Page 66 of Wild Kiss

"That sounds like a lovely idea, dearie," she said with a sweet smile before picking up a dish to wash.

Humans in this town wereverydifferent from the ones outside of it.

"I should've thought of that before now, of course your pretty wolf would want to come out."

I’d forgotten he'd seen my wolf…because at least in my memories, I hadn’t even seen her.

Marcia packed us a lunch, and we set out towards the woods, not bothering to use a car since my whole problem was I needed to expel some energy.

We mostly walked in silence, enjoying the beautiful, crisp weather and the scenery.

"Is Amarok like this?" I asked suddenly, gesturing to the majestic scene around us.

He shifted, uncomfortably, just as he always did when I mentioned that town.

"It has its own charm," he finally said. "You're very close to many of the people there."

"I'd like to go back soon, try to pick up the pieces of my life. I probably have belongings there, right? Maybe that would help with my memory," I mused.

He didn't say anything for so long that I finally glanced over, stopping in my tracks by how tortured he looked. He tried to school his face when he saw me watching, but it wasn't fast enough.

"Why don't you want to go back there?" I asked quietly, walking again towards the forest.

He sighed and pushed some of his curls out of his face. "Because I feel like we're in a little bubble here, and I'm scared everything will change once we're out of it."

I cocked my head. "Why will it change?"

He glanced away. "It just will," he finally murmured.

Now I was the one sighing, frustrated he wasn't giving me more details.

But then I was distracted by the sight of Aldo galloping towards us, his tongue hanging out like the giant monster dog he was.

"There's my little baby," I cooed as he came to a stop in front of me, an inch away from knocking me to the ground.

I glanced over at Ares. "Is he going to be freaked out by me changing into a wolf? Did you train him to eat wolves when you were with the Hunters?" I asked the question with a tease in my voice, realizing at the end though, that probably was the case.

"He’d never hurt you," Ares said firmly.

"You sound so confident about that." I continued to scratch behind Aldo’s ears even as I envisioned him eating me alive.

"Because I love you. And he's part of me. He would never hurt anyone that I loved," Ares said the words almost challengingly, like he was daring me to refute them.

But I couldn't.

I wasn't confident of much in this new life of mine after I’d lost my identity and my past.

But I was confident that he loved me.

And I didn't know what to think about that.

"All right, here goes nothing." I stood still for a long pause because I’d transformed before, I just couldn’t remember doing it. Surely, it couldn’t be that hard.

“Everything okay?” Ares asked. “Sometimes it’s better not to overthink these things and just give in to your wolf.”

“That sounds easier than it is.” But never one to not try a new approach, I closed my eyes, exhaled deeply, and reached down for my wolf, calling her to come out.

Something ignited in my chest, flaring over me with such a rush it scared me. But the feeling faded just as quickly because I knew it was my wolf. And it was exhilarating how easily she flowed out of me, just as Ares had said. Electricity zipped down my spine, and I was suddenly shifting, immediately having that out of body experience as my consciousness drifted inside my wolf.

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