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Moving toward me, the stranger held out his hand. He waited patiently until I raised mine and placed it into his palm. Familiar heat pulsed between us, and our eyes locked, aware that both of us felt it, even if we weren’t prepared to discuss it.
“Come.” He tugged me farther away from the kill site and back toward the den. “We’ll wait in the small meadow. It won’t take them long to find it. Then we’ll go collect your fawn.”
“It’s not my fawn,” I whispered, allowing him to tug me forward.
“It is now.” He gave me an annoyingly wise smile. “Its mother has provided her body as life for my pack. In return, you will keep her youngling safe. I don’t think you could live with yourself if you didn’t.”
My eyes widened as he fell into an easy gait, keeping me beside him with our fingers entwined.
He might be a stranger by name, but every moment we spent together, he became something more. He became someone who understood me better than I understood myself.
He became a friend I didn’t have to hide from.
A friend who could ruin everything.
* * * * *
I looked up from where I sat on the boulder outside the cave’s entrance. The cluster of rocks had obviously ended up here from a landslide that’d taken a slice of the hill and exposed the cave that’d become the wolves’ home. The remnant of the landslide now provided a convenient area to sit and scan the meadow and outskirts of the forest.
The alpha, who the stranger seemed so loyal to, watched me from a higher rock, his claws glinting in the afternoon sunlight. The stranger sat on the earth below, his back resting against the boulder I’d chosen, his long, strong legs kicked out in front of him.
Despite his wild existence, living with wolves and dwelling in their den, his skin wasn’t that dirty. His feet were roughened from running over earth, and his dark tawny colouring was sun-kissed and brown, but apart from smudges here and there and the tangled mess of his black hair, he was cleaner than me.
Glancing at my grimy forearms and the back of my hands where Pallen had painted me, I gritted my teeth.
Does Solin know where I am?
The fire often gave him answers that aided future events or successful hunts. Hopefully, the flames had told him that I was well, even though I wasn’t beside him. Hopefully, he knew he didn’t have to worry.
My spine prickled as my gaze fell on the back of the stranger’s head. Why had the flames been so concerned when I’d mentioned him? What did they mean he walked with forbidden shadows?
I’d thought they’d meant he’d died from his injuries and was no longer part of this world. Yet...he was alive. Strong and healthy and consuming my thoughts more and more.
I chewed on my bottom lip as I studied him closer. Studied the way the sun cast light on the firm muscles of his shoulders and danced in the smoke-black strands of his hair. Every inch of him was pure power and lean longevity.
I could scarcely remember him weak and sweating from sickness.
The longer I watched him while we waited for the wolves to find the fawn, the deeper I fell into curiosity.
There was something about him.
Something scratched at the dark pit of forgetfulness within me, tearing at my past, teasing me to remember. I didn’t care that the fire told me not to chase certain memories. I needed to know. And every fibre of my being said he was the key to unlocking them.
With a soft grunt, the stranger leapt to his feet. Agile and nimble, he brushed his firm rear with both hands. A splattering of dried grass fluttered down the back of his legs as he prowled forward, just as the three wolves who’d answered his request to search slunk from the forest.
They’ve found the fawn.
I just had to hope the wolves had obeyed him and it was still alive.
With shaky nerves, I slid off the boulder.
The stranger looked at me as I walked swiftly toward him. The three wolves met us in the clearing, standing almost as tall as us. Their shoulders reached the stranger’s chest; their horns well surpassed his head.
The closest one—a russet-silver wolf with bronze spiral horns—nipped at the stranger’s hand, wagging its bushy tail.
The stranger smiled, catching my eyes. “They found it.”
“Is it alive?”
The other two wolves padded toward me and pressed their cool, wet noses into my chest. I froze as their glowing yellow eyes searched mine.
The rest of the world fell away.
I tripped into them.
I became them.
For a single heartbeat, I slipped into their fur and felt what they did. I smelled the many tart, sour, and sweet notes on the breeze and heard the faintest flutter of sparrow wings as they flew high above us.
