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“I worked hard in school and took art classes when I discovered I was not only good at art but loved it. I was captain of the track team as a junior in high school and went to every school event imaginable. I was even in line to qualify for an art scholarship to a good school, a dream school not too far away from my family so I could still see them whenever I wanted.”
Placing the fork on her plate, Tori leaned back, her appetite forgotten. She lifted her head, sadness marring her features. I flexed my hands to stop myself from reaching for her.
Softly, her voice broke the silence. “Then all of it went away in an instant.” She snapped her fingers. “My mother was killed by a shifter.”
I froze. It wasn’t too common for a shifter to kill a human. Throughout our history, we worked to stay away from them. Cohabitation was a recent occurrence, and even then, most humans didn’t know about us.
With the pain emanating from Tori, I couldn’t hold back, so I stood up and went to her. I wrapped my arm around her and sat on the stool closest to her, pulling her into my side. I didn’t want her to think she was alone. I didn’t want her to be alone ever again.
“Before I had the chance to mourn my mom, my entire life changed in ways that I could never imagine.” She stiffened, and I suspected she was keeping this part vague on purpose. She was holding something back.
I wanted all the answers, but she was too stubborn, and I had to accept what she gave in her own time. That was the key to Tori. This story, her story, wasn’t something she often gave, if at all, and this was extremely difficult for her, so I kept my mouth shut and continued to listen. That was what she needed.
“Once the shifter killed my mom, my world shattered. Not only did I lose my best friend and biggest supporter, I learned monsters were real and out there. They were no longer the imaginings I had hiding in my closet or under my bed when I was a little girl, when my screams would have my dad run in and scare them away so I could go back to sleep. That was no more. The innocence was gone. Monsters were flesh and blood and could do horrible things, and they did do horrible things. Because one of them took my mom.
“And then it became worse, and my world fell out from under my feet again. I turnedintoone of those monsters. I turned into the very thing that killed my mom. I almost killed someone. It was the worst thing I could ever have imagined myself becoming. I had to run from the hunters to survive. I had to leave everything I had ever known behind. My normal, mundane life changed so quickly, and I had no option but to leave.”
She started shaking.
“I was lost and angry. I still am. My entire happy, blessed childhood was swiped away and ruined by shifters.” She pulled back her shoulders, her voice hardening. “I refuse to be one. I refuse to destroy another family the way mine was.”
I pulled her in as close to me as I could. A few sniffles hit my ears, and the scent of her tears had my wolf anxious. I wished on every source of power imaginable that I could make her past easier for her, but I was more frustrated with how scared she’d been and how long she’d endured that fear. She didn’t deserve to be so afraid.
“Even if you didn’t know what you were at the time, it didn’t mean your entire childhood was a lie. The happiness you felt was real. It was a true feeling for you. True moments. Those memories are still yours. The laughter, the happiness, and the joy, everything you experienced in those moments was as real as you and I are now.”
I stopped talking to let my words sink in, even though I was dying to talk more about her family and how they had reacted. Did she know whether humans had adopted her, because why wouldn’t she have been raised as a shifter? Those questions were challenging, and this was clearly a sensitive topic for her. I only refrained from asking because of the way she shook in my arms.
“What did you mean when you said you nearly killed someone when you shifted for the first time?” Rubbing her back, I worked at soothing her.
She leaned in closer to me and sniffled some more. “Because of all the chaos in my life, my relationship with my boyfriend at the time went downhill. I couldn’t deal with it all. It became too much, and I had to let some things go. I was only a teenager, and all these responsibilities fell on me after my mom died. I gave up on after-school programs because I didn’t have the time or the joy for them anymore. Being around people wasn’t easy, and my boyfriend didn’t have to grow up as suddenly as I did. He didn’t understand the grief or how to deal with a traumatized teenage girl. I broke up with him, and we had a nasty argument. I mean, really bad, and something about the situation triggered my wolf. It exploded out of me.”
My shirt was becoming damp from her tears, and she clutched me so tight that I was ready to pull her into my lap and rock her.
The misery in her voice couldn’t be missed, and I wanted to soothe all her worries and fight all her demons. I wanted to be her champion, but how could you correct and fix this sort of heartache? You couldn’t. You could only hold the person and listen.
“I didn’t know what I was doing. Suddenly, I had these claws and this overwhelming rage and drive to attack, so I attacked him. I clawed him good and deep. God, there was blood everywhere. It coated me as it drained from him. I barely managed to pull myself away before I killed him, then I bolted from the scene. He was alive when I left. I verified he was still alive by calling the hospital and pretending to be his sister. I was mortified, confused, scared, and didn’t know what was happening. I had nobody to turn to, nobody to answer any of the questions going through my mind.”
I tamped down the rising anger within me because I’d never been so grateful for her being a shifter than I was now. I needed to get Tori to see it that way, too.
Lifting her softly away from me, I put my finger under the bottom of her chin and tipped her head to look at me. “Wolves don’t attack without purpose unless they’re feral. If your wolf burst out like that, then it most certainly sensed a serious danger you didn’t comprehend. Make no mistake, teenager or not, that bastard was going to hurt you. When a wolf comes out like that, it’s to protect you, and she did exactly that. I’ve never been as thankful for your little wolf as I am now, given that she protected you like that.”
Scoffing, Tori dropped her gaze. “I could’ve handled him myself. I’m not a weakling. She nearlykilledhim.”
“But she didn’t. Don’t you see? If you controlled your wolf then, even though you had never shifted before, then you’ll have no problem controlling her now. Not only that, you had no idea what was happening, no guidance or instruction on being a shifter, and you got her to stop. You just need to figure out the balance and make peace with her.”
We gazed into each other’s eyes for a while as she pieced together everything I’d said. I hoped she could see my admiration for her showing in my eyes. She was incredible, beautiful, and so strong.
Her nose was red, her eyes swollen and glassy. And she still looked gorgeous to me. More so now that I was aware of what she’d been through, but I wasn’t an idiot. There was more she wasn’t telling me. However, I’d accept what she was willing to give me—for now.
Wiping her face with her hand, she huffed out a choppy breath and sat back again. We were still touching and entwined. Her body heat soothed me enough that my wolf wasn’t demanding to go after this ex-boyfriend of hers and finish the job. She believed she hadn’t been in danger from him, but I knew better.
“I hate doing all the sharing,” she said. “It’s your turn now. Spill.”
I gave her a weak smile and allowed the change in topic. She wanted the details of the murder case, but that could hold off. I wanted to tell her about my first shift instead. If I could lighten the mood a bit, I could hopefully hear that laugh of hers. My soul ached to hear it again.
“I shifted for the first time when I was seven. I ripped apart every single piece of furniture in my parents’ mansion in Hawaii.”
Tori’s brow furrowed. “Were they furious?”
