She huffed at the stabbing pain in her chest. Not his mate? She was clever and brave and would defend him. She had brought him two rabbits already as a gift, and he’d been happy. He’d smiled. His eyes had lit up at how well she’d done. She was worthy, so why was he saying she wasn’t enough? Human side…Vera narrowed her eyes at him. He was the one hurting her now. She was no fucking human. Humans were horrid creatures with dark hearts. But not Tobias…
Confused, she backed toward the brush. “Please,” a weak voice whispered. Vera made a panicked sound and turned around, scanning the woods for the woman who’d said that. “Let me out.”
Vera bolted for the woods. This wasn’t happening. It wasn’t true! Tobias had messed with her head. She was a fox. Fox, fox, fox, nothing more because she didn’t need to be anything more. She was enough!
Anger blazed through her that he’d done this. Her mate had rejected petting her, rejected that she was his mate. Rejected her! After everything! She’d gotten rid of that weak human side for him! So she could be good enough and strong enough for a mate like Tobias. Share? Share herself? Share her skin?
He was asking her to tuck herself back, to suppress herself so the mewling human she had finally ridded herself of could come back. It wasn’t fair.
Churning emotion washed over her in dark waves as she fled. Fled the cabin, fled Wolfland, fled him.
How could Tobias ask her to do something so painful? Vera wanted to please him and take care of him, but this was too much. She would hunt a rabbit for him, and he would smile again and remember how important she was, just like this.
****
Tobias chucked his mud-covered boot into the woods. “Fuck!” he barked out.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He’d never imagined Vera’s fox would take over completely. She had an entirely different personality than Vera, as if they’d been broken apart. Or maybe that’s what happened to Turned shifters. Turning humans had been against the law until Clayton thought he was above the rules and had a fox put in Vera.
Her fox was loyal and strong, ferocious, and would attack anyone or anything no matter how dangerous they were. Hell, Link had been bitten a hundred times at least that first week she lived here, and he was a freaking half-crazed werewolf, three times her size when he was Changed. She was brave like Vera, but that was where their similarities ended.
He lay on the cot inside the shed every night, trying to imagine how it was for her. One person with two beings battling for one body. He and his bear were separate but compromise was easy. They could both see the advantage of being both human and animal. Vera’s fox was denying her human side completely.
Link sauntered out of the cabin in front of him, pulling on a threadbare gray sweater. “Anything?”
Tobias gritted his teeth and shook his head. “She won’t respond to me being harsh. She runs as soon as the conversation goes there.”
“Maybe lock her inside until she Changes.”
“She’ll shred your place.”
Link’s chuckle morphed into a snarl, then dipped to a chuckle again. Crazy. “She’ll shred my shed. That’s funny right there.”
Tobias let off a warning growl and snapped a twig in half between his fingers. Nothing was funny right now. “Link, what am I supposed to do? I didn’t know it would be like this. I miss her so fucking bad, and I know it doesn’t make sense because she was only human with me for a day, but fuck it all, I’m burning, man. Every night is worse than the last.”
Link crouched and subtly turned his chin, exposing his neck. Tobias swallowed hard and stifled the growl he hadn’t realized he was still emitting.
“I hear it’s different when you claim a woman. Every time I visit Ian and Elyse, you can almost see their bond. And I saw Lena and Jenner together at my old cabin. Their bond is the same damn way. They ache when they’re apart, you understand? It’s normal.”
Tobias huffed a humorless laugh and glared off into the woods where Vera had disappeared. She was stuck as an animal, hibernation was six weeks away, Link was going mad, Ian was going to have to put him down, and Tobias’s own damned father was running experiments on Perl Island on shifters he’d sworn to protect. “Nothing about this is normal.”
“Maybe we should tell your brothers about Clayton,” Link said low, as if he could read the train of Tobias’s thoughts.
“What would that solve? They already know our dad is an asshole, and that would lead to more questions. And with Vera Changed, possibly permanently, there is no guarantee we can even get our hands on the medicine. I need more time before I involve them.”
“That’s not how family works, Silver. They could help you through this.”
“Link, you come from a family of psychopaths. You have no gauge on normal family dynamics. No offense.”
“None taken.”
“And I get what you’re saying, man, I really do, but what’s broken between me and my brothers won’t be fixed with a phone call.”
“Well, what will it take to fix it?”
“The cure. If I can do this for them, they can forgive me for all the shit.”
“And you can forgive yourself.”