When my gaze returned to the door, D was walking out, and my wolf growled inside of me, urging me to go to him. She didn’t want him to leave. Planting my feet, I stopped myself from doing something stupid, hating that I wasn’t used to the dynamic here.
I glanced at Vanessa and Dante. “What’s happening?”
“D has something important he needs to do,” Dante informed, “but he’ll meet us later.”
“Meet us?” I questioned, noticing two different coats materialize from the shadows into his hands.
“Which one do you prefer?” the Dark Witch lifted the light one first, the same hue as the dress I wore, and then a pink one on his other hand.
My gaze gravitated to the light one, and I placed my hand on it, reveling in the thick, soft material. “May I have this one?”
A glimpse of sadness flittered over his expression, swiftly vanishing. “You can have anything you want, Natasha. Forgive me for deciding what you would wear this morning, instead of asking you. It won’t happen again; you have my word.”
“Thank you,” I whispered, taken aback by his promise. I doubted my uncle had ever felt bad for not asking me what I wanted.
“I’ll take the pink one,” Vanessa happily added, grabbing the fuzzy coat from him, and putting it on. It went nicely with the grey, turtleneck dress she wore, the thin silver belt on her waist, and darker grey, knee-high boots.
Unlike me, she seemed perfectly comfortable in heels.
“Shall we?” she asked, gesturing for me to put on my coat.
“Where are we going?” I asked, exchanging a glance with the Dark Witch.
An excited smile curved Vanessa’s lips. “Why, to ‘see the world through your eyes,’ of course!”
13
Bright sunlight filtered through the building’s glass doors as we walked toward them, painting colorful bursts on the stone floors. With each step I took, my pulse raced, my heart thundered, my palms perspired, and my entire body seemed cold as ice. I’d never been so excited and so terrified in my entire life.
Stopping before us, Dante pulled the door open and gestured for me to walk out first.
I ran outside instead, immediately bumping into someone.
“Sorry!” I offered the man, but he just ignored it, side-stepping me and continuing to walk like it was just another day inNew York.
Vanessa’s and Dante’s chuckles mixed with the cold air as it caressed my cheeks and nose, and I glanced at them, completely ecstatic.
“A human! I just bumped into a human!” I whisper-screeched, just as Vanessa pulled me out of the way so a group of women could walk past us. I glanced behind her to find a couple crossing the street from the park with two kids—each of them holding one of their parents’ hands.
“Kids! Those are real human kids!”
I froze when they walked by me, taking in every second, and trying to absorb everything I could from the experience. The girl seemed too enthralled by the doll she held to notice me looking, but the little boy did. Glancing up at me, he smiled, waving me goodbye. A surge of emotion I couldn’t quite describe inundated my being while I waved back, and I swore right there and then that I would do anything, sacrifice anything, to protect them.
The flow of humans stopped on the other side of the street, with all of them looking up at some red light. Heart racing out of my chest, I admired them. Their skins, eyes, and hair bore so many stunning colors that I could hardly believe it. Except for Isis and I, everyone else in theShadow Born Packlooked the same—raven-black hair, black eyes, pale skin. But in the human world, inNew York City, I could see an entire sea of different, beautiful races… and I loved it.
It was humbling and undeniably breathtaking.
Lifting my face to the sky, I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. “Thank you, Moon Goddess. Thank you for making my dream come true.”I whispered to the moon, even if I could no longer see her. This was definitely not how I had expected my dream to come true, but I was finally in the human world.
“Enjoying yourself?”
D’s voice startled me, and I jumped a little, opening my eyes to find him sitting on top of a weird machine by the street. I knew about human cars, but this wasn’t one of them.
“It’s a motorcycle,” he clarified, recognizing my confusion while putting on leather gloves.
“I thought you had left,” I mumbled, stepping closer with Vanessa just as the multitude of people crossed onto our street, walking all around us.
“He was just getting the bike out of the parking lot,” his sister assured but his attention remained on me, his gaze intensifying.
