“And the snake was there—”
“Grace,” he growls in a very low voice. “Why are we talking about this?”
“Because it happened!” I cry, so frustrated that I forget the purpose of the conversation. “It was magical, and beautiful… it was the most powerful experience of my life! Then you just blew me off like I was some cheap Friday-night lay.”
Dan’s eyes glow as if fury has ignited inside him and is blazing through his blood. “You think I’d do that?” he says, his voice harsh. “Is that what you think of me?”
“You did do it!” I yell, folding my arms. “You refused to speak to me, hiding your feelings—”
“I’m not the one hiding things, though, am I, Grace?” he snaps. “I’m not the one with a big, dark secret.”
His words shock me so much that my mind goes completely blank. Fear rises in my gut, like a cold fist grasping my heart and squeezing it tight.
“What?” I mutter.
“Fuck it!” Dan snaps, stepping back. “Seriously, fuck all of this—”
“No!” I yell, stepping towards him as anger melts away my fear. “How dare you accuse me of secrets when you’re the one who’s locked up! I don’t really know anything about you, and I don’t understand why you won’t discuss that night. We have to, Dan. It was—it was—”
“It was a mistake!” he roars, his blue eyes blazing with the power of his wolf. “It should never have happened. I gave no permission to be used in a magical ritual, or whatever it was, and everything that happened after was only because I wasn’t right in my head.”
I take a step back, trying to swallow the lump in my throat. It’s a struggle to stop myself from putting my hand on my belly in an instinctive protective gesture.
A mistake. He just called our magical child a mistake.
“I—”
“No!” he yells. “Enough. I don’t have to listen to this.”
When he turns his back on me and storms out of the house, it’s a relief to hear his footsteps retreating away and the far-off slam of the back door. I walk slowly over to the couch, frigid shock pouring through me. Without even thinking, I pick up the blanket tossed over the back of the couch and wrap it around me.
Dan’s scent surrounds me, and hot tears pour down my cheeks. Instead of throwing the blanket across the room, I wrap it around me and immerse myself in him, curling up in the place he sleeps to let my tears flow.
What the fuck am I supposed to do now?
Chapter 23 - Dan
I run through the house, hearing the back door slam as I charge through it. I tear off my clothes and shift mid-run, letting my wolf take full control of my mind and body. My heightened emotions have riled up my primal side, and it takes over with a low, vicious snarl.
The second I feel my paws in the dirt, the anger lifts, replaced by a great sense of freedom. My senses overload with information from the forest around me, and my conscious human mind completely disappears.
Beyond the simple nature of the wolf, I can feel my heart aching and my soul ripped to shreds. I can’t bear the pain, so I just keep running, pushing my body as hard as I can. The path begins to rise sharply, and I pour on more speed, panting and trembling by the time I reach the top.
At first, I throw myself down on the ground and pant, unaware of anything except my racing heart and heaving breaths. As a cool breeze trickles over me, gently stroking my fur, I feel a sweeping sense of peace and sit up to look at the stars.
From my high vantage point, there is no light around me, only a glittering net above me. Stars glisten like diamonds scattered on velvet, the cold shimmers reminding me of Grace’s eyes shining in the dark.
But she isn’t hard, sharp, or cold. She’s a furnace, and that white light is the hottest a flame can possibly burn.
The wind ruffles my ears, and it feels like the elements are reaching out to comfort me. When I look away from the sky, I can see the countryside unfold around me, the lights from theother three packs, and beyond it, a soft glow from the incursion site.
The snake.
Even though it has been quiet for so long, I realize that deep down, I never really believed it was gone. The glow in the distance doesn’t mean an immediate threat, but my instincts tell me something is about to change.
Danger on the horizon. The worst danger I’ve ever faced.
As I look out across the valleys and hills, the words of my friends come back to me. For the last few weeks, they haven’t said anything else, but I’ve felt their gentle encouragement—and done everything possible to ignore it.
