Silver and Cold |h.s.|

13. The Truth

The weeks drifted by and slowly but surely the snow that coated the land around Harry's property had finally began to melt.

You knew the day was coming. It was dreaded but it was inevitable.

There wasn't much for you to do except wait. The air was still cold enough to keep you in your wolf form for a little while longer but in the marrow of your bones you could feel whatever magic held you to this form was beginning to weaken.

As time passed your human began to slowly smile again.

That beaming, bright, white toothed smile began to finally break through like the sun on a cloudy day and it filled you with such joy to see that he was beginning to get back to what once was.

You blamed yourself entirely for his melancholy. He wouldn't have almost died out on that frozen pond, he wouldn't have ever met your human form, and he certainly wouldn't be left wondering what inadequacies he had because of her sudden disappearance if it weren't for you.

You were at fault and that fact haunted you daily.

The first time Harry had smiled was when you had freaked out at a mouse that had found it's way inside of your shared home.

You had just been sleeping on the couch when you'd heard it. The tiny squeaks of a creature that you were fated to protect and yet...loathed. Harry had been sat on the armchair next to you when you'd shot up from the couch in a half jump, your fur spike at the collar in fear, as the mouse shot out from underneath your sanctuary.

Harry had jumped from your sudden growl and the way you had clearly freaked out and finally noticed the tiny creature scurrying across the floor. He had taken one bewildered look at you and how intent your focus had been on the field mouse and then fell into hysterics.

You had not found any part of it to be hilarious in the slightest.

It was in that moment though, as he cackled at his giant wolf dog's pure terror over a little mouse, that his smile returned and it shone so incandescently that it practically blinded you.

His beauty was shining through again and you had made it your sworn duty to keep it there.

Over the weeks since the moment in the woods, you had tried your best to relay to Harry that you did not want to go on those long walks through the forest anymore. The calls from your pack were only growing louder and the wilderness itself was pleading for you to resurface but you'd made a promise.

You'd made a promise to a human to stay.

It was a heavy price to pay...you were going on five months away from the wild and you knew that if you had begun forgetting your name...that meant other pieces of you were going to slip away too.

It was something you were beginning to really fear. The more you stayed away from your pack, the longer you went without seeing your family, the worse it'd get. You only hoped that once you became human again that you still remembered where your makeshift home was for the summer. You could still vividly see the creek that ran along the edge of the property, the log cabin that would have collected dust over the long winter months, and the faces of your family smiling at you as you came home.

It was all still there...for now.

A heavy hand rubs from your snout down to your mid back in a long stroke. A small laugh pulls you from your nap and when you open your eyes you find evergreen forests staring back at you.

"So lazy these days darling." Harry's deep velvety voice trickles down to you through a chuckle and you groan. You were lazy...on purpose. If you were lazy then he might resist waking you to go for that damned walk. Another long stroke of his delicate fingers through your fur and you knew what he was doing. He was trying to coax you out of his lap and off of this couch so that he could take you outside but you weren't having it.