I checked the time.Four hours until she arrived.Four hours to get this beast under control before I did something I couldn’t take back.
I left through the back of the manor, striding across the manicured lawns toward the tree line where the forest began.My property extended for miles into the wilderness, bought specifically for moments like this.No neighbors.No witnesses.No one to see the monster emerge.
The clothes came off the moment I reached the pines.I didn’t bother folding them this time.Just tore them off and let them fall where they landed.The wolf was already pushing at my skin, demanding release.
I let him have it.
The shift ripped through me faster than usual, fueled by fury.Bones snapped and reformed.Muscles tore and rebuilt.The pain was secondary to the rage, barely registering as my body twisted into something that wasn’t human.
Then I was on four legs, and the world became simple.
Hunt.Kill.Destroy.
I ran.
Not for pleasure this time.Not for the joy of movement or the freedom of the wild.I ran because if I didn’t burn off this fury, I would do something irreversible.Would track down whoever had sent that package and tear their throat out in broad daylight.Would destroy months of careful planning because someone had dared to frighten what was mine.
The forest blurred around me.I tore through underbrush, leaped over fallen logs, sent a family of deer scattering in terror.My massive black form was a shadow moving through shadows, a predator without prey, all that murderous energy with nowhere to go.
Someone hurt her.The wolf’s thoughts were simple, primal, utterly focused.Someone made her scream.Find them.End them.
I couldn’t.Not yet.Not until I knew who.
I ran until my lungs burned and my legs ached.Ran until the red haze receded from my vision and I could think again.Ran until the wolf finally, reluctantly, agreed that hunting blind would accomplish nothing.
A stream cut through the forest at the edge of my property.I stopped there, chest heaving, tongue lolling.Drank deep from the cold water.Let it cool the fire still smoldering in my gut.
She comes tonight,the wolf reminded me.She’ll be in our den.Safe.Protected.Ours to guard.
Yes.Tonight she would be under my roof, where I could keep her safe from whoever had sent that dead animal.Where I could watch over her, protect her, make sure no one touched her again.
The thought settled the last of the rage into something colder.More patient.
I would find who did this.And when I did, they would beg for death long before I granted it.
The shift back was slower, more controlled.I stood naked by the stream for a long moment, letting the cold air dry the sweat from my skin.Then I made my way back through the forest, following my own scent trail to where my clothes lay scattered among the pine needles.
The sun was lower when I returned to the manor, the shadows lengthening across the gardens.I showered, changed into fresh clothes, and stood at the window watching the light shift toward evening.
The afternoon crawled past.I tried to work, but the words on my screen blurred into meaningless shapes.I showered, changed into fresh clothes, poured myself a whisky I didn’t drink.The wolf paced inside my skull, restless and eager.
And then, finally, the sun sank below the treeline and the car appeared at the end of the drive.
She arrived at eight.
I watched from the upstairs window as Parsons pulled the car around the circular drive.The headlights swept across the manicured hedges, the stone fountain, the rose garden my mother would have loved if she were alive.Then the car stopped, and she emerged.
Small.Pale.Alone.
She stood on the stone drive, looking up at the manor with an expression I couldn’t read from this distance.Fear, maybe.Or resignation.The evening light caught her hair, turned it to honey and gold.
Good.
I didn’t go down to greet her.I wasn’t her suitor, wasn’t some nervous bachelor hoping to make a good impression.I was her owner.Let her come to me.
Alice met her at the door.I heard the murmur of voices, the click of heels on marble, the rustle of a suitcase being taken.Then Alice’s footsteps, climbing the stairs, the lighter tread of the girl behind her.
She’s here.The wolf was pacing now, agitated and eager.Our mate is in our den.Go to her.Claim her.
