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But every so often, that all slips away from me, and I become more wolf than human.
Now, all the hair on my body is raised in alarm. My pupils have dilated, allowing me to see every different shade of light that could ever exist.
My sense of smell, which is already naturally enhanced, sharpens almost immeasurably.
Strength and endurance, built, not forged, from years of running with the wolves, fuels me.
Fever and Tavor lead two contingents of wolves from the pack in two directions, as I taught them years ago.
Both of them might be a pain in the ass to deal with, but they’re both strong and will viciously protect their homes,I think almost gratefully to myself.
I am halfway through the woods when a hand closes around my upper arm and jerks me to a stop.
When I turn, I am looking up at Kian, whose eyes dart frantically from side to side.
“You should go!” I say breathlessly. I turn to look to the front, where Fever is pacing up and down, his canines bared.
“We’re buying you some time!” I reach up to stroke his cheek as a goodbye, but he catches my hand in his.
He shakes his head and is about to speak, but I interrupt him.
“You have someone waiting for you!” My voice has never been more urgent. “I’ve heard your dreams. Your nightmares. I’ve heard you calling for your parents! Please, I’m going to help you survive this so that you can be with them!”
I am afraid to look him in the eye. The first time I heard him crying out in his sleep, I felt like I was eavesdropping on a very personal conversation.
Now, as I look up at him slowly, I wait to see accusatory anger in his eyes.
Be honest with yourself. You didn’t feel like you were eavesdropping. You didn’t want to bring this up because you were afraid he would remember. And leave you.
The voice in my head is stern, and the words are a reprimand.
But instead of anger, Kian is looking at me so tenderly that I want to cry.
He leans down and brushes his lips against my forehead, then our lips meet.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying to fight with you.”
“You’re being a fool.” I want to be angry with him. He is making no sense. They’re coming for him, and I am giving him an easy way out.
“You should take the chance now and leave!” I tell him as urgency whips through me like a violent wind.
“We could escape together,” he says softly. I can hear them coming now.
The wolves can hear them, too.
I know that there are contingents of five wolves at every entrance to the clearing. They’re hidden so deep in the darkness of the forest that the enemy orcs would never be able to see them coming.
If I can just get up a tree, I can see them coming and take out a number of them from above.
I move to pull away from Kian, but he holds onto me.
I swallow a scream and look up at him again.
“We can leave together. We can leave this place and go where they could never find us. We don’t even need to stay near the Great Lakes. We can travel as far as possible away from here.”
I want to be convinced. I want to abandon everything and leave with him.
But then I look down because a wet nose is pressed against my leg.
