Theo wakes with his sister's heart rabbiting in his chest, unsure what ripped him from sleep this time. There's no stern-faced deputy banging on his window. No afterimages of Tara's death-pale skin crowd his mind. Nor do his ears jangle with the malevolent echoes of his name while she hunts him down long, shadowy hospital corridors.

Blinking against the darkness, he pulls himself upright in the backseat of his truck and tugs at his hair, using his old friend pain to help him get his bearings. The worn blanket that had trapped a meager portion of his own body heat drips down his shoulders and chest and puddles around his waist. Cool air wiggles slim fingers through the truck's barely cracked windows and glides across the bare skin of his arms; draws forth a shiver.

In the distance, a lone howl blooms, slowly crescendoes, then breaks off, shattering the night-dark quiet and leaving every hair on Theo's body standing on end.

Immediately, his wolf and his coyote rise on their haunches, ears pricked and straining toward the sound of the sole creature who owns their unconditional allegiance. His allegiance.

On some days Theo wears his fealty lightly, like a pale thread circled 'round the ring finger of his left hand. On others, it has the heft of a choke collar that chafes against the vulnerable skin of his neck whenever he moves, wherever he goes. It's unclear yet which one of those days today is. He supposes he'll have to wait and see. The thought doesn't sit easy.

Without giving it conscious thought, Theo finds himself fumbling on his shoes, then opening the door. He scrambles out of the truck, feet shushing against shin-high grass, and climbs back into the front seat, head a little bit clearer from the fog of sleep with each passing second.

A quick turn of his key in the ignition rouses the truck engine from its cold slumber. With his window lowered to pull in the chill night air, he tilts his head to the left, eyes shuttered, and inhales deeply. A breeze beckons to his hair. Each full drag of air into his lungs nets Theo a wealth of scents to sift through. Oak, ash, dew-touched grass, the exhaust from his truck, a herd of mule deer . . . The beasts that make their home inside him filter through all these smells and more in a matter of seconds; they discard each one that doesn't matter—and hone in on the only one that does.

His eyes shoot open and he pauses for only a moment, considering, fingers drumming a steady beat against his thigh. He shakes his head in resigned disgust at himself, then chuckles, but it creaks like old metal and lacks any tinge of humor. In the next breath an owl hoots somewhere nearby. With squared shoulders and a glance into his own eyes in the rearview mirror, Theo rolls the truck into an easy reverse and takes off.

Was there ever really another choice?

(He remembers the bowels of the earth; the scrabble of his broken-off claws; the clatter of a sword as it broke; and blue eyes that appear to see everything, including all the jagged, ugly, healed-wrong pieces inside him, but still not enough.)

I'm not dying for you.

I'm not dying for you, either.

A waning gibbous moon dangles from a navy canopy sprinkled with stars. Its reflected light catches on the bone-white gleam of his knuckles where they clasp tight to the steering wheel. He must be somewhere close; more than a few miles and Theo wouldn't be able to smell him. But he can; he picks up his familiar scent and tracks it with relative ease.

The road unfurls, the smell grows stronger. As he closes the distance between them, a second howl sounds and deepens the sense of unease that has prickled between Theo's shoulder blades since he first woke. It cuts through the nighttime hush like the twin beams of the truck's headlights slice through the darkness ahead, and yanks Theo's thrumming heart into his throat. Alarms clang inside his skull. Something is off. No, something is very wrong. He sounds angry, which isn't so unusual. But there's more . . .

Is thatー?

Blood stutters in Theo's veins.

ーPain.

Theo's stomach clenches.

A/N: Short and not so sweet this time. Thanks for reading. Should you feel like it, you can tell me the good, the bad, and the ugly; it's all okay. :)

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