Page 124 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

Is it working?I asked, humor making my lips quirk.

Yet to be seen,she replied with a hint of warmth.

“Nothing,” I said to Shen.

“You never answered my previous question.”

I shrugged. “I?—”

“If you say you do not need help, I will take your dragon for a ride.”

“Youwouldn’t,” I said, pushing his shoulder.

He sobered, becoming still as he furrowed his brows. “I wish I could be the one to be here for you, but you are right. I cannot provide for you while I am struggling myself. Can we not support each other during our trials instead of separating?”

Fear struck my core, and I didn’t know why.

His eyes softened. “Why does this frighten you?”

My brows furrowed and then my mouth dropped when he tapped his nose. Blasted heightened werewolf senses. “No secrets around that nose, huh?” I said.

He shook his head.

“I don’t know how,” I whispered.

“Would you like to tell me more about what you mean?”

I shrugged, picking a flower and slowly dismantling the petals. “It’s been so long. I don’t know how to work through things… together. I’d prefer separate.”

His face fell, but he nodded. “I respect that. Dragon breath, I understand. Just… please find someone here to help you?”

My breath left again as things ran through my mind. I knew of no one I trusted enough to help. Not anyone who wasn’t already overloaded.

I nodded, both of us knowing it was a lie.

CHAPTER 44

Find Your Why

SHEN

It all began when I was a child. And now I did not know how to adjust to this sudden amount of freedom before me.

I did not have to return to my old pack. I was free of Alpha Command.

The problem? I was adrift. The thing which had defined me nearly my entire life—my prison and my absolution—was gone. The woman I had tried to tie myself to in order to absolve myself of the guilt was also gone.

For the first time, I was free. It pained me to admit it, but even after years of imagining this day, I had no idea what to do. My life was oddly similar to a boat being tossed into a storm, and I had just lost both my oars.

Doc sat on his porch, reading a book and smoking a pipe that was fogging up his glasses. It was his day off from helping Alia with the needy, his day to recuperate from everything. He had come back to check on his family and relax.

I wished I could let him relax, but I knew not of another time to come for help. Besides, I trusted him to send me away if he could not handle me and my issues. He had done so before only to come back later and help me through things, explainingthat he had had to recuperate his energy before assisting. I had understood and respected that about him.

“Why do you wear those blasted things?”

Doc chuckled. “For the same reason you wear different personalities, I suppose. It is an armor of a sort, to be underestimated.” He glanced at me over those glasses. “What is on your mind, Sheng-Li?”

I smiled as I sat down on the porch. I listened to the birds sing and a creek bubble that was not too far from the house. “It has been a long time since anyone has called me that.”

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