Kitty walked fast, breath fogging in the cold night air. The empty basket knocked against her hip. She should have left Old Marin’s earlier. She knew this.
The woods pressed too close to the path, and the moon kept sliding behind clouds. Then laughter rolled through the darkness behind her—low, loose, sloppy. She knew that laugh. Eric’s voice cut through the dark, slurred and mocking.
“Little Kitty. ”
She kept walking, but two figures stumbled out from behind a storage shed ahead of her, blocking the path. Harlon, broad-shouldered and swaying. Wyn.
Her throat closed. She turned. Eric was right behind her, eyes flat and dark despite the drink. “Heard you were defending the wolf today,” Eric said.
“In front of everyone. Made me look bad. ”
He grabbed her jaw. “You rejected me, Kit.
Made me a fool in front of the whole village. ”
Harlon’s hands slid down her arms, holding her in place. “Please, Eric,” she whispered. “I’ll let you go,” Eric said softly.
“When you’ve shown me you’re really sorry. ” His grip tightened. “On your knees. ”
Terror closed around her throat.
Then the growl came. It rolled out of the tree line like something physical. Eric’s hands went slack. All three men went still.
Two golden eyes stared back from the black between the trees. The wolf stepped into the moonlight—massive, white as bone, fangs the length of her fingers. Its eyes locked onto Eric’s hand on her arm. Its lips pulled back further.
Then it lunged. —
Four months earlier, Kitty found Micah on the beach at dawn. He was half in and half out of the surf, unmoving. She dropped her boots and ran.
He was beautiful in a way that had no business existing in Saltmir. His shirt, finer fabric than anything she’d ever seen, was torn open. His eyes opened—pale blue, looking at her. Kitty forgot how to breathe.
“Where—” his voice broke. “Saltmir,” she blurted. “You washed up on the beach. ”
He tried to sit up and winced.
“What’s your name? ” she asked. He shook his head slowly. “I don’t know.
I don’t remember. ”
Voices came from the path above. Brennan had brought others. Kitty knew what would happen if he had no name, no story.
Saltmir didn’t trust what it couldn’t explain. They’d turn him away. She would never see him again. “Your name is Micah,” she said, leaning closer.
“You fell from a ship. You hit your head. But your name is Micah. ”
“Micah,” he repeated slowly.
“Yes. ” She breathed. —
A month later, Kitty was in love with a man who smiled at her the same way he smiled at everyone. He worked at the forge.
She brought him fish and said “seaweed” instead of any normal word. The women of the village hovered around him constantly. Kitty watched from behind the fish stall, knuckles white. That night, sleep wouldn’t come.
She slipped out and walked to the beach. A wolf stood at the border of the trees. It was enormous, white as bone, luminous in the moonlight. Fear hit first.
But it didn’t move, didn’t growl. It simply watched. Everything about its posture said, I’m not a threat. “Hello,” Kitty whispered.
Its ears tilted forward. It didn’t come closer. It didn’t leave. The next night she went back.
He was waiting. She sat on the sand and talked. About the man she couldn’t form a sentence around. About being just Kitty, weird Kitty who talked to birds and collected rocks.
The wolf made a low, soft sound, almost like disagreement. On the fourth night, she knelt and pressed her palm to its neck. It was warm and unbelievably soft. It breathed her in like it was memorizing her.
Each night after, it brought her something—a shell, a piece of sea glass, an offering at her feet. She kept them in a pouch under her pillow. She told no one. This was hers.
The wolf was hers. —
The sheep lay in the middle of the square with its throat torn open. Third that week, someone muttered. Fourth if you count the one at Brennan’s farm.
“It’s the wolf,” Eric said, voice loud and certain. “We hunt it tonight. ”
“Wait,” Kitty said. Heads turned.
“You haven’t actually seen the wolf attack anything. The killings could be something else. ”
“Something else? Like what, Kitty?
A shy spider? ” Laughter rippled through the crowd. Eric turned his back on her. “We’re hunting tonight.
If you’re so worried about your wolf, stay home. ”
—
That afternoon, Kitty found Micah sitting on the bench outside the forge, head in his hands. His hands were scratched and raw, the kind of marks you got from dragging yourself through brambles. “I woke up on the floor of the forge this morning,” he said.
“I don’t remember going there. ”
The village was hunting that night. She went to Marin, the village elder, and told her everything—the wolf, the nights on the beach. Marin listened without interrupting.
“It might be a shifter,” Marin said finally. “Creatures that wear two shapes, human and animal. ”
“But why wouldn’t it shift back? ”
Marin shrugged.
“Perhaps it can’t. Perhaps it doesn’t remember how. ”
—
The wolf lunged. Eric shoved Kitty forward, and she hit the ground hard.
The wolf sailed over her, hit Eric square in the chest. They went down together in a tangle of limbs and screaming. Harlon swung a torch—hit nothing but empty space. Wyn ran.
The wolf caught Harlon’s arm in its jaws, not biting down, just holding. Harlon screamed and ran. Eric scrambled backward on his elbows, face white. The wolf stalked toward him, planted one massive paw on his chest, pinned him.
It lowered its head, lips pulled back, and growled low and long and deliberate. A promise. Then it lifted its paw. Eric ran so fast he left his knife behind.
The wolf turned. Golden eyes found Kitty. It whined, soft and high—almost, are you hurt? Kitty wrapped her arms around its neck and felt it shaking.
It pressed its massive head under her chin. Then she heard voices. Torch light flickered between the trees. The hunt was coming.
She grabbed the fur at its shoulders. “Down. ” The wolf dropped to its belly. She swung one leg over its back.
“Go. Run! ”
The wolf surged forward and disappeared into the woods. —
The next morning, Eric stood at the center of the square, bruised along one side, Harlon behind him with bandaged arms.
“Ask her yourself,” Eric said as Kitty approached. “She’s been taming it. ”
“That’s not what happened,” Kitty said. “She’s been feeding it while it’s been slaughtering our sheep,” Eric insisted.
“Can I ask a few questions? ” Micah’s voice cut through the chaos. “You said you were on patrol. But you’d been drinking.
I passed the tavern just after sundown. You were four rounds deep at the bar. ” He paused. “And you’ve never liked Kitty much, since she rejected your marriage proposal.
”
Eric’s face went red. He stared at Micah with raw fury, then turned and walked away. —
That dusk, Kitty saw Micah moving toward the tree line. His arms hung loose and lifeless.
His eyes were glassy. She grabbed his arm. He didn’t react. He pulled free and kept walking.
She followed him into the woods. In a clearing, his whole body convulsed. He dropped to his knees with a sound that was half gasp, half sob. His back arched.
His bones shifted—wet, grinding sounds. Fur pushed through his skin like frost spreading across glass. His face changed last, jaw extending with a crack. When it was over, the wolf stood where Micah had knelt.
Her wolf. The torn remnants of his clothes lay scattered around it. The wolf crossed the clearing and pressed its forehead against her chest, relieved. Kitty sank to her knees and wrapped her arms around its neck.
“I know who you are,” she whispered. “It’s all right. ”
She led it home. In her room, it circled twice and lay down beside her bed.
When dawn came, it was gone. Micah lay on the floor where the wolf had been, completely bare. —
Micah woke confused. Kitty hadn’t meant for it to come out like this.
“You’re the wolf. The white wolf. ”
His hands fisted in the blanket. “Did I hurt you?
”
“No. You slept. That’s all. ”
He looked away, ashamed.
“You need to stay away from me, Kitty. If I ever hurt you, I would not survive it. ”
Kitty crossed the space between them, took his face in both hands, and kissed him. His hands came up to her waist, pulling her closer.
Then he stepped back. “Stay away from me, Kitty. Please, until I know what I am. ”
He walked away.
—
The next morning, two men were dead. Colum, found at dawn with his throat torn out. Finn, discovered that afternoon in the bushes. The mob was certain.
The wolf was killing people. Kitty found Micah at the forge. “The hunt is tonight. But what if we could prove you weren’t the wolf?
What if when the hunt happens, you weren’t able to shift? ”
“How? ”
“A sleeping draft. Strong enough to keep you unconscious for hours.
If something happens tonight, we’ll know it wasn’t you. ”
He looked at her for a long moment. Then he nodded. In the boat shed, she tied his wrists and ankles, careful knots that wouldn’t cut.
He drank the draft. His words soon slurred. “Don’t stay here with me. It’s not safe.
”
“I won’t stay. ” It wasn’t a lie. She wouldn’t stay in the shed. She waited until his breathing deepened, lowered his head onto a folded sail, and slipped out into the night.
The woods were dark, full of voices and torch light. She doused her lantern and crawled into a thick patch of bushes, pressing herself flat as two men passed within feet of her. When she started to crawl back out, she felt fabric. Clothes.
Someone was in the bushes with her. A torch swept across the bushes. Kitty saw what was next to her. A dead man, eyes wide and glassy, blood on his mouth.
Finn. Her scream tore out of her. Eric appeared above her. “What are you doing out here?
”
“There’s a body. Finn. He’s dead. ”
Eric examined the body, then turned to her.
“Throat torn out. It has to be the wolf. ”
“No. It can’t be.
” Kitty was shaking. “The wolf is a shifter. A person. And they’re not doing this because they can’t be.
They’re asleep right now. I drugged them. They’re tied up in my father’s boat shed. I can prove it.
”
Something in Eric’s expression changed. Hardened. “You drugged someone. Tied them up.
”
“To prove they’re innocent. Don’t you see? If they’re asleep and someone still dies, then it’s someone else killing people and making it look like the wolf. ”
“He’s in your father’s boatshed, drugged, tied up.
” Eric grabbed her. His hand clamped over her mouth. “You should have kept your mouth shut. ” He looked at Wyn.
“Go to her father’s shed. Kill the wolf while he sleeps. ”
—
Kitty fought, thrashing backward. A knife pressed against her throat.
“Do you know how easy it was to kill Colum and Finn? ” Eric said conversationally. “Then I rough up the carcass with a hooked blade, make it look like claws. One white wolf in the woods and suddenly every dead sheep is a monster’s work.
”
Kitty made a sound against his palm. “If only you’d just married me, little Kitty,” Eric said. “But no. Little Kitty would rather stare at birds than spread her legs for a man.
”
He shoved her hard against a tree trunk. “Colum was undercutting my prices. Finn knew all the best fishing spots. Your father’s business would have been the smart move.
But he didn’t want to give it up for anyone other than his little girl’s husband. ” He spun her around. “The wolf is perfect. As long as it’s alive, everything I do gets blamed on it.
”
“Please,” Kitty gasped. “Don’t hurt him. I’ll marry you. Anything.
”
Eric pressed the knife harder. “I don’t think so. Because killing it makes me a hero. The man who saved Saltmir from the beast.
” His grin turned vicious. “And I won’t even have to marry you to get it. ”
“I’ll tell everyone. ”
“How, when I cut that pretty little throat of yours?
” He pulled the knife back, positioned it. The wolf hit him from the side like an avalanche. Eric screamed as the wolf took him to the ground, jaws clamping down on the arm that held the knife. Bone broke, sharp and wet.
Eric punched the wolf’s skull. The wolf barely flinched. It released his arm and went for his throat. No hesitation.
It was over in seconds. The wolf stood over Eric’s body. Then it staggered. “Micah!
” Kitty ran to it, dropped to her knees. The wolf turned its head toward her, golden eyes dimming. Then she saw it—a deep gash along its left flank. “No, no, no.
” She pressed her hands against the wound. Torch light flickered through the trees. A mob burst into the clearing—her father among them. They saw Eric’s body, then the wolf.
“Kill it! It murdered Eric! ”
The wolf lifted its head, bared its teeth anyway. Kitty stood.
She placed herself between the wolf and the mob, shaking, arms spread wide. “You’ll have to kill me first. ”
“Kitty, get out of the way,” her father said. “That thing killed Eric.
”
“Eric killed Colum! ” Kitty shouted. “Eric killed Finn. Eric tried to kill me.
The wolf saved me. ” Her voice broke. “You’ll have to go through me. I won’t let you hurt him.
”
Then the air shifted. The wolf’s breathing hitched, changed rhythm. The white fur receded like frost melting in sunlight. The massive body contracted, reshaped.
In less than a breath, where the wolf had stood bleeding, Micah now lay. The mob went silent. “It wasn’t him,” Kitty said, looking at the stunned faces. “It was Eric.
He’s hurt. Please, let me take him to Marin’s. ”
Her father broke from the crowd first. He knelt, looked at Micah’s pale face, and said gruffly, “Help me carry him.
”
—
Marin examined Micah on her table. “Shifters have strong healing capacities. His wounds are already closed. ”
“Why isn’t he responding?
” Kitty asked. “You gave him that sleeping draft. He needs to sleep it off. ” Marin’s smile turned knowing.
When Micah woke, his eyes were clear. He touched her face, found the cut on her neck from Eric’s knife. “He hurt you. ”
Kitty burst into tears.
Everything caught up to her at once. Micah pulled her to his chest. “Don’t cry,” he murmured into her hair. “It’s over now, my love.
You’re safe. ”
A trumpet sounded outside. Horses, silk banners, a formal voice announcing “Her Royal Majesty, Princess Adeline of House Stoneham. ”
A woman stepped out of an ornate carriage—light green silk, silver crown, pale blue eyes just like Micah’s.
“Where is he? ” she demanded. “What did you do to my brother? ”
“Adeline.
” Micah stepped forward, still holding Kitty’s hand. “Enough. ”
The crowd dropped to their knees. The princess rushed forward and threw her arms around him.
“I thought you were dead. ”
“I was cursed,” Micah said. “By Queen Vesper. ” He grimaced.
“She didn’t appreciate my rejection. She cursed me to forget who I was—not just a king, but even a wolf. I would remain like that until someone could love both halves of me without knowing they were the same. ”
A silence.
Then someone from the village said, “Oh. He means Kitty. ”
“Yes, has to be Kitty. ”
Micah turned to her.
“You found me on a beach with nothing. You gave me a name. ” His smile was soft. “You sat with my wolf and were never afraid.
When the entire village wanted him dead, you stood in front of him. You loved me before you knew what I was. You loved the wolf before you knew he was me. ”
He took both her hands.
“You are my mate. The other half of my soul. And if you’ll have me, I would very much like to make you my queen. ”
Everyone was staring.
The villagers, the princess, the soldiers. None of it mattered, because Micah was staring at her. She meant to say something beautiful. What came out was, “I am covered in blood.
”
Silence. Then Micah laughed. “Is that a yes? ”
She kissed him.
Launched herself at him, rose on her toes, pressed her lips to his in front of the whole village. He caught her, arms wrapping around her waist. Everyone cheered.
And Kitty knew, standing in the square with this impossible man who was somehow hers, that she would follow him anywhere.
