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“Speaking of mangling. Lake, I thought I told you to stay in the closet,” he scolds me, but with a hint of pride.
“I know.” I dry my tears, rotate around, and slump back against Jules’ chest, too drained to move away from him. “I don’t know what happened. Something just came over me when Slate said that …”Breathe in. Breathe out. Do not start crying again.“And it felt like I was possessed or something. I didn’t even realize what I was doing until I was stabbing him.”
“That’s because you were in the process of shifting.” Jules rests his chin on top of my head. “Your wolf was taking over.”
“Really?” I scrunch my nose. “She’s fucking ruthless, then.”
A beat of silence ticks by, and then the four of them laugh.
“She’s actually pretty normal.” Jules steers me around to face him. “The first time I shifted, I clawed Shade’s leg. The first time Rune shifted, he clawed my fucking neck.” He resists a smile. “And the first time Shade shifted, he ate a bunch of bunnies.”
A laugh bubbles from my throat. “He ate little baby bunnies?”
“Hey, they weren’t babies. They were fucking huge,” Shade argues. “And they were fucking tasty.”
I pull a face. “Ew.”
“Don’tewme,” Shade teasingly reprimands. “I know they eat baby cows and shit over in the Common Realm. That’s no better.”
“I’ve never eaten a calf before.” I glance over my shoulder at Shade. “And the only animal I’ve eaten is cooked, which I’m sure those baby bunnies were not.”
“Hey, don’t dis it until you try it.” Shade stretches his arms above his head through a yawn. “All right, my lovely, little princess and prince, I am fucking beat from all this guarding your asses shit. I’m going to take a quick nap downstairs. Then, bright and early tomorrow, the torture begins.” He rubs his hands together and lets out a wicked laugh before strolling out of the room.
“Sorry about him,” Rune finds the need to apologize. “He’s not as crazy as he acts.”
“He’s fine,” I promise. “And considering I just stabbed Slate in the leg with a fire poker, I really can’t judge his crazy.”
“You’re not crazy.” Rune tucks his sword into the holster. “In fact, I think you’ll fit right into our little group.” He spins on the heel of his boots then heads toward the door. “Training starts tomorrow, Lake. Be at the pit before the sun rises.” He exits the room, leaving the door open behind him.
I gape up at Jules. “Is he kidding me?”
Jules lightly tugs on a strand of my hair. “Nope. Rune’s a morning person. Don’t worry, though; I’ll go with you.”
“Yeah, good luck waking her up that early,” Legend remarks. “Lake is like a sleeping bear in the mornings.” He gives me a hug, and I feel the aggravation surge off Jules, but shockingly, he doesn’t growl. “I’m going to go crash in the guestroom. If you need anything, wake me up, okay?”
I nod, but part of me wants to reach out and grab Legend’s arm as he walks away, wants to plead with him to stay with me.
Legend has been my security blanket for the last year, and without him, a piece of me feels like it’s missing. But another part of me keeps me frozen where I stand, knowing I need to talk to Jules about what happened. Not just about my attackers, but about how my eyes shifted violet the day of the attack.
Something was getting stolen from you both.
He needs to know about it, right?
“I want to talk to you about what happened … explain myself,” Jules mumbles before I get the chance to speak. “I never should’ve let Slate get that close to my house. We almost had him captured, but as we were tracking him through the forest, we lost his scent. By the time we found it again, I knew he was heading here. I tried to get here in time, but …” He drags his fingers roughly through his hair. “I was on the stairway when he said what I’m assuming set you off. I ran up, but you’d already stabbed him and were kicking him in the face, on the verge of shifting.” He closes his eyes. “I didn’t want you to have to deal with that—with seeing him again. You shouldn’t have had to be that close to him, to hear him say that. I should’ve protected you better. I should’ve protected you better ten years ago.”
His speech knocks the wind out of me.
“Stop blaming yourself.” Unsure what else to do, I wrap my arms around him like he did to comfort me. The wolf inside me purrs.So strange.“If I learned anything during my time in the Common Realm, it’s that not everything is in our control. Shit happens sometimes that you can’t change no matter what. It just is. And, as for me having to see Slate, I’m sort of glad I did. I don’t know how this is going to make me sound, but hurting him like that was sort of therapeutic. I do feel a bit guilty, though, for acting so savagely.” The sound of the fire poker cutting through his skin haunts my mind, making me cringe.
What is wrong with me? How can I be so vicious?
“That was your wolf.” He nuzzles his face in my hair. “I don’t want you to be afraid of our kind, but you need to know that, when we shift, we sometimes are savage. We don’t normally go around killing or anything like that. Well, except for the incident with Shade and the bunnies. We give in to our animal instincts, and sometimes act animalistic.”
“I felt animalistic,” I confess. “Still sort of do … Truthfully, I haven’t felt normal since I drank that silver drink.”
“It’ll get better the longer you’re here.” He kisses the top of my head.
My wolf sighs.Yeah, she’s definitely a weirdo.
