Thorn (Werewolf) ✔

Chapter Twenty-Three

THORN

The days are going by so fast. I can hardly keep up with them, or her. She's a force of nature that never relents. Her transition from the clueless girl under the tree to now is extraordinary.

She's gotten into cooking lately and likes to experiment with different plants and nuts. She spends most of her day trying to perfect some kind of broth. She's also taken to the fearless side of climbing trees and likes proving me wrong when I say that she can't do it.

We cleared the cabin out when the next set of guests left and took more of their leftovers. Devon has now assembled her own 'thief station' within the camp which compromises of pillows, blankets, books, torch devices and of course, food.

She now trains with me willingly rather than acting as though she is being forced. We go on short runs in the morning and I've been teaching her how to spar. She's not exactly a natural fighter but she doesn't give up. She'd knock me unconscious if I let her. Our sparring often turned into lustful moments when she'd try and seduce me with her skin and sweat. It took a whole hour to shake off that first sparring session and I made sure that we tried to keep as much distance as possible. She found that irritating.

The days are easy and effortless. We work together well and our arguments are usually settled within a few minutes. She killed her first animal a few days ago and I almost blew my brains out to escape her guilt-ridden cries. After a lot of convincing her that it's a part of the damn food chain, she dried her eyes and never spoke of it again. She hunted our food every day since.

The nights are harder. In a way I always leave her even though I'm still right next to her. I stay with her for an hour or so after the transition until she goes to sleep. She mostly ignores that I'm even there. She found a sewing kit buried beneath some leaves and she's become obsessed with sewing some type of scarf.

Tonight is no different. I take my place beside the fire as she stares at a thin piece of string and tries to loop it. Her acceptance of what I am hasn't been a major cause for concern. I answered all her questions and she had a lot of them.

What concerns me is her silence. She hasn't spoken about the connection or the things she sees when I transition. What I didn't share with her, was that I can see through her eyes too. The connection works both ways. I didn't want to freak her out any more than I already have but she doesn't even seem phased by it. The connection only lasts minutes while I transition and then it is severed.

But every time it has opened, something else has been present. During the transition, I can physically feel the connection to her through the mating bond. That's nothing new, it happened the same way with Maria. The only difference is that there isn't just one connection. There's something else that keeps calling me to every single night, something unknown that I want to stay far away from.

I stretch my wolf body out as I adjust into a comfortable position to sleep. I don't usually sleep so early into the night but the days are much more exhausting than what I've been used to for the past century.

Devon exhausts me. Constantly worrying about her safety exhausts me. I can sense her eyes on me but I pretend as though I can't.

"I know you're not asleep," she says with a light yawn. "You can go if you want. I'll be fine."

I roll back onto my stomach and I walk around the fire.

"Thorn. I know you're bored out of your mind. Go. Run."

She smiles up at me before flicking her droopy eyes to the trees. I don't think twice about her proposition. I usually do my perimeter checks when she's asleep but she's three minutes away from falling off the log.