Page 27 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

No one realizes that when two scents come together in companionship, the individual scents change. It is slight but noticeably perceptible to a werewolf’s nose. And that change is what I scented on this little Red. She smelled of the sweet change one has upon meeting someone new who was meant to be in your life. It was gentle, easily overlooked, but there all the same.

She was stiff as a board, but the wolf inside me soaked in her touch. Werewolves crave close contact with their packs. Many times you will find piles of werewolves in safe havens and in pack houses, either in their wolven or human forms.

Yet I was often feared in the circles I traveled. No one dared get close enough to me in order for my werewolf to be sated. And this little one who was so frightened of physical touch and of me somehowknew.

I kept my hands at my sides. She was uncomfortable, and I would not add to that. But I also could not deny the uncoiling inside my soul as my wolf purred.

Alia jumped slightly, staring at my chest with wide eyes.

“It is alright. Werewolves purr when we are content,” I whispered, my voice choked with vulnerability. I was uneasy, and yet, I could not find it in me to move. If someone was close enough to hug me, it was because I wanted them there so I could spill their lifeblood. Not so with her. She was there because I needed her. Needed the gentle touch of another soul.

And I did not know what to make of that. It made me feel vulnerable in a way I could not allow. Even so, I did not move.

Relax and enjoy it, idiot,Lycus muttered, sounding nearly cathartic. Or drunk.

Sure. Relax around the assassin of my kind who should be trying to kill me but is instead slaying me with kindness.

But as her deep blue eyes stared up at me in confusion, I realized I was frozen a mite too long.

“Thank you,” I said.

She backed away with a curt nod, pushing dark hair matted with her blood behind her ear. She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself.

The area above my heart ached. “Come, sit by the fire. I will add more wood.”

She nodded, grabbing her knives and strapping them around her waist.

“Your stitches need to be checked,” she said.

I stared down at her as she patted the rock beside the fire.

She glanced up, and a tiny hint of mirth crinkled her eyes. “Are you scared I’ll stab you again?”

I huffed out a breath and sat. My muscles were clenched; I was indeed scared of her. But not in the physical sense.

She remembered my wound.

“May I?” she asked.

I nodded, easing up my tunic and twisting it aside so she could see the wound. She bit her bottom lip between her teeth as she scooted closer, her hair frazzled and tickling the bottom of my chin. I resisted the urge to scratch and held still.

She hummed, her fingers gentle even as she drew a tiny grunt from my lips with her prodding.

“Sorry,” she said, glancing up at me. Her eyes caught mine for a moment, and it was as if she remembered who she was speaking with. Her fingers shook and she quickly looked away. Her eyes darted to my fingers hanging languid at my sides, and she swallowed. The bruise shaped like fingers on her ivory neck caused my chest to clench.

She pushed through the fear wafting from her to continue to tend the wound. “It’s healing well—” She paused, her eyes drifting further up my side where the hint of an old burn showed beneath where I held the tunic.

I quickly dropped it as her eyes widened. She pushed my tunic back up to see the entirety of the burn. She swallowed hard, tracing the edges of the raised and mottled flesh which was twice the size of her hands.

Emotions I had no name for burned in my chest as I pressed down the shivers her gentle touch tried to elicit. I did not know whether I wished to run from or embrace her touch, so I didneither. I merely sat there and watched her as she traced other wounds, but none so large as the burn.

Werewolves healed without scarring unless the wound was made with silver. By the horror in her eyes, I would say she knew that.

“What happened?” she whispered, her voice choked with empathy.

And when she glanced up, her eyes were filled with an emotion I had not seen in a long time. Understanding.

“It was a long time ago,” I said, trying to press down the emotions broiling in me.

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