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“Why are you being so nice to me?”

“You looked after me. Shouldn’t I return the favor?” His voice is low, and he’s not looking at me.

As sleep begins to wrap me in its warm embrace, my stomach finally full after a long time, I smile slightly, sure of one thing.

“You’re lying.”

Chapter Three

Griffin Wild

For so long, I felt like I was drowning, like my sense of self and wolf that was always in such unity was separating. My human side was beginning to fade as the wolf took over, and without my human intellect, I knew I would become a mindless beast.

When did it start?

I don’t remember. There’s a lot that I don’t remember.

I do recall the out-of-body experience as my wolf raged while my own kind poked and prodded inside me. I was cut open, put back together, and had things inserted into my blood that drove me to the edge of madness.

It almost became a relief that my human side was fading. I couldn’t bear it anymore.

And then she came.

Leaning against the wall of the cabin, I look down at the sleeping human. She seems restless in her sleep, but then, that’s how she’s been ever since I met her. She moves around, her forehead scrunching, worries that she doesn’t speak of clearly plaguing her.

My wolf didn’t recognize her because it was too far gone. Neither did my human side because what should have been one entity was separated. But my animal knew she was not an enemy. She wasn’t one of them. She was different. She gave us food and water.

She gave us her own food and water.

She would hold her stomach while she slept in those harrowing hours, and my wolf knew she was starving herself for it. But it hadn’t eaten in so long, and it needed the nourishment.

She was not one of them, but she was nearby when I was held down and tortured. In those moments, her eyes would fill with tears, and she would comfort me when she could. I knew her situation was similar to mine. I was not yet the mindless beast I was on the way to becoming.

And then, one day, I felt the connection my wolf and I shared begin to mend.

I knew it was because of her.

When I first saw her, her hair was short, a pretty shade of auburn. Now it goes past her shoulders. Her eyes are a soft baby blue and often seem filled with tiredness but determination. It was only in my human form that I realized how small she is. Her head barely touches my shoulder.

Small and delicate, with all the ferocity of a female wolf, this woman is the one who helped me finally escape.

Certain that she’s not going to wake up, I wrap a lock of her hair around my finger and play with it idly. I don’t know what she did, but she managed to bring my human side and my wolf side back together. She repaired the fracture.

I’d tried to shift plenty of times this past month, but it wasn’t till I tasted her blood that it happened. The moment her blood hit my tongue, my wolf reacted.

It knew what she was, who she was.

She was mine.

And the traitor who had betrayed me was going to hurt her.

In a wave of fury, my strength returned. My body began to shift, and the shackles simply fell off, too big for a human form. The connection between me and my wolf snapped back into place, almost as if it had never been gone.

When we were outside and facing the approaching wolves, once again—with whatever it was she gave me to drink—she was the one who helped me regain some of my strength.

I owe this tiny slip of a human everything.

I run my fingers through her hair, and her frown fades, as if my very touch is driving away the nightmares. Her hair has become brittle with the lack of nourishment, I note to myself. Her cheeks have sunk in. She’s weak, but her spirit is still unbroken.