dog door. That was her choice—here.
It wouldn’t be an issue once they returned to Durham-Starfell.
Moving silently through the apartment, he found her on the balcony outside the bedroom. The heaviness of the salt-laced air told him she must have left the sliding glass door open—at least she didn’t have a fucking dog door in here too.
She lay curled up with her head on her paws, her fur all black in the darkness.
“Zee.”
She made no reaction.
Crouching next to her, he reached out.
Thatgot a reaction. She shrank in on herself, curling into a tight ball and burying her nose in the curve of her body, cringing like an abused pup.
The sight tore bloody runnels through his already shredded heart, even as something deep inside him stirred.
Rage...
Whines escaped her and he sucked the anger back inside him through willpower alone.
Cringing. Like an abused pup.
Too many memories rose to haunt him, things about Zee that had worried him in the first few months after they’d met, but that he’d brushed off later on. Now, looking at them through the lens of the adult he was, he realized there was a much uglier story than even what Phoenix had told him.
Without thinking about it, he reached out, drawn by the urge to touch her, cuddle her close, protect her.
Soft fur met his fingers. Her body went rigid under his hand and he almost yanked his hand back as he realized what he was doing. The whines coming from her were almost constant now, and he knew that although she trembled as if fearing a blow, the worst thing he could do was break contact while she was still lost in that spiral of fear.
“You’ve always been the prettiest damn wolf, Zee. That hasn’t changed. Hell, I think you’ve gotten prettier.”
Nothing but those pitiful broken sounds and wracking shivers.
The bite of fresh blood filled the air and he realized she’d broken the crust of dried blood that had formed a scab over the wound in her side.
“We need to clean your wound, make sure there aren’t any thorns inside.”
No reaction.
He stroked her for a few more minutes before trying again. “Come on, Zee. Shift for me. We need to talk.”
He hated that his words came out husky, almost a plea.
