“Lirian… can you hear me? I’m right here.”

  The voice reaches me faintly at first, distant, like sound traveling through water. Then it presses closer, threading through the fog smothering my thoughts. Firm hands steady my shoulders. Fingers brush damp strands of hair from my face.

  “Come back to me.”

  Azrael’s voice wavers. Raw. Uncertain.

  I try to breathe. Try to speak. “Wha…” The word dissolves on my tongue before it can take shape.

  “Take it slow,” he murmurs, gentle and coaxing. “You’re safe.”

  My skull throbs before I even manage to open my eyes. The words still echo inside my head, heavy and foreign, as if my mind is too small to contain it. A curse. A prophecy. Destinies bound together by something older than any pack.

  My lashes flutter. The world sharpens.

  Bright green eyes stare down at me, worried, far too close.

  “You…” I swallow, my throat dry. “…have beautiful eyes.”

  A quiet, startled laugh slips from him, soft and disbelieving. For a moment, something unguarded breaks through his usual restraint. He looks almost human.

  “You must still be delirious,” he says lightly.

  “You shouldn’t smile,” I reply flatly. His brow lifts in amusement. “People might think you actually have a soul. We wouldn’t want that, now would we?”

  His mouth curves despite himself, but the concern returns just as quickly. “I was worried,” he admits. “You froze. Convulsed. I couldn’t wake you.”

  “A seizure?” My voice barely exists.

  “Yes.” His jaw tightens. “You… went somewhere else.”

  “How long was I…” I trail off, suddenly aware that I am not on the floor.

  I am cradled in his arms.

  “I don’t know,” he says quietly. “Long enough that I thought you’d been lost for good.”

  The words settle into me, heavy and unsettling.

  “I don’t remember anything,” I say, worry threading through my voice.

  He lifts a hand and tucks a stray lock of hair behind my ear. The gesture is gentle. Reverent. It steals the air from my lungs.

  “Can you help me to my feet?” I whisper.

  He hesitates, assessing me, then nods. His hands slide beneath me, careful but unyielding, guiding me upright.

  The moment my feet touch the ground, everything tilts. My knees buckle and I collapse into him. His arm curves around my waist, steady and sure.

  And my wolf wakes.

  She surges violently beneath my skin, claws scraping against bone, desperate and insistent. She wants him. Wants his warmth, his scent, his strength.

  No. Not this.

  I grit my teeth and try to pull away, but her will bleeds into my limbs. My hand lifts without permission. My fingers brush the dark markings across his chest.

  They respond.

  The tattoos shiver faintly beneath my touch, as if something beneath his skin has stirred. Or else my vision was playing tricks on me.

  My fingertips trace upward along his neck to his jaw before I wrench control back.

  Heat floods my cheeks. I pull my hand away and meet his gaze.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  He is looking at me like I am something he never expected to find.

  “Lirian,” he says softly.

  “Yes?” The word slips out, small and hopeful despite myself.

  “Do you want to lie down?”

  The fragile hope shatters instantly.

  I roll my eyes, irritation flaring. “Yes. Set me on the bed.”

  Pain flickers across his face before it hardens into resolve.

  “Of course.”

  With one smooth motion, he lifts me into his arms. My wolf melts against him, purring and stretching, desperate to be closer. He does not need heightened senses to feel it. The brief look he gives me tells me he knows.

  He lowers me gently onto the bed.

  The moment his body leaves mine, my wolf claws viciously inside me, howling in protest.

  She wants him.

  I don’t know what I want.

  “I need to tell you something,” he says, hesitating. “Although I’m not sure you’re ready to hear it.”

  He takes my hand gently in his, my fingers disappearing beneath the warmth of his palm.

  “There’s something about you… that’s different.” Each word is measured, deliberate, as if he is weighing their impact before letting them fall. “You’re not like everyone else.”

  “What do you mean?” I press, my chest tightening.

  “There is something inside you,” he continues quietly. “Something powerful. And dangerous.”

  “Powerful how?” I ask. “Dangerous to who?”

  His jaw tightens. He licks his lips, and for a heartbeat my thoughts betray me, drifting to what they might feel like pressed against mine.

  “To everyone,” he says at last. “Most of all to yourself.”

  I stare at him, turning his words over and over until they begin to bruise.

  “I don’t understand,” I say finally. “Is that why I’m here? Why you abducted me?”

  For the first time since I’ve met him, Azrael looks almost… embarrassed.

  “Yes,” he admits quietly. “To protect you.”

  The sound that tears from my chest isn’t polite or restrained.

  I laugh.

  After everything. After the pack’s strange behavior. The way my parents looked at me like I was something they didn’t recognize. The visions. The collapse. The fear before my change. The red wolf. The chains. The cave.

  This is supposed to be protection.

  I laugh harder, my sides aching, breath splintering in sharp bursts. It isn’t humor. It isn’t joy. It’s the sound of something inside me finally giving way.

  Azrael watches me carefully, like he’s trying to decide whether I’m unraveling or already gone.

  “Lirian,” he says softly.

  I drag in a breath and look at him. My eyes feel fever-bright, wild. Panic and desperation coil together until I can’t separate them.

  “Are you alright?” he asks carefully.

  That does it.

  The laughter rips out of me again, louder this time, until my chest burns and my throat aches. He steps back, clearly unsure what to do, giving me space as if I am something volatile.

  The moment his hand leaves me, I surge forward.

  I grab his shirt and yank him close, fingers fisting in the fabric.

  “I need to get outside,” I say, my voice stripped bare. “I need to run. I need to feel the wind on my skin. I need to shift.”

  His body goes still.

  “My wolf needs to be free,” I continue, voice cracking despite my effort to stay steady. “She’s clawing at me constantly. I’m fighting her every second, and I’m losing. I need to let her out. Please.”

  The word scrapes its way out of me.

  For the first time, he looks shaken.

  “I don’t know if what you’re feeling is safe,” he says slowly. “And I don’t know if letting you shift is wise.”

  I laugh again, brittle and sharp. “What I do know is that if I stay trapped in this cave any longer, I will lose my mind.”

  My wolf thrashes beneath my skin, furious, desperate. I press a hand to my chest, forcing my breath to slow.

  “You think I’ll run,” I say quietly.

  He doesn’t deny it.

  “What if I promise not to leave your side?” I ask. “What if I swear it?”

  He studies me for a long moment, his expression unreadable.

  “I don’t know how much promises mean to you,” he says at last. “But to me, a promise is unbreakable.”

  Hope flares painfully in my chest.

  “Does that mean you’ll let me outside?” I ask. “I swear I won’t leave you. I swear it. On my life.”

  Silence stretches.

  Then he speaks, and his words strike like a blade.

  “If you return with me,” he says evenly, “I will tell you who your real parents are.”

  The air leaves my lungs in a broken sound.

  “What?” I whisper.

  Before I can ask another question, he sits on the edge of the bed and reaches into his pocket.

  A key glints in the firelight.

  As he catches sight of the bandage on my wrist he shoots me a concerned look. I could see him weighing different possible causes for the wound, as he tries to read my expression. Eventually, he seems to have settled on an acceptable notion.

  He meets my gaze again and doesn’t look away.

  The lock turns.

  The shackles fall to the stone floor.

  And just like that…

  I am free.