YENA

Thunder crashed in the distance and left echoes humming through the cave.

I looked at the naked stranger lying asleep beside me. Lightning flickered, illuminating his muscular body only in glimpses. He was covered in mud and blood, and though in human form now, he still looked wild and monstrous.

I’d never found myself lying beside any naked man before in my life. Let alone a huge, gorgeous stranger who nearly bled to death just hours ago.

I tried to study his face in the flickering dark. He had thick, dark eyebrows over deep-set eyes and a hard, serious jaw. His face was unshaven, darkly shadowed with a short, scruffy beard.

I watched his strong chest lifting and lowering with the shallow breaths of deep sleep, and felt my mouth start to water.

I had take my eyes off him, so I turned to watch the storm. The torrential rain was unreal, whipping past the mouth of the cave in sheets. Tree branches were snapping under violent winds; I heard them breaking off and crashing down the mountainside.

I came out here today for a camping trip with some classmates — or so I was told.

One of the only normal human girls at the Werewolf Noble Academy, I was at the bottom of the social order from the start. But even worse than that, just about everyone at school, including my adoptive brother Evan, picked on me for being fat.

So I couldn’t believe my luck when a few beautiful girls from one of my classes invited me to go camping on the mountain with them this weekend. But once we arrived in the forest, they ditched me at the edge of a cliff and left me there, stranded. By the time I managed to climb back down to the main road, I found my phone was dead, so I couldn’t call for help.

Then as I started down the road on foot, a blanket of dark clouds covered the sky. I tasted moisture in the air, and just a moment later, a sudden downpour struck the mountain.

I hurried down the road searching desperately for shelter, when I came upon a wolf lying injured beside the road. He was battered and unconscious, with a gash on his front leg. A crimson puddle was growing around him, starting to pull him down into the wet earth.

I picked my way over to where he lay. His breath was slow and ragged. I spotted the cave and wasted no time; I carried him over the rocks, drenching my clothes in his blood, and got us both inside.

I tore apart my jacket and used the fabric to wrap his leg. When it seemed the bleeding had stopped, I let myself collapse beside him, exhausted.

We slept for some time, and when I woke later in the night, the wolf was gone.

In its place was the hulking form of the beautiful stranger. The makeshift bandages had fallen off. Lying on his side next to me, I could feel his hot breath on my skin, and couldn’t help but inch my body closer to his.

Turning away from the mouth of the cave, I started watching the stranger again and noticed the gash on his shoulder had opened back up and was shimmering with fresh, wet blood.

I reached out and touched the wound gently.

He drew in a sharp inhale.

I couldn’t pull my hand away. The intense heat of his body pulsed into my fingers, tingling up my arm and flooding my whole body with warmth.

He shifted his weight toward me and my fingers sank into the hot, bleeding wound. He let out a deep growl.

I ran my bloodied fingertips across his chest. It was caked with mud that matted into a thick, rough patch of hair.

He brought his face in close and hovered his lips close to mine. His hot breath flooded my mouth and he touched my face, stroking my cheek with a big, rough hand that trailed down my neck and side.

The hand stopped at the thick curve of my hip and he squeezed it hard.

My blood felt like it caught fire.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I gasped and leapt at him just as he threw both his huge arms around me and slammed my body into his. He pulled at my clothes, and I let him rip them off.

The thunder came closer, booming right overhead.

We kissed with a frantic passion and grasped at every inch of each other.

Pulses of lightning, neon white and blinding, strobed over our bodies, throwing wild shadows across the cave walls.

We could only lock eyes for a few seconds at a time. His gaze was penetrating and intense, and his eyes glimmered emerald green with each strike of lightning.

We were unable to break apart from each other for hours, with something like a force of gravity pulling us together like magnets. This man was a stranger, but somehow it felt like our bodies knew each other, belonged together.

He was rough. We were both shameless.

Every touch was a shock of pleasure.

#

I woke to the sound of water dripping on stone and the distinct feeling of being alone in the cave.

The stormed had passed, and the stranger was gone.

I drew in a long, deep breath.

The smell of the stranger lingered. I noticed, hardly believing the sharpness of my senses, that he’d left two distinct scents behind: the smell of the wolf, and the smell of the man.

I wiped my face with my hands, smelling the metal and minerals scents of blood and earth on them.

Something had changed.

Yes, I lost my virginity, in the middle of the strangest night of my life.

But it wasn’t just that. I felt awake and alive.

I stood and stretched. I was warm and relaxed, with an energy pulsing through me that I’d never felt before.

Then a voice spoke.

Not aloud. Somehow it came from within.

At first it was like a whisper.

It’s because you’ve transformed, the voice was saying.

I walked out of the cave into damp yellow sunlight.

You’re a wolf, the voice continued, growing louder.

Or more like… you have a wolf inside of you. That’s me. You can call me Lily.

Was I going crazy? I had never heard a voice like this before.

But it didn’t feel crazy.

Lily. Her voice almost sounded like my own, except it was lighter. Happier.

It’s because we’re two sides of one soul, she said.

I’ve been with you all along, and always will be. I was just waiting for you to find your power. You’ll see… I’ll explain everything.

Eighteen years. Eighteen years I’d been just a normal human, knowing something was missing from my life.

And now I found it.

#

I descended the mountain and followed a trickling stream to the river. I traveled quickly, surprisingly sure-footed on the soft ground.

I knelt at the river’s edge and drank, and washed my face and hands.

My shirt was stiff with dried blood. I rinsed it, wrung it out, and put it back on wet. It clung to my body and sent a chill down my spine.

Combing the grass out of my hair, I listened to Lily. Her voice was getting clearer.

She told me I was different from the girls at school — even more powerful, with abilities I wouldn’t yet believe if she told me.

It sounded pretty outrageous.

She said my powers were unlocked when I connected with my fated mate, and that now I’d grow into my true self: a peerless beauty, with ancient lineage more noble than the ruling royal family.

I laughed. Fated mate? More noble than the Lycan king?

A peerless beauty?

I’d been self-conscious about my appearance forever.

It didn’t help that when we were kids, Evan was always pinching and poking the soft flesh on my arms, making jokes, and calling me chubby.

“Yena! Yena!”

As if I had conjured him with that thought, Evan suddenly appeared, running toward me.

“Evan? What are you doing here?”

He was in his practice gear, wearing a filthy white jersey over shoulder pads and holding his football helmet in one hand.

“What are YOU doing?”

He had a strange look on his face.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

He took a step back, met my eyes briefly, then looked away.

“I was calling you last night,” he said. “I— are you— what hap…”

He trailed off mid-word and frowned, staring at my clothes.

“I’m sorry, my phone died,” I said. Before I could continue, he interrupted.

“Just call me later,” he mumbled. “I have to…”

He turned and sprinted away. His face and ears were flushed.

I heard Lily’s voice.

What don’t you understand? He’s nervous because you’re beautiful!

Evan? My brother, who taunted me about my weight my whole life?

You’ll see, she said, laughing.

I crossed my arms and hugged my curves, feeling strangely comfortable in my body.

If Lily was right, maybe I would become more beautiful in time.

But already, everything had changed.