It was freaky as hell as I moved deeper into his lair, feeling the beast breathing down my neck, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. The “safe” world I’d been dropped in with Torin and the Torma pack had been very clever of Dannie. She had given me everything I’d ever wanted, dreams built in a young child’s mind of my future in the pack. Funny how dreams could turn to nightmares in a split second.

Shadow had given me such an advantage in Torma too. I didn’t know it at the time, but now that my memories were back, I had pieced together a lot of the odd occurrences that had happened to me with the pack. “You kept your word, Shadow,” I called loudly. “The one where you promised I’d never have to be vulnerable again. Torin tried to force his will and strength on me, and he was repelled away. At the time, I didn’t know why, but I do now. Your power superseded Dannie’s.”

He was probably also the reason I hadn’t been able to touch myself, since he had strong opinions on that as well, but we’d talk about that possessive piece of bullshit later.

An echoing roar rang down the corridors between shelves, an ear-piercing burst of sound that grew louder and louder until a raging beast was right there, huffing as he stared me down. Shadow looked exactly as he had the day before, a powerful mountain of muscle, man and beast, and I drank him in like I hadn’t seen him in years, rather than about eight hours.

“You kept your promise,” I repeated, my voice shaking from emotional overload. “Torin couldn’t hurt me, no matter what he tried. I didn’t have my realm powers thanks to Dannie, but she didn’t know that your promise to me was stronger. You kept me safe.”

He stalked closer, and this time, I did not run. I stood my ground, prepared for the pain he’d inflict. He towered over me as he reached out with those lethal claws, attached to hands about the size of my entire torso. This beast could disembowel me with a single swipe, and still… I did not move.

Last night in the dining hall, when sleep had been an elusive bitch, I’d debated how to bring Shadow back to me. There were two options. The slow path, where I patiently spent months coaxing him into his humanity, little by little, until I eventually wore him down and he released the beast. This was an option I had neither the temperament nor the time for. Which left number two: all in and hope for the best.