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I felt pathetic, defenseless, helpless. Weak. Too human for this town and yet not human enough to avoid being dragged into ruin by it.

How could I have forgotten about the full moon? Just a moment ago, I had seen Emely leave the house in wolf form, together with Nash and Hunter.

My head was too full, everything was spinning, and this weight in my skull seemed to be using all the chaos in this town to knock on the very door behind which I had felt it growing all these years.

It wanted out.

But fatigue pushed itself in front of the door just in time, blocking my view of it, so that I forgot it existed.

I convinced myself that it was only loneliness that had brought me here. It was loneliness. Missing Mum and Julian.

What if Julian came back?

The desire to utter my friend's name was tempting. It had done me good last time, as if he were here. But making any noise was out of the question right now. Not in the middle of a forest full of wolves.

It felt like I had lost them, both of them.

But what if I could actually free Mum with the help of the dark practices?

The cold rain grew heavier, already soaking my hair and gradually eating its way under my clothes.

The ground beneath me was as hard as the rough wood of the tree trunk behind me.

The cold gradually took control of my body temperature. And despite the shivering that seized my limbs, I could no longer keep my eyes open...

Longing

Gustavo Santaolalla

“Bayla,” a pleasant male voice reached me. “Bayla!”

Warm, rough hands held my face, shaking me, but all I could focus on was the warmth. A warmth I knew, that felt like salvation, so relieving that tears fought their way into my eyes and I opened them, blinking, my vision blurred.

Confusion spread through me as I stared into Alarik's glowing yellow eyes. They were wide with shock, while black veins stood out under his skin, running from his temples, across his face, down his neck.

But I struggled to keep my eyes open, and my head fell back into his warm hands.

My whole body was freezing, but this warmth...

The overwhelming feeling in my chest, which grew with every second, brought more tears to my eyes until they could no longer hold them back and I began to sob.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Alarik held my head and shook me again. “Come on...” I wanted to, but I was too weak... “Come on... Come on, damn it!”

With all my strength, I fought against the fatigue and confusion of my trembling body, feeling neither my hands nor my feet.

I blinked again, looking at the man with the tousled hair and yellow eyes in front of me.

“Alarik?” I whispered, my voice heavy with exhaustion. “What... are you doing here? Your eyes...”

I suppressed the urge to reach out and touch one of the aesthetic veins, feeling like I did back when someone had once slipped drugs into Larissa's and my drinks.

Dazed, I smiled as two more tears ran down my cheeks, and I stopped fighting it, touched Alarik's warm cheek, trailed my finger along the beautiful vein that, like my index finger, disappeared into his three-day stubble, glided past his lower lip, but slipped off his chin.

Why did I feel so weak?

Alarik stared at me, his jaw working, his upper body tensing as if he were in pain.

My gaze fell on his toned chest, covered in scars and bulging veins that looked as if they were dancing with aggression.