“It doesn’t matter what I believe.” Harold sighed. “If you don’t complete the ritual, you’ll find out what is true and what is not, but Zachariah will come regardless.”
“No one has heard from the Moon God in years.”
“Doesn’t mean he isn’t watching.”
There was pain again. Always pain. It seemed my life had been full of it since my sixteenth birthday. The day I’d lost my innocence. Not necessarily my virginity, because that was a commodity humanity held in too high esteem, but the innocence of childhood and family. The people who were meant to protect me had cast my pain off as nothing but a simple inconvenience. Neither important nor worthy of attention.
Someone was crying now. Big gulping sobs echoed through the room.
Shit. It was me.
I was the one sobbing.
A gentle hand wiped at my brow; a soft voice whispered soothing words as I let go of everything all at once. I’d been holding on to the pain and sadness for so long that it had become a part of me. I’d never cried for the pain I’d endured and the shame I felt. Didn’t shed a tear for the man I’d killed. Now it was a torrential downpour.
Embarrassing didn’t begin to cover it, but I was too far gone to care at the moment. That was future Freya’s problem.
“She’s healing quickly,” an assuring voice spoke from my side. Another set of hands prodded at my stomach. I grimaced. The hands soothing my forehead stopped, a low growl loosing from the man’s lips. “Calm down, Hunter. I’m not hurting her intentionally. Just needed to check how it was doing.”
The one called Hunter snorted derisively and muttered something unintelligible under his breath. The other man just chuckled. His scent was familiar, a mix of antiseptic and freshly mowed grass. Slowly, I opened my eyes.
“Doc…tor…” Moon Goddess, that took effort to say.
“Hello again, Freya.” Dr. Carlson’s face appeared in my vision, his eyes shining. “I’d hoped that next time we met it would be under better circumstances.”
“I was hoping to never see you again.”
The doctor chuckled. “I could understand that.”
“Do you want to try to sit up?” the one called Hunter asked from my other side. I’d been so caught up watching the doctor, my mind wary of his intentions when our last meeting hadn’t gone so well, that I’d forgotten about the other man in the room.
My gaze darted to him, gray finding a soft, warm amber.
Well, this was something new.
It felt like my heart would beat a rhythm straight out of my chest with how fast it was beating. One look, and my chest tightened and my hands grew clammy. There was a suddendesperate need flashing through me that had me unconsciously tightening my inner thighs.
Had this man put me under some kind of spell?
“Hi.” Fuck…that wasn’t awkward at all. The god parading as a man smiled brightly down at me, eyes twinkling. Could eyes twinkle? Was that a thing?
“Hello, Red.”
“Red?” My head tilted slightly at the unfamiliar nickname. Hunter smiled, reached out a hand, and fingered a lock of my crimson hair.
“The color of your hair.” He said it so matter-of-factly. “Nearly identical to your wolf’s fur.”
I stiffened. The memories came flooding back to me in an instant, barraging my mind.
“Shift, Freya.”
I hoped it had been some kind of bad dream. That maybe I’d been knocked unconscious and imagined the entire scenario. This couldn’t be happening. Not again.
Tooth and claw.
Blood and pain.
I knew I’d killed again. Tore into the man who had come to kill Granny.