A Curse of Shadows

“He was a young wolf who thought you were an intruder,” I explain with measured calmness. “Once I set him straight and made sure he knew you weren’t to be bothered ever again, I let him go.”

Her face drains of color, her eyes widening in disbelief. “You told a wild animal to leave me alone? Are you serious?” The skepticism in her voice isn’t to be missed.

“That’s not what he is.” The weight of my next words feel like a boulder in my throat. “He’s one of my wolves, part of my pack.”

Confusion etches her features as she takes a hesitant step back. “What are you talking about?”

I steel myself against the surge of emotions threatening to overwhelm my composure. “We’re wolf shifters, Isla. Part human, part beast, but far from wild.”

Laughter bursts from her, sharp and disbelieving. “That’s a joke, right? I’m going back to my room now.” She turns to leave, the dismissive gesture a knife to my chest, but now that we’ve started this conversation, there’s no ending it until she understands.

I block her path, urgency bleeding into my voice. “You need to hear this, Isla.”

“No.” Her denial is flat, resolute. “I need to be here for four weeks as promised, take my—Grayson and go. I’ve already learned too much. I don’t need to know more.”

I hear the words leaving her mouth, but as I gaze into her eyes, a flicker of curiosity battles the defiance staring back at me. She’s intrigued, despite herself. “Please, just listen. We are wolf shifters, and so are you.”

Her laughter is a dark melody that fills the space between us. “You’ve lost your damn mind. I’m not a werewolf. Hell, I’m not even going to admit you are when things like this are supposed to only exist in fiction.”

My face scrunches in confusion. “I don’t know what you’ve heard, but we don’t wear our wolves. We shift into them. They are us. And you can deny this all you want, but I’m telling you the truth.”

“I didn’t mean…” She pinches the bridge of her nose. “Never mind. Whatever the truth is, I’m not that.”

“You might not remember who you once were, but don’t lie to me and tell me that you just happened to enter this forest.” My tone is firm, unyieldingly seeking the truth only she knows. “You were called to these trees. You might have even felt like running or shifting without realizing it.”

She bites her lower lip and looks over my shoulder instead of directly at me. I got something right, at least. Hopefully enough that she’s maybe even accepting fragments of the truth I’ve shared.

Keeping my voice calm, I instinctively reach for her, cupping my palm around her bicep until she flinches, and I let go. “I’m sorry.” She glances down at her arm, then back up at me before I add, “Not for that, but for you having to find out this way. I’m not lying to you, Is. This is who we are.”

“Reincarnated wolf shifters?” Her words are barely a whisper before she seems to find her strength. “There’s no way I wouldn’t know if I were a wolf. I’m sure there are…signs.”

The grimace that graces her face makes me smile. I don’t know what she’s imagining, but I would love to. Though she’s wrong about one thing.

“You were reborn to Earth,” I explain, keeping my words gentle and clear. “There is no magic there, which means your wolf has been suppressed for—” I’m at a loss for words as I realize that if she’s continually been reborn to Earth all this time that her poor wolf has been locked away for five centuries.

Not only does my heart break for her inner animal, but my own howls within my mind. Isla isn’t just the other half of my soul—she’s his too—and knowing that his mate has been trapped? There are no proper words to describe that grief.

“For what?” Isla asks, encouraging me to finish my sentence and at least seeming more intrigued about what I have to share.

“Since you died the first time,” I tell her. Though another thought occurs to me. “Do you ever have vivid dreams about places you’ve never been to but that seem almost too real?”

She shakes her head and I’m not surprised, but I at least had to try. If she’d dreamt of any of her past lives like the children born here do as they begin to mature, then it might have given us some much-needed answers.

“You’re not lying to me, are you?” she asks, rubbing a hand over her chest, her expression mingling confusion and realization. “This is all real, I’m not stuck in the world’s longest dream, and…”

Her eyes close and I want to say something to fill the silence, but I wait for her to find her words, to finish what she was going to say.

“I once lived here.”

That’s not what I was hoping for her to confess, but it’s a start.

“Yes, to all of that,” I tell her sincerely, noticing that the small cut on her cheek hasn’t healed yet. Though the deeper one caused by the young wolf—who was so distracted by Isla’s new scent that he didn’t realize his alpha was coming for him—on my forearm is barely a pink mark.

Could it be possible that something went wrong with my mate’s reincarnation and she’s no longer one of us?

That’s a question I don’t know how to answer, but no matter, she’s still mine. I feel that in my soul and nobody can tell me otherwise. I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure she’s not only okay with what she’s learned, but that she decides to stay for the right reasons, not because I’ve forced her hand.

Ripping a piece of fabric from the sleeve of my shirt, I hold my hand out. “May I?”