Page 18 of Eternal

What had he done?

His brother’s words came back to haunt him. But when he answered his own thought in a voice of a man he somehow recognized as himself, he knew the shift had happened more fully than he had anticipated.

Curious as to what capacities of wolf he had kept as a man now, he was happy to realize that his hearing was one of the perks that had carried forward with him. Humans didn’t have supersonic hearing.

The scuffle of men traveled to him. They would be close soon, and by the clang of their weapons, they meant to maim his precious Elissa, and that was something he would die to make sure never happened. The witch made a run for it but not the fair maiden.

As he rose to his full human male height, the strangeness of his position, of being on two legs, was soon overshadowed when his gaze landed on his cock, semi-erect and hard.

He glanced at Elissa, and couldn’t help the grin, which would have been a playful growl in wolf-form, lifting his human facial features as her stunned gaze dipped down his naked body and landed on his cock, only to whip her eyes away so fast he heard her neck crack.

He didn’t have much time to waste, and unable to feel any embarrassment at his nakedness, he stalked to where she was huddled in the corner.

Grabbing Elissa by the arm, he dragged her severely trembling body up against his, bent to scoop her up, and leaped out of the larger window of the abode at the same instant the wooden door of the shelter was blasted off its hinges.

But the human girl whose slim hot body heated his blood, had forgotten her fear of him and immediately started to pummel him with her fists, demanding to be released.

Growling at the insults she hurled his way, Wulfric had already sprinted deep into the forest, past the point where an ordinary man would dare to venture.

Farren stopped reading. As engrossed as she had been with the stories, the troublesome shadow that had inflicted her that morning had remained, and now that she could reflect on it: it had increased in size from the first moment she had read the wolf origin story and the name… Isidora Graves.

Farren stopped reading at once. That name had bothered her since the moment she read it on the page

Isidora Graves.

Each letter of the name seemed to curl under her skin, frosting her blood and leaving her pale and rattled.

Isidora Graves.

Still mindful of the priceless book she held in her hand, Farren placed it down gently, but the instant she was relieved of it, she jumped up and began pacing the floor, her thoughts could not be controlled and she sensed a tidal wave of doom readying itself to erupt all over her.

She was being utterly silly and again looking for things that weren’t there. Maybe she needed to eat something. At the thought of a meal, Amanda announced herself and Farren quickly let her in.

Amanda usually brought them lunch on a Tuesday and they ate it while going over her schedule. Apart from her own things, she also had to play the role of their mate, the omega, and their soon-to-be wife. It was never a dull moment, not with Amanda in charge of her itinerary.

Her plans to join forces with an already established sanctuary here were well underway. She had demanded Ashton and Duncan not buy the land on which the sanctuary was created for her just because she wanted to work there or pull any strings that would see her get hired. She wanted to do it on her own, and they respected her wishes, but also assured her that she could change her mind at any time.

She also made regular flights to Lemonville Springs where she checked in on her sanctuary there and was always happy to see that between Miranda Jacobs and the beta males Ashton had brought with him the first time he had stepped into her office, the animal shelter was flourishing. Of course, the money Ashton had offered her went a long way to ensuring that they would tend to all and any animals now that they had the resources.

Attacking her chicken salad, which is usually what Amanda brought her, Farren kept up a steady supply of nods while Amanda informed her of this and that and everything in between. Also apart from the chicken salad that Amanda insisted she ate, she brought six mega cupcakes that were decadence personified and Farren died a little with each mouthful. Amanda refused to tell her where she got the cupcakes from, citing a strategy that she always had something Farren would need.

In a way, it felt good to be bossed around by Amanda. She temporarily forgot coming undone at the sight of the name Isidora Graves.

Yet trying to contain her soaring heartbeat, she casually asked Amanda.

“Why did that beast call me Isidora Graves?”

“What now?” Amanda asked, clearly lost. Farren realized she had been studying her carefully when she asked the question, looking for even a microscopic sign of something. Why was she being this paranoid?

“The wolf-beast. From the haunted forest with the seeding ceremony. He called me Isidora Graves. I don’t understand. Why would he call me a witch?”

“You do know that he’s crazy, right.”

“But he called me Isidora Graves.”

“What did he say to you, exactly?” Amanda asked, but she wasn’t acting overly concerned or that she was hiding something.

Farren took a breath before she answered. She wanted to get the wording as right as possible, but the whole episode had been drenched in fear and anxiety and marred her memory.

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