Page 105 of Red's Beast

"Lily, no. It's dangerous."

"Grandmother, Grandmother, it’s a book! See what I found." Lily says excitedly as she rushes toward the items. She’s only about five, but so mature sounding for her age.

I remember clearly now. The book and pouch were with her son's mate, clutched tightly in her hands. When they were thrown into the woods, she begged me to take them to her daughter, knowing that I’d be able to do a little something to help.

Snatching them with my teeth, I rushed toward the cottage, but wasn't sure how I would get them to Grandmother. Finally, I used my nose to scoot them as far as I could without breaking the barrier before returning to her parents to carry them to the other pack.

As I stand there lost in thought, I wonder what all this has to do with digging into the past, as Emmeline had said. What does this part of her past have to do with mine?

Is it to show we are both cursed in some way, or is there a deeper meaning behind it all?

I watch as Grandmother carries Lillian with the supplies into the house, sobbing. "It's going to be okay, my little Lily. You'll be safe."

Time shifts again, and I watch it slowly transform before my eyes. The little girl becomes a teenager and then a young woman. She finally says goodbye to her grandmother after her eighteenth birthday and moves into the village.

All those years, she never feared me as I crept along the edge of the woods, watching and waiting, but as soon as she moved, she became fearful. It’s like something happened that first day she moved back that changed her view, but that was because of Nigel and his fear mongering.

The first day she visited her grandmother after moving came into view. Lillian and her signature red cloak come bounding up the path with a smile on her face. She halts and looks down the path. "It's just thirty feet. I can make it."

Why does the distance matter? She grew up here and knew it was safe. Nothing ever harmed her before.

Nigel shouts out from behind her, "Watch out for the beast, Lillian! He may eat you when you go up the path to your grandmothers. Are you sure you want to go?"

Everything becomes crystal clear at that moment. Nigel is the one who planted all the fear in her. He and his family know I am innocent, but they pretend to be the saviors of the pack.

Lillian looks over her shoulder. "I'll be fine. It’s not like I haven’t done this before.”

She takes off, running up the path, and my wolf bounds along beside her, longing to fully be at her side. Sadly, it seems to cause her panic, and she runs faster. I watch as my wolf's form comes to a stop at the edge of the woods in confusion. I know what he thought back then.

Why is she running like that? I never hurt her or anyone. I even saved her family, though she doesn’t know it.

My wolf's head dips low and when he turns, I notice the scars lining his body. I’ve always known they were there, but to see them from the outside is astonishing. I bite my lip as I remember how I received them.

You'd think I'd be beaten by the way it looks, and I wish it was from that. It would have been far kinder than the pain I had inflicted upon myself as I tried to escape my forest prison. That wall that separated me from the path and village is cruel, as each time I would run into it, it lashed out and serrated my skin like a sharp knife going across skin.

Instead of healing, it left permanent reminders behind.

The memory moves to the next morning as Lillian emerges out of the house, looking sheepishly around for any sign of me.

She seems fine until I move, and she hears the sharp crunch of the branch. Her feet don't touch the ground as she runs to the village, her red cloak flowing behind her.

When I mope all the way toward the cottage, Grandmother is standing at the door with an exasperated expression. "Don't worry, beasty, she'll come around. I know what you really are, though I'm a little unsure of who you are. Maybe our fates are intertwined. One day, I’m going to figure it out and make sure she knows.”

With a smile, she closes the door softly behind her. My jaw drops open. All these years she's lived there, and that is the first time she's addressed me.

It blows my mind and I remember the feeling. It is that day I realize Lillian might be my salvation, and I prayed it would be her.

Could she be the one who ends my misery and breaks the curse, or will she ignore me and not want to have anything to do with me?

Only time will tell because I had never seen her wolf.

I watch the days speed by me again and again. Each time Lillian comes to visit her grandmother, she runs for the door, never stopping to look.

Then I realize this is where my obsession began. A few weeks ago, I finally realized I could talk to her through her mind and she was so startled.

She is my mate, and that confirmed it. It made me feel relieved that I finally knew what she was.

A smile comes to my face as I watch her fall to her knees, her mouth open as she gasps. Oh yes, at that moment, I made her feel like I was scraping my teeth down her neck without being right there behind her. My cheeks heat from the memory now that I can see her reaction fully.

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