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“Thank you...” I whispered, hoarse and thick. The sound vibrated in my aching chest, resonating from me but not at all familiar.
My heart spasmed.
The wolf tightened its grip on my wrist, its teeth breaking the fragility of my skin. Its fangs burned, and a wash of fear crashed over me. Would it hurt to be eaten? Would it kill me before it started chewing?
I forced tense muscles to slacken once again.
Whatever pain it granted couldn’t compare to the emptiness inside.
The nightmares that haunted me.
The dreams of someone I once adored.
This was a relief. A relief to feel something other than loneliness. A relief to finally close my eyes and no longer have to keep searching.
Sighing heavily, I sank deeper into darkness as the ground thudded with more paws. The pack that’d hunted me joined the alpha, ready to feast.
I stared at the five wolves that’d appeared from the sea of grass.
They sat on their haunches, ringing my naked body; their fur glittering with the last ribbons of sunset, and their horns shredding the dusk-etched clouds as they lifted their heads, bared their teeth, and howled.
Chapter Three
. Girl .
“ARE YOU READY TO TALK?”
My eyes ripped up to the person standing sun-framed in the parting made by two sticks holding open the bison hide. When I’d first woken in this place, I’d thought I was in the belly of a beast. Awake while being devoured.
I’d screamed and thrashed, my legs kicking off heavy fur blankets as my fists pounded at the sky.
People had come.
They’d held me down and opened my mouth.
I’d spluttered on the sour liquid they poured down my throat.
And then I was back in that forgetful fog, safe, alone...unwanted.
Four suns had risen since then, and each was easier than the last. I now knew I lay in a lupic—a shelter created by the ingenious minds of the Nhil people. They lived on the plains where no trees grew and hunted the large bison that travelled through the vast grass sea.
Every part of the beast was used, but its hide was prized most of all. It provided homes, clothes, and bedding.
Over the past few hours, my strength had finally improved enough to sit up in the furs I’d been given. I’d basked in the quiet, all while listening to the soft voices of the clan outside. My legs were still too weak to join them, so I’d sat and studied the structure.
Saplings held up the skins while vines and sinew secured them into a conical shape. A hole existed in the centre roof, allowing dense smoke from the fire, ringed in its river rocks, to escape.
The fire wasn’t lit now.
Only at night when temperatures waned.
“Do you understand me, girl?” The man stepped into the lupic. His feet weren’t bare like mine but encased in bison skin with braided reeds weaving up his legs. The fur wrapped around his legs hid his manhood while his ebony-skinned chest welcomed shadows to curl around him.
Shadows...
That word drew claws down my mind. Yet another important thing. Yet another thing I couldn’t remember.
Bowing his head, making the feathers and leaves dance in his long black hair, the man padded over the mats made of weaved rushes and sat cross-legged before me. “We’ve educated you on where you are, who we are, and what is expected of you, but you stay silent in return.” He placed his hands on his knees. “I have been patient. My people have healed you and given you food and safety. No harm has befallen you, yet you still act as if you don’t trust any of us.”
I blinked and licked my lips.
I wasn’t refusing to talk.
I’d just been...overwhelmed.
The first days were a blur of food forced down my throat and liquid poured after it. Sleep was heavy and confusion cloying. Hands touched places that had never been touched before, and my body had been bathed, healed, and tended, all while I floated in the half-life where I felt closer to something I couldn’t name.
A faceless male.
A heartmate from a dream filled with the shadows of death.
I feared for my mind.
I worried that, regardless of their kindness and care, part of me had died by that river. I’d given up. Why should I stay alive when I couldn’t remember a single thing about who and where and why.
“Your thoughts speak loudly, child.” The man smiled. “Open your lips and let some of them spill free.” Dark skin wrinkled around his eyes as he smiled deeper.
I couldn’t guess his age—he seemed both young and old, inquisitive and wise. Regardless of how many years he’d lived, he had an aura about him that spoke of power and authority. Out of all the Nhil people who had tended to me over the past few days, he was different.
He carried himself purposefully, sagely—like he knew things others did not. He stared into the fire at night when he believed I was sleeping and entered a trance that sometimes lasted until morning.
