Velli leaned on the railing and closed her eyes. The waves lapped the shore of the hotel’s beach in a soothing rhythm.  With her magic the ebb and flow of the waves touched her deep down in her soul with its ease and normality.

The door to the balcony slid open, and then closed. She never heard the footsteps, but Kane’s warmth enveloped her within seconds.

He kissed the top of her head. “Feeling better?”

“For now.” She sighed and leaned against him. “I’m ready now.”

His whole body stilled, not even a finger twitched on her hand. After several long minutes of silence he spoke into the silence. “Do you mean what I think you do?”

“Yes.” She disentangled herself from his arms. Grateful he didn’t protest the action, she moved to the corner of the balcony. The last thing she needed was to be touched as she told the story.

“You’re going to tell me what happened to you, then. All those years ago.”

Fear wrapped itself around her vocal chords as it always did. Shame burned tears against the back of her eyes, and flooded her cheeks with heat. All she could do was nod. Every time she’d tried before things had gone so wrong. Still, after all he’d done for her, and the knowledge that he was her mate, and his Wolf was Tala’s, if Tala survived. “I’m going to try, but you have to let me talk. I have to finish.”

“Whatever you need, baby.”

She bit down on her tongue in hopes that the pain would overcome the indignity. When he leaned on the railing beside her, still not touching, she took a ragged breath. The story she’d buried deep began to come out too fast to stop. “It was just before my sixteenth birthday…”

The earth dropped out from under her and she fell. She landed with a grunt on a patch of grass. All around her stood tall walls of deep charcoal. With one touch to the smooth barrier of the closest wall she guessed some sort of metal.

A long howl sounded nearby, one so familiar her knees buckled at Tala’s sudden attempt to escape her bindings. “Easy, Tala. I don’t even know where we are.”

You fool. It is a vision.

“No. You’re the fool. It’s a vision, so that is not really Kane’s Wolf, just our interpretation of him. Whatever this is means something.” She turned a circle and noted four breaks in the wall like paths. “Could this be a maze?”

Our magic is not working.

“No, it isn’t. Not in here. We’re meant to try on our own, I guess.” Velli stepped toward the nearest opening. “What is it they say about mazes? Always go right and you’ll never go wrong?”

Without further delay she raced into the opening. At every corner and junction she turned right. Every time she’d made a dozen turns or so another howl echoed through the maze.

After she’d gone what she gauged to be a mile, she paused at a cross-junction. This time she waited for the Wolf’s cry to wrench the air. When it did, footsteps drew near. Rapid, small footsteps paired with heavier beats. Something small, smaller than a wolf, and something else. The sound muffled like a paw, but didn’t sound much like a Wolf.

To her left a flash of white fur appeared, rapidly followed behind by much larger gray fur. An albino fox tore past her, and the snarling lynx chased it without hesitation. Fear over both the creatures spurred her to follow and she tore after them.

Even in her human form she’d always been fast, but she could hardly keep up with the disappearing animals. They disappeared from view after two dozen turns, and Velli spun hopelessly at a junction.

A high pitched canine yelp was immediately followed by a feline shriek. A low deep growl echoed through the metal paths, one that was pure Kane. Both canine and feline whined before the air stilled again.

“Kane.” Velli whispered. “Where are you?”

His deep growl resonated from behind her. When she turned, the black Wolf had his teeth bared in a nasty snarl.

“It’s me. Kane.” She knew better than to show fear. Even though it was against her very nature, she knelt down until her head was lower than his. In this case he was allowed dominance. Her magic wouldn’t work, and her Wolf was bound. “It’s Velli.”

Teeth snapped in her face, deep snarls echoing in her ear. A whisper of a shout entered her mind, one that was not Tala. It had to be Kane’s Wolf. Betrayal.

“No.” She whispered. “I’m trying to find you.”

A sniff at her neck was the only warning before he bit down hard.

Velli fought against the urge to cry out in pain.

You will destroy them. Selfish. He bit harder and flung her against a wall before he turned and raced away.

“No. Wait. Who?” She stumbled to her feet, but didn’t bother to check her neck. It would ache for days in the real world, but no blood would fall. Not in a vision. Once she felt steady on her feet again, she ran after him.

He stayed close enough that she always saw his tail rounding a corner.

With one last turn the maze opened up into forest. Her heart ached at the familiar trees and paths of home. “Home.”

The Wolf stopped and his head lowered. Pain first. We will all suffer.

“I already am. Please, Kane. I must find you.”

It’s too late.

“Too late for what?” Velli didn’t have time to chase him, her arm was snagged. When she spun to face her attacker, she found her childhood friend, Melik.

His dark visage twisted in disgust. “You aren’t welcome. Be gone.” The words bellowed out and the scene wavered with the force.

Around Velli the world spun in circles until she began to slide down the tornado of green.

She dropped to the ground softly in an unfamiliar yard. Mountains spread out behind a simple house. Woods surrounded a small stretch of land. The home was unfamiliar but she knew without a doubt whose it was.

“Kane.” Velli rushed toward the house. Something made her stop before she got there, a sound. A Bobcat.

Velli walked to the edge of the driveway. Down the hill sat a pond, and there Kane stood at the edge. A Bobcat crept toward him and rubbed his leg with her forehead.

“Hello, little one.” Kane touched her forehead, but otherwise didn’t change his stance. From what she could tell, he faced west. West. Maybe he was looking for her.

“Kane.” Velli called out. When he didn’t turn, she leaped off the edge of the hill and tore through the weeds toward the pond. “Kane.”

The Bobcat stiffened and hissed.

“Kane, please. Hear me.” Velli burst out of the weeds, but the short strip around the pond suddenly seemed a mile wide. “Kane.”

“Drop her.” The voice she recognized as the boss’s rang through the air.

The goons took him literally and she hit the gravel hard. Each little stone forced its way into her flesh like thousands of hungry little birds. It was just pain, nothing near as bad as she’d lived through already.

“Wake.” The boss’s words carried the same buzz of magic that Bacey’s had earlier.

This time she let herself sneeze. She grunted as she pushed herself up on her hands. “Damn it, Bacey. You could have just asked nicely.”

“Bacey isn’t here.” The boss stayed in the shadows, while she’d been dropped in a circle of light. “It’s just you, me, and these two thugs, of course.”

“What is this? A bad gangster movie? What are you going to do next, beat answers out of me?” She got to her feet and brushed the dust off her jeans. “Magic wasn’t needed just because I was grumpy about being interrupted.”

“Magic was needed—and as for beating you up, let’s see how you respond to my questions first, shall we?” He circled around the edge of the light. One of his hands came into view and it was black as coal. A wave of power came at her, one that was old, ancient even.

Velli obliged him and stumbled back to her knees. With a grumble, she wiped the small stones from her palms. “Once again, unnecessary. You aren’t Shifter, what are you?”

“It doesn’t matter. You are. You also know the ancient.”

“You’ll have to be more specific. I’ve known a lot of really old farts in my time. No joke.” She got herself back to her feet. Last thing she’d do was kneel to this guy.

“You know who I mean.”

Despite her efforts to not react, her eye twitched. She forced her lips into what she hoped was a playful smirk to cover her nerves. “Nope, sorry. I told you, I know too many old farts.”

“The Healer.” He stopped in front of her again. “Kane.”

“Who?” She wondered how in hell he knew Kane, and how he knew she knew him. Another wave of magic whipped around her and she obligingly dropped to her knees again. Until she knew more what she was dealing with, she needed to play this right.

“You shouldn’t nap at work. You talk in your sleep. I know you know him. I know him too, have for some time, did you know that?” He started to circle her again. “I know all about your little Tribe. How they pitifully cling to the old ways. It will get them destroyed.”

She’d said the same thing to the Elders, but now she rebelled against it and leaped to her feet.

“Where is Kane?”

The interruption of her attempted irate protest caught her off-guard. She blinked and shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not.” As he began to circle her again, she pivoted to follow his path. She had no idea where Kane was, and for the first time that day she was glad. Last thing she needed him to know is she thought she had a way to reach him.

“What do you want? I’m in no mood to bargain. You’ll tell me what I want to know, or you will regret it.” He remained hidden deep in shadow, never allowing her to see his face.

“I want nothing.” She stopped turning, stopped fighting. Just then she was done playing the game. The exhaustion hit her harder than she’d ever expected and she dropped to her knees. “I can’t give you the answers you want. I don’t have them.”

“I don’t believe you.”

She kept her gaze focused on the hands folded in her lap. “I don’t know. I left. He might be there, he might be somewhere else entirely with his mate. I simply don’t know.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Before she could consider what he meant, a bright flash of blue light blinded her. A sharp pain burned from her eyeballs through her brain before the world went black.