Chapter 48

The den became home.

Lily had not known what a family was in over a decade, but she found it here—in this dark, dug-out hole in the earth. In the warmth of the wolves—their protection and their loyalty.

She found them to be the most curious creatures. There were times where they simply didn’t want to turn, so they stayed in wolf form for days at a time. Lily bathed them in the spring nearby. She skinned and cooked the meats they brought her and slept on a pile of wolves at night. They bathed her with their tongues and nuzzled her with their snouts, and then, one day, they simply became human again.