Wolves don’t forget…Except her

CHAPTER 3: Back Again So Soon

Ilyra's POV

I froze mid-step with my gaze darting past him to the cave entrance half-expecting to see Baylor and a dozen villagers with torches and pitchforks but there was only the quiet forest.. just us. How could he possibly know?

I forced a laugh but it came out as a thin, reedy sound.

“A witch? Don’t be ridiculous. You’re delirious from your wounds. I’m a healer. That’s all.” I took a slow step back with my mind screaming at me to run, run, run!

He was a mess of bandages and pain barely able to keep himself upright and he was leaning heavily against the cave wall with his face ashen and every breath a ragged groaning effort and yet the fury in his eyes was undiminished with a cold clear fire that saw right through me.

“Don’t,” he snarled with the guttural sound as he pushed himself off the wall, swaying dangerously. “Don’t you dare lie to me. You think you’re clever? But I can smell it on you. The magic and the deceit!”

“I’m not lying!” I argued with my voice rising in panic. “I used herbs and poultices! Normal things! You were dying, I helped you!”

“You’re a WITCH!” he roared and the force of it seemed to cost him the last of his strength and he slumped forward, bracing his hands on his knees with his whole body trembling with a pain that seemed to go far deeper than his claw marks. “And I’m going to… kill you…”

That was my cue. Panic finally overrode every other instinct and I didn’t think about his wounds or the consequences or the stupid inexplicable pull I felt toward him. I thought about the stories of his witch-hunts and I thought about the pyres so I spun on my heel and ran for the entrance.

I’d taken exactly two frantic steps when I heard it... a sound that curdled my blood and rooted me to the spot for a split second too long. A low terrifying growl that vibrated through the very stone of the cave.

Something huge and powerful slammed into my back driving me face-first into the dirt and the world dissolved into terror. The weight on top of me was immense and crushing. Hot panting breath fogged next to my ear and a deep continuous snarl filled my ears.

I squeezed my eyes shut certain this was it. My life didn’t exactly flash before my eyes but I did have a very clear very stupid thought.. Of all the ways to go, being eaten by a half-dead werewolf in my own cave is definitely not how I saw my day going.

A rough muzzle pressed against my neck sniffing and I whimpered waiting for the teeth but they didn’t come.

The snarling stopped and the heavy breathing turned into… sniffing? I cracked one eye open.

The massive gray wolf was staring down at me with its muzzle inches from my face. Its intense golden eyes.. the same shade as the man’s were fixed on me with an unnerving keen intelligence. It wasn’t the mindless rage of a beast.. it was studying me.

Then as if a string had been cut, its eyes rolled back in its head and the great body shuddered violently atop me with the fur receding.. the form shrinking and shifting back into the battered unconscious form of Kaelric.

I lay there for a long moment gasping into the dirt with my whole body shaking. Slowly, I wriggled out from under him. He was out cold with his breathing shallow. How? How did he know?

I’d been so careful for so long. My herbs were ordinary and my methods mundane. I’d hidden every part of myself. Was it some Alpha power? Some witch-sniffing sixth sense? The pendant in my pocket seemed to burn with accusation.

My first very sane impulse was to run right now. Grab my meager stash of supplies and vanish into the forest before he wakes up again. I even took a step toward my hidden pack but then I looked back at him.

He was shivering with his skin clammy. The bandages on his chest were already seeping fresh blood from his violent transformation and the poison from those claws was still in him with a dark fever burning him up from the inside. If I left him, he would die. It was a simple and brutal fact.

I… I couldn’t do it. Despite the fear, despite the absolute certainty that this man was my death sentence, I couldn’t condemn him to that. He was a monster who hunted my kind but I was a healer as I was a witch and some inexplicable foolish part of me was irretrievably drawn to the fierce broken man lying at my feet.

“You are going to be the death of me, Ilyra,” I muttered to myself, dragging a hand down my face. “A noble, stupid death.”

Resigned to my own spectacularly bad decision, I hauled him back onto the pallet. His skin was burning up and I knew ordinary methods had reached their limit so it was time to stop pretending.

With a deep steadying breath, I rummaged for a long strip of clean linen. My hands trembled as I gently bound it over his eyes which was a necessary precaution for both of us.

I hadn’t performed a true spell in years. The words felt foreign and clumsy on my tongue like a forgotten childhood song.

I gathered my energy feeling it stir deep within me like a dormant muscle being forced to work. I placed my hands on his chest ignoring the solid feel of him under my palms and began to whisper.

A soft golden light emanated from my hands seeping into his wounds and the magic drained me, pulling the strength from my limbs and the air from my lungs.

I poured everything I had into him... every ounce of power I’d suppressed and every bit of healing energy I possessed. The fever broke, the poison receded and flesh knit together under my touch.

***

By the time the first rays of dawn painted the cave entrance, I was spent and slumped to the floor next to his pallet with the world going gray at the edges, and knew no more.

I was awakened by a nudge.. a firm insistent pressure from a boot against my shoulder and my eyes fluttered open. The cave was bright with full morning light and standing over me was Alpha Kaelric.

He was… whole. The deep claw marks were now just angry pink scars. The weakness was gone and replaced by a strength that filled the small space of the cave but his expression was all wrong.

His face displayed contained agony with his jaw clenched so tight I thought his teeth might crack. The golden eyes that had stared at me as a wolf now burned with a different kind of fire... a deep internal torment he was fighting desperately to control.

He was healed but he was in more pain than ever.

I didn’t bother getting up. I just lay there on the cold stone floor utterly drained and a strange peace settled over me. I’d done it.. I’d saved him.

“Go on then,” I whispered hoarsely. “Do it. If you’re going to kill me just know I’ll die… I’ll die glad that I used the last of myself to save you.” I closed my eyes waiting for the end.

I heard a sharp intake of breath and the sound of claws unsheathing and I braced myself but the killing blow never landed.

I opened my eyes and his arm was extended with claws poised inches from my throat with his entire arm shaking with the effort of holding back.. the pain in his eyes was staggering.

He stared down at me with a war raging behind his gaze. Finally, he spoke with his voice a rough and strained whisper.

“Run.”

I blinked, not understanding.

“You'd better be gone when I return,” he growled with the words seeming to cause him physical anguish. “Because I am coming back and I will finish this.”

With what looked like great effort he retracted his claws, turned on his heel, and strode out of the cave, disappearing into the blinding morning sun.

The tension snapped and the last of my strength vanished with him. The world swam and darkness rushed up to claim me again with his final painful promise echoing in the empty space he left behind…