I've been the first in this millennium. I heard a myth about hybrids-half vampire, half wolf-but it was just a myth from a

bt about that, but he hadn't betrayed me yet. I'd seen something in his eyes back when he found me, half-dead and surrounded by witches. They were about to slice me open like a lab rat, and he'

n't for

t was how I always looked at people-with suspicion first, trust later, if ever. "This is one

e? Why go to such lengths to protect someone like me? My life had always been teetering on the edge of chaos, but this was something else. There was a mystery

le

than I intended. It wasn't an accusation-more like a demand for the truth. The idea of him slaughtering my

bear the thought of my people falling at his hands, even if they'd probably

ice chimed in my head, one I'd

really

had never accepted me, not fully. I was too different, too dangerous. Even before I knew what I truly was

soon see me dead if they knew what I really was. The v

owe them

here, the part that still clung to the idea that I could be one of them, that I could h

ing the silence stretch between us. I felt the weight of his presence, the power radiating off him in waves

of danger. "I didn't kill anyone who didn't deserve it." Hi

mo

of his lips, "I'm not here to slaughter your kind. If I want

he was

I hated to admit it, he was right. He wa

an I trusted him.

Was it because

ffs that encircled my ankles. His eyes, usually cold and calculating, now burnt

g through the air like a blade. "From now on, no one shall shackle you. I don't

he hell did h

words, I fr

here was something raw in his tone, something protective, though he deli

ed at myself for even thinking about it. This wasn't the time for my brain to get dis

current of guilt that I hadn't missed. It was like he'd seen something-something I didn't remember, or something I wasn't sure I wanted to remember. Had I done d

in the woods, shouting as they pursued me, "We can't let the

s had been so desperate to keep me restraine

er they claimed, didn't make it true. I wasn't going to let myself become a sucker who believed

you going to remove the tracking device?" I pointed at the cuffs. "It shocked me when I trie

" he ordered, not giving me an inch of room to argue. His hand disappeared into the poc

the

is

oing to