Page 35 of Never Tamed
And I hear everything from the scurry of mice to the urgent flap of owl wings overhead.
My paws glide over the cold ground, snow spraying behind me. Wait—paws?
My breath comes out in heavy puffs, my lungs full of wild air. I don’t feel tired anymore. I feel alive.I glance down at white fur rippling up my forelegs streaked with silver and tipped with black claws.
My muscles coil, stretch, andmovelike they’ve always known this.
I’m not dreaming anymore.
I’m awake.
And I’m running through the forest… as a wolf. Surprise flickers for an instant, a question of what, and how, before something inside me tells me not to stop. I have to keep climbing the mountain, up and up, faster and harder.
My legs won’t stop. My body won’t slow down. I’m getting closer to the glowing, to the voice.
I recognize the path before I recognize why it matters. There’s familiarity in the thinning of the trees and the even thinner air. I know that broken stone marker half-buried in snow.
It’s the temple of the Moon Goddess.
The last time I was there, Andras and his people had come out of the ruins of the temple they’d destroyed to attack us, before I ever had a chance to besiege the goddess for more time.
Now the pull, magnetic and ancient and thrumming in my bones, calls me home like a drumbeat.
“Find me.”
The snow gathers in thick drifts here. Frost tickles my snout and I’m flying like gravity forgot to apply to me.
It’s unnatural.
It’s terrifying.
It’s exhilarating.
And, suddenly,there.
The ruins rise from the snow like bones—white stone, cracked columns, a crumbling arch that leans slightly like it’s bowing to the storm. The temple is smaller than I remember, but it feelsbiggersomehow. Alive. Waiting.
My heart refuses to slow and I skid to a stop right at the spot the Blood Moons ambushed us last time. Is this another trap? Something brought me here. I heave out a heavy breath.
Turning in a slow circle, I sniff the air, ears swiveling for any sound, for any sign I was followed.
There’s nothing, only the soft drip of melting ice from the columns.
How the fuck did I get here?
Better yet,whyam I here?
What’s left of the Moon Goddess’s temple looms half-swallowed by snow and shadow. I shift back into my human form, but the transformation is rougher this time, like my body’s fighting it. My bones pop and realign.
I stumble forward, bracing myself against a stone until the last shockwaves of the change finish. The bitter cold hits me instantly, and when I look down, it’s clear why. My clothes are ripped up and split at the seams from the sudden shift.
Taking a ragged breath, I peer up. The stone I’m leaning against is what’s left of the Moon Goddess statue. The once-beautiful form stands cracked and barely together, with limbs and half her face missing. One broken hand still reaches out, palm up, like she’s asking for something—or offering it.
I stare at her.
I never saw this the first time, this ode to a deity long forgotten by mankind.
“What do you want from me?” I whisper, the words raw. She’d come to me in a dream before, but when I need her the most, she’s gone silent. “What am I supposed to do?”
