The bond between us pulses hot beneath my skin.
“I didn’t understand it then,” he continues. “I just knew I had to find you. Protect you. Or die trying.”
My breath catches.
“I ran straight through a briar patch. Didn’t feel a damn thing. And when I found you… when I sawhimstanding over you… I would’ve torn him apart if he hadn’t run.”
He doesn’t say the rest—that if he’d been seconds later, my blood would be sinking into the roots of Fable Forest right now.
“Some part of me knew you were mine,” he admits. “Before I even saw your face.”
I breathe in slowly, my fingers curling around his. The memory of the gray wolf’s attack is still sharp—fangs, claws, the way his red eyes locked on mine like he ownedme.
“He’s not just a wolf. Something about him felt…wrong. Like he wasn’t supposed to be,” I say slowly, knowing instinctively that it’s true. “He hunted me. Waited until I was vulnerable. But why now? Why come for menow?”
Reid blows out a frustrated breath. “I don’t know.”
I study Reid’s face. “He’s still out there.”
A gust of wind rattles the window latch as if reacting to my words. I shiver, but not because I’m cold.
Reid turns toward the window, his whole body going still. When he turns back to me, his jaw is set. “He can’t have you. Not now. Not ever.”
I squeeze his fingers. “I’m not running. Not from him. Not from this. Not fromus.”
He nods. “We’renot running.” His resolve wraps around me, telling me that I’m not alone. That we’ll face this together.
“What about you?” I ask softly. “You weren’t born like this. How did it start?”
A long silence. Then?—
“My brother. Hewit. We were close.” A ghost of a smile touches his mouth, then fades. “Grew up in a town called Dry Gulch, about four counties west. One Halloween, we snuck into a party in Screaming Woods.” He huffs, but it’s not quite a laugh. “There was this punch. Glowed like lava. Tasted like every candy we’d ever loved. We drank it. Too much of it.”
I can see the shift in his breathing as it becomes tighter.
“The change came on fast for me. Bones warping. Skin shredding. Everythingbreakingto become something else.” He pauses. “I remember the blood. Noise. Hewit screaming. And then silence.”
My hand finds his.
“When I woke, he was gone. I waited. Called his name until my throat was raw. But I haven’t seen him since. I looked for him in the forest, but if he’s here, I can’t scent him.”
I squeeze his fingers. “I’m sorry.”
Reid shrugs. “After the change, I didn’t trust myself around people. I didn’t know how to control it or what would trigger my wolf. So I left. Found the deepest part of the forest and stayed there. Taught myself to shift without killing anyone. Built the cabin. Avoided everything with a human heartbeat.”
“Until me.”
His eyes find mine, and there’s no mistaking the answer. “Until you.”
Something in my chest breaks open, wide and warm.
He rolls onto his side, facing me fully now. “So now you know everything. The wolf. The past. The damage.”
“I don’t see damage.” I brush his cheek with my fingers. “I see someone who fought to stay kind, even when the world gave him a reason not to.”
His throat works around something too thick to swallow, and he leans into my touch as if it’s a lifeline, as if he’s been hungry for the simplicity of our connection.
And just like that, Iknow with a certainty that has nothing to do with fate and everything to do withfeelingthat this bond isn’t just about mating or magic.
