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And then I realized he wasn't wearing any clothes, stopped looking further down at him, felt heat explode in my cheeks, but was too exhausted to even begin to process anything.

“It's a full moon,” he gritted out.

“You're in human form,” I whispered.

“I know,” he said tensely, squeezing his eyes shut.

A cracking sound in his back automatically made me more alert.

“I have to transform back,” he growled, opening his glowing yellow eyes again. “Bayla. Listen to me... You're going to get up now, and I'll take you home. In Senseque form.”

Get up? Home? Where was home? Where was I anyway?

Memories came flooding back. I had gotten lost...

A familiar feeling. As if I had never been anything else…

“Bayla?” He tensed his arms, growled something incomprehensible, and held me firmly by the shoulders, but then immediately let go of me and breathed in and out hectically.

He was suffering...

“I don't know if I can do that,” I confessed, looking at him desperately. Another tear escaped from my right eye.

Alarik touched my knee as if he needed support, while he braced himself with his other hand on a tree trunk next to us, countless black veins pulsing black on his muscular arm.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pulling pain rush through my entire body, causing me to whimper uncontrollably as the cramping grew worse.

Alarik groaned, the black veins stood out, and the yellow glow intensified before he squeezed his eyes shut. He tilted his head back, which caused his Adam’s apple to stand out, and I used the second to close my eyes, banishing the pain from my body, because it felt foreign.

I needed sleep... just a little.

“Okay, listen,” his breathless words reached me again, and it took all my strength to open my eyes. “You're going to climb on my back. Don't be afraid, okay?”

His back? Afraid?

I just nodded, too weak to ask questions or even protest.

Then I closed my eyes, heard footsteps, heard something crack unnaturally, but my tiredness wanted to pull me back into sleep, blocking out everything else.

Something warm touched my face. Fur. Something pressed against my shoulders.

Confused, I blinked.

A huge, deep brown wolf with yellow eyes stood in front of me, nudging my shoulder with its snout.

I stared, too paralyzed to comprehend what was happening.

A wolf...

My tiredness disappeared within seconds, and I crawled backward, away from the tree, but slipped on the cool, muddy forest floor with my numb hands.

Then I remembered.

“Alarik...”

I knew that Alarik was the Senseque with the deep brown fur. One of the largest in the pack...

Suddenly wide awake, I stared at the man-sized wolf creature, who lowered his head and cautiously approached.