AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hell, I was even free to fall in love, if I wanted to.
Which I didn’t.
But… I had always wanted love.
Maybe after I’d figured out how to be myself again, I would consider looking for a partner among the wolves. Maybe Amarok would understand that, and he would be okay with just being my friend until I was ready.
Or maybe he wouldn’t, and he would try to win over some other woman.
Honestly, that was okay too.
I needed time to find myself. He would accept that, or I would tell him in no uncertain terms that we would never be together.
My smile widened at the thought.
He wouldn’t hurt me.
Hecouldn’thurt me, if Serae was right.
So what was the worst that could happen when I told him no? He’d be a little angry?
I almost laughed.
If anyone could handle a man’s anger, it was me. The violence, I couldn’t deal with, but the anger?
I could manage that.
Allen had tried to break me, but now that I was free from him, I knew all he’d done was make me strong.
Strong… and slightly afraid.
But I would focus on the strength.
Just to be safe, I wouldn’t tell Amarok that I wasn’t willing to consider being his mate in any romantic capacity until we were with his pack again. I didn’t know the other women, but I hoped they would back me up, and protect me if I needed it.
Not from his violence—I knew he wouldn’t be violent with me. Or at least, I was pretty sure. But from his possessiveness, if needed.
I spread my body out a little more completely on the mattress. It was still a little cold, but warm enough that I could relish the chill, because it meant I wasn’t sleeping beside Allen any longer.
Amarok finished the dishes and took a shower, and I remained awake until he had shifted to his wolf form and curled up on the floor beside the bed.
He wasn’t going to force me to do anything.
The knowledge of that made me feel warm and happy, and I fell asleep cuddled up with my blankets, content in my freedom.
five
RORY
We slipped outof the borrowed den the next morning, after I reluctantly changed back into my cleanish Earth clothes. Then, we were off again. My lips were still stretched in a wide grin as we ran, and my body relaxed further with every hour I spent in Evare, completely and entirely free.
During the next day, I noticed that my hair looked different. The blonde Allen had insisted I needed seemed to bepinkish. I thought I was going crazy at first, but resigned to ask Amarok about it when it looked darker by the time we stopped for the night.
“Does my hair look pink to you?” I asked him, as he plucked massive fruit from a tree for us. We’d made it out of the Fractured Peaks and into the Broken Woods, so my back was to a thick, black tree’s trunk.
“Yes. My magic has begun changing you,” he admitted.
I blinked. “What?”
