Page 152 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

His chuckle was confirmation enough. I’m just glad theson of the Creatorfound my mate’s death threats amusing and didn’t seem to take them to heart.

“I know my people. And I know pain. There is much to be said of mercy where others would condemn.” He gently turned over my broken and bleeding hand and… my hand healed. Where he touched, it healed.

“Can you… heal the rest of me?”

A tear dropped from his eye, a sprinkle of starlight in this dark world. “Yes, Daughter,” he whispered, his voice broken with pain. “But first, you must give it to me.”

My soul froze. He watched me, not pushing. What he was asking… I didn’t know if I could give it.

“I’m scared,” I whispered, looking away.

“I know,” he replied simply.

He would let me choose. I had to release it. Release my walls that had protected me for so long. Release what made me,me.

“Your protection is keeping you from embracing the full extent of life.”

“But what if I get hurt?”Again,I thought but didn’t add. It broke me when I feltneeds.It seemed like it also wounded my very soul. But it also made it to where I wanted to keep people out. Some were slowly working their ways past my walls, but this… What he was asking…

“It is time to emerge from your growth, Daughter. The wall was there for a time to serve a purpose. For you to grow in strength and understanding while you were still growing your wings. But leave it for too long and it becomes a crux which stunts the continued growth you’ll need to thrive.”

I glanced up. His eyes were filled with tears. “It’s time for you tolive, Daughter.”

I nodded, and in that moment, I let him in. Let him seeall.From the broken creature who tried to please her grandmother and killed innocents, to the floundering healer who tried to heal her sister, and finally to the uncertain leader who tried to change everything in my tribe.

I let him in for it all. I surrendered my soul, my very being, to him.

He kissed my forehead, and a gentle sprinkle of starlight spread from his being, encasing me, holding me, soothing me. And when I looked down, the blood was gone, my skin was clean. But it was far from pretty. There were so many scars, so many burns, so many broken pieces. When I looked up at him, I was stunned by what I saw. There, on Torem’s skin were woundsmatching those that had caused my scars. Tears filled my eyes. He caught the first tear as it fell.

“You have everything you need, Daughter. Now go make them pay,” he whispered, his eyes burning with vengeance.

I gaped at him. “I thought you’d be more…”

“More gentle and understanding? A pacifist, dearest one? I am all those things. But I am also so much more. Go now and know we will be with you, even unto the ends of the earth,” he said, giving me a gentle shove.

I fell into light and swirling colors and broken dreams and joy and pain and everything in between. I fell into the mate bond, where Shen had a death grip on my soul. I was screaming, but I had no voice as I landed with a jolt back into my body. I opened my eyes to Shen’s pale face and his broken eyes staring at me as if I were a fever dream.

He cradled me to his body. “You are fine. You live,” he exclaimed again and again. I threaded a hand through his hair as his nose was stuck in the crevice of my neck where he could feel and hear my pulse. His mind was wrought with fear and pain.

“I’m alive, Wolfie. I’m alive,” I murmured, clutching him tight, my eyes still adjusting from that darkness to this world. To sunshine. To the pounding of my heart in my ears. To the harsh breaths of Shen as he alternated between growling and purring.

Shen didn’t release me. He searched my body, but his hands only found smooth skin where a gaping knife wound used to be.

When the black spots cleared from my vision, I gaped. Surrounding us in battle were my enforcers, Shen’s werewolves… and myfamily. Dad was fighting a mage with enhanced speed. Mom was battling a rogue, her mighty ax making quick work of dealing death. Anna was behind them, whispering the curses of the mages. She’d… she’d found her niche and purpose, but what theheckwas she doing here?

“Anna, get your butt back to the safe house. NOW!” I ordered while getting up and stumbling on legs that didn’t wish to function properly. The world tilted precariously.

Shen caught my arm, drawing me back into his chest and nuzzling his nose into my neck. I froze. “Easy, Little Red. Your… your heart stopped beating. The bond… it severed. I clung to it. To you,” he huffed. “You… died.”

“But I didn’t. Now I gotta go win a war.” That was crass and insensitive, but if I allowed myself to process everything, I would break. I had to be numb right now, even to his pain. “I’m sorry, Shen, but if I let you–”

He nodded his understanding, gently nuzzling my neck with his nose. “You will win, Carissimus, but let me hold you a moment.Please,” he whimpered, his voice breaking on the last word. I felt his bone-deepneedto hold me. To ensure for himself that I was actually alive. That the blood on his hands had not been my end.

Well, when he put it like that, I stopped fighting. I let him take my weight for just a moment as my body used the mage stone to finish healing what was broken.

I realized my body was trembling. My entire being was shaken by what had happened. I’d come so close to crossing that veil into Seventh. If not for Shen tethering me here, forcing me to use that stone, and the son having pity on me, I wouldn’t be here.

For the first time in a very long time, I felt whole. As if, when the son healed my soul, he’d patched the many holes causing my soul to leak and dwindle.

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