Page 4 of Plug and Tame

A rush of joy flooded her when she caught sight of her foster parents. Byron had clearly shifted back, because he and Mary were in human form. Both her wolf selves ran to embrace them, standing up on hind legs with front paws lifted.

Mary was a short woman with short, curly, red hair and a face that was almost perfectly round, whilst she’d always thought of Byron as a gentle giant—tall and brawny with black, close-cropped hair, a short thick beard, and large calloused hands. They both looked surprised to see her as they hugged each of her wolf forms.

“Kira, what are you doing here?” Mary asked in astonishment.

Kira’s wolf selves stepped back and blended into each other, forming one wolf as golden light oscillated around them, growing brighter as she morphed back into a human. She combed her thick, brown hair out of her face with her fingers and wiped her muddy hands on her pants.

“I had to come,” Kira answered, smiling in relief as she looked at the couple. “And I’m so glad I found you. I’ve missed you both.”

“We’ve missed you too,” Mary said, licking her thumb and using it to clean a spot on Kira’s cheek. The gesture was tender and motherly, but Mary’s expression was worried. “But why have you come?”

Kira gave a bitter laugh as she knelt to wash her hands in a water basin. “The reason begins and ends with the jerk the academy sent to get me,” she said, shaking her wet hands at the fire and causing flying droplets to evaporate with a hiss. “His name is Nathaniel, and he just so happens to be the fucking Vampire Prince—can you believe it?”

“I can believe it,” Byron murmured.

“Yes, well…you won’t believe what a royal prick he is, every pun intended.”

Byron and Mary exchanged a look, and Byron rubbed his bearded chin as he turned his concerned eyes to Kira. “And Nathaniel knows you’re here, does he?”

The smile slowly faded from Kira’s face. She didn’t know what to say to that. Byron’s comment was strange. He’d never mentioned Nathaniel before, and had not even mentioned the Vampire Prince.

Confusion spread across Kira’s face. “How do you know Nathaniel? You’ve never once mentioned him to me before.”

Byron’s guilty expression made her heart sink a fraction more.

“If Nathaniel hasn’t told you, then I’m afraid it’s not for me to say,” he said.

Kira crossed her arms. “What’s going on?” Why was he acting so stand-offish?

Byron shook his head in silent refusal, even though in all the years she’d known him, he’d always been loath to refuse her anything. Out of the wolf couple, Mary had always been the strict one.

Desperate for answers, Kira now turned to her. “Mary, why won’t you just talk to me?”

Mary sighed. “Oh Kira, you shouldn’t have come. You were supposed to stay at the academy. We didn’t expect you to return.”

Kira frowned. “But going to the academy was my idea.” She was struggling to find the words to voice what should have been obvious: that Mary and Byron had raised her to appreciate a simple life in the countryside. The couple who had once been guards for the royal wolf household of Wintermaw Keep, but they’d only trained her to fight at her insistence. Mary had fought her tooth and nail, never truly accepting Kira’s ambitions to fight for reform. Byron had been far more supportive, but the older she’d gotten, the more he’d tried to talk her out of her plans for revenge. “It was my idea,” she repeated.

Wasn’t it?

Silence.

Kira shook her head in exasperation. “I thought you’d both be happy to see me.”

“We are,” Byron replied.

Mary only pinched her lips and said nothing.

“I…I made sure I wasn’t followed, if that’s what’s bothering you,” Kira said.

Mary buried her round face in her hands. “Oh, Kira…”

Kira frowned. “What’s wrong?”

The woman slowly lifted her head. “You cannot stop what has been started. You cannot run from this.”

“Run from what? Nathaniel? But I just said I made sure I wasn’t followed—”

“He will find you,” Mary said, her voice growing high pitched as she turned to Byron. “She shouldn’t have come back.”