Valente's demeanor instantly went from calm to alert as he put his arms around me protectively.

"It's okay. It's Buri," I told him through the link.

"Who the fuck is Buri?" he asked me, raising an eyebrow.

"An old man I met a few days ago. He said he lives at the cottage by the stream," I told him.

We both got up to stand now.

"I've never seen anybody there in all these years Rayne," he said. "It's completely abandoned. You think I wouldn't know if someone lived within my pack borders without permission?"

I sighed.

"It did seem a little weird to me," I told him as we made our way back towards the cottage.

"How're you feeling now?" he asked me, a look of concern on his face.

"I don't feel anything at all," I said honestly. There was no pain, or even a little soreness in my bones. Perhaps the shift upgraded my healing power.

As we reached the cottage, Valente walked ahead of me to go inside.

I followed him to find him standing still in the middle of the dark cottage, looking down at a white dress.

My dress.

I walked up beside him, bending down to pick it up. It was perfect again, just like when I put it on last night.

"I saw the the ripped shreds myself, it was irreparable," he said.

I inspected the dress to check the fabric, and it showed no signs of tear or repair work. It looked just like it did last night, not any brighter or newer. It couldn't possibly have been a replacement either.

It was the dress.

It had been completely fixed.

Almost as if, by magic.

"Wizardry," Valente whispered at the same time I reached that conclusion.

"Show yourself!" he shouted, his voice echoing inside the empty cottage walls.

There was no response.

"He said he travels," I told him.

"He was right here! We just heard him! And you've had an entire conversation with this complete stranger?" he asked me, his annoyance evident.

"Gramma told me that this cottage was at Akureyri too. I think it's a part of his magic. He did say it was a part of him," he went towards the walls and touched them.

"I never paid any attention to it. I thought it was just an abandoned cottage that didn't belong to anybody," he said.

That's what I thought too.

He started moving towards the door. "C'mon," he said to me.

"Where to?" I asked him.

"Let's ask Rosa what she knows," he replied.

...

I'd worn my dress again in the cottage as Valente waited outside.

He had put on his jacket as we walked back to my house.

Rosa opened the door before we even rang the door bell. She looked as if she had been crying, and hugged me as soon as she saw me.

"Oh Rayne," she said, letting go of me, her grip tight on my arms. She turned to Valente, mouthing a thank you, before making way for us to step inside.

As we sat down in our living room, Gramma sat next to me, her face very worried.

"Gramma I'm okay now," I told her reassuringly.

"My strong girl," she said, tearing up again. "I know you are. I should have been more careful. I had a feeling this would happen."

"How?" Valente asked.

Gramma stroked my hair comfortingly.

"I'd never seen any child like her. I've trained Renee as a child too, but never was she as skilled as Rayne. I could tell you were Austan warrior blood, but I was never too sure," she said. "I could tell Imadis was being restless these past couple of days. It's why I was so worried about the Wolfsbane," she whispered the last bit.

Valente sat a little straighter on his seat.

"She couldn't shift completely till there was a single drop of Wolfsbane in her body," he said, looking down at his feet as the realization hit him.

Gramma nodded.

"You had to endure so much to burn through it so you could shift. If it was another wolf, their shift would be delayed till the next full moon. Or else they wouldn't have survived," she said.

I looked at my hands, now perfectly okay again. Then how did I survive?

"You were strong enough," Imadis said.

"I expected you to shift soon, but not this soon," Gramma said. "Maybe it was fate when you chose to wear this dress."

I looked at her as I understood what she meant. Pack members celebrated their shift by wearing the color of the full moon. I didn't realize the significance of it when I wore it.

She looked at it, then her eyebrows scrunched up. "Were you wearing this during the shift?"

I looked up at Valente.

"She was," he said.

She touched the fabric on my leg, examining it.

"Rosa do you know a man named Buri?" Valente asked her.

Suddenly, Gramma's face went from confusion to understanding.

"Oh," was all she said as she sat back again.

"Oh?" I asked her.

"Buri is the pack wizard. At least that's what he says. No one knows who he really is," Gramma said.

"How can we have a pack wizard without me knowing?" Valente asked.

"I didn't know pack wizards were a thing," I said.

"What do you mean, who he really is?" Valente asked.

"How can he live in that empty cottage?" I asked.

"And is this common knowledge?" Valente asked.

"Children!" Gramma said, raising her arms in the air. We stopped with our questions as we looked at her.

She sighed.

"He isn't a trespasser. He is one of our protectors since the olden days," she said, looking at Valente.

"And the cottage may seem empty to you, but it isn't what you think. It's a vessel which carries his essence. It's full when he's there, and not when he's not," she said to me.

I looked up at Valente to see his pokerface match mine.

We both looked at Gramma.

"I can't explain it any simpler to you two. You'll have to figure it out yourself," she said. "What do you two want to have for breakfast?" she asked Valente and me.

"Anything will do right now Rosa. I'm starving," Valente said. "Besides, I always have a heavy breakfast before training day."