As she drifted off to sleep, the dreams were different. The fear was no longer there. The shadows of her past weren't chasing her anymore. There was only sun--warm and golden on her face--and the sound of paws hitting the ground as she ran.
She was running through a meadow of knee-high grass, her body light and powerful. To her right, the large dark gray wolf ran with her, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth in a wolfish grin. He wasn't guarding her; he was racing her.
She felt a burst of joy in her chest. It was a feeling she hadn't touched in years. It was a sensation that felt like freedom, and the certainty that she belonged running side-by-side with him.
There was a knock at the door that rippled through her dream like someone dropping a stone in water.
"Leela?" Finnegan’
