“She’s locked in a cage.” The wolf threw herself against the bars again, the sound of bending metal making the hair on his arms stand on end.
“Do you remember the song I sang to you as a child?”
“What? Gerty…”
“Sing it, Kyle. Sing it now.”
“We don’t have time!Ah!” he screamed in agony. What was happening to his fingers? “There’s something wrong with me, Gerty! Everything hurts.”
“Sing the song!Now, Kyle!”
“But—”
“Now!” she demanded.
Kyle panted against the pain but forced himself to sing.
“Deep in the woods
where the willows bloom
lives a fairy queen
and her handsome groom.
No children have they
but love them they do
Call to her child,
and she’ll watch over you.
Fairy queen, fairy queen,
I call unto thee.
I am a child and
you are my queen.”
A metallic screech filled the room as Laina’s wolf worked herself between the bars. She was almost free.
“I love you, Gerty,” Kyle said. He swallowed a lump in his throat, prepared for the end. “You were the mother I never had.”
A flash of light beamed through the room, blinding him before forming into an elderly woman in a sparkling aqua pantsuit, carrying a silver wand. “I love you too, Kyle.”
“Gerty?”
With a crash, Laina barreled through the cage and bound straight toward them, snarling with teeth bared. Kyle could accept being torn apart, but he’d never forgive himself if something happened to Gerty. He squared his shoulders, made eye contact with the wolf, and yelled the only words he could think to yell. “No! Laina, stop!”
The wolf skidded to a halt at his feet, head down and tail between her legs. Kyle remembered that from his lesson with Laina. Submissive posture.
“She knows you, Kyle,” Gerty said. “Even in her animal form.”
He held out his hand, let her take a good sniff. “Is this real? Have I hit my head or something?” Instinctively, he scratched Laina’s wolf behind her ears. As soon as he touched her silky chocolate-colored fur, the pain in his body eased. He sighed in relief.
“I didn’t want you to find out this way,” Gerty said.
