The branch crunches under my weight as I walk through the forest. My body still vibrates from earlier. Aria drives me insane. She is like a wine I can't drink enough of no matter how drunk I am of her.

The image of her splayed on our bed with her covered in my seed is now a permanent fixture in my brain. The image gives me energy and quickens my steps as I rush to the other side of the forest not far from the human village of Gana to retrieve the clay I need to make sure our roof is airtight for the rain and for emergency repairs thereafter.

Our home is almost finished and with all the physical labor almost complete, I need to start getting more of her human comforts. I already got all the tools to make furniture, I just need to get a few other things so she isn't lacking anything, and one day soon I want us to be self-sufficient without use of the human supplies.

I don't like leaving her behind and going far because I still don't trust humans and seeing there's now three that know she's alive is a risk. In hindsight, I should have killed them. I just hope that decision to spare them won't make me regretful.

The sun is high by the time I get to the top of the mountain that has the special clay. I have come here several times over the course of the project, and I am glad it's the last time I'm coming. I collect the rocks and I fill the sack and I throw it over my shoulder, and I start walking.

It is around our breakfast time now and if I hurry back, I should arrive before noon. I stomp down the mountain and I decide to take the route of the river first for a swim. I am boiling hot.

I am back in my way after, and I continue my journey. I pass the last mountain and I am a few minutes away from the house when my ears catch leaves rustling, like someone running through the trees and I stop.

I try to be stealthy and lean on a tree to try and hear where they are coming from. I hold my sack tighter, prepared to knock over whoever that is.

Wolfie jumps out and she screeches in front of me.

"Wolfie, what's wrong?"

She looks panicked. Is something wrong? But she isn't coming from the direction of the house.

"Aria, is she fine?"

She starts going back the path she just came, and she starts running. I drop the sack. Someone or something must be there, I start running behind her.

I hope it's nothing horrible. I wish this animal could talk. She leads me to the direction of the waterfall where I found Aria.

When I get there, I stop in my tracks. A lump of a man lying on a rock under the tree, face down.

Is he dead? I hope it's not this again.

I mean, I love Aria, but I don't want to adopt more of her kind, especially not a male that I would most probably end up pummeling to an inch of their life for staring at her.

"Wolfie, go check if he is alive." I say in a low voice.

She makes a sound that sounds a lot like complaining but she goes. I stay put.

She gets to the human, and she growls next to them. I roll my eyes. That human is about to get a rude awakening. The lump doesn't move. Wolfie circles them. Her growl gets louder. She sniffs the human.

The human is definitely alive, their back is rising and falling. I see the lump moving. It takes a few seconds for them to see the wolf in front of them before they jump back in terror.

"Please don't eat me."

That voice sounds familiar.

Wolfie growls but I know it's more in annoyance. I walk out of the shadows.

"Look, I'm not here for trouble, I'm here—"

"For me?" I cut in.

His head snaps back to me then quickly back to the big wolf still standing in front of him with its canines out. I want to smile.

Wolfie would really tear him apart for Aria. She is just waiting for him to say the wrong thing or make the wrong move.

"Igor, thank goddess, I found you." Relief dominates his utterance.

I nod to Wolfie, and she retreats and disappears into the trees, running back to the house.

"What are you doing here, Hanser?"

"I'm looking for you." He turns to me when he has ascertained that the wolf isn't coming back.

I come to his front, and he doesn't look great. He looks weary. He must have been through a lot. I wonder how long he's been here and why he's looking for me.

Hanser hasn't sought me out in 30 years. He did once when he was a boy, and he ran away from home because his father wouldn't show him where I live.

I found him when I was going to his house, and I sent him home. But he has never been this far from the human villages.

"Well?" I ask when he won't spit it out.

"They are looking for you."

That makes me harden my eyes on him.

"Who is they?" I already have a clue, but I ask the dumb question anyway.

"The king. He knows about his wife, and he wants her back." He mutters. I sense there is more.

"No. She's mine now."

"Igor, you don't understand." He insists.

"She isn't going anywhere. You need to go back and tell him." I see pain and panic behind his demeanor, and I furrow my brows. "What's going on, Hanser?"

"They have my wife and children. They sent me here to find you and bring you back or they execute my family."

Moisture leaves my mouth and I really look at him. How long has he been looking for me and is he alone? He looks weak and hungry.

"How long have you been looking for me?"

"A month."

"You've been here for a month?"

"It's a long journey and I got lost in the East first." He says and he tries to force a sad smile.

"Hanser, you were my friend for a long time, but I can't hand over Aria. She is mine to protect."

"And my family is mine to protect, Igor. What about my children!?" He wobbles off the rock and he tries to charge at me with his feeble strength.

But I hold him at arm's length, so I don't injure him. I feel his pain, but Aria and our child are important to me too and I can't under no circumstances give them to him.

"My wife!" he tries to push me. "I should have sent you away. Now...now they are being tortured in a dungeon somewhere because of you and that—"

"Careful." I warn. I understand he has a lot on him, but I will not tolerate any ill speech about Aria.

Tears roll down his face, the face of a man on his wits end. I start thinking about how I went running to him when I was losing her, and he helped me against the counsel of his wife.

Should I leave him and not help? I know we ended our deal. But maybe I owe him for the sake of our past friendship.

"Hanser, I don't know how I could help you. I want to, but I can't hand her over to that evil man."

"He is her husband, Igor. She isn't yours."

I let go of his hands like they are made of hot coals, and he staggers back. I take a step back because what is currently going on in my chest isn't good. I clench my fists as I fight with myself not to end him.

"You should leave this forest." I try to be calm for the sake of our past friendship.

His lips tremble, realizing what he's said and my face. "Igor... I'm sorry. I just don't know what to do. He is a cruel man, and he will kill my family. Help me, please."

"You want me to surrender my family for yours?" I furrow my brows and he returns my reaction. I realize I just let it slip that we may be more than two. Understanding fills his face.

"She's pregnant?"

"I didn't say that." That's the best I can do.

I don't know how much the king knows and who knows how much, and I can't let anything slip if he doesn't know because if he goes back with those news, I don't know what will happen.

"Igor, you need to help me save them." He pleads.

"How?" Maybe if he has a plan that doesn't include me giving my family up for the slaughter.

"At least meet with him."

"Shepherd?" I had to be sure because that idea sounded about as dangerous as me handing Aria over and I am certain I would never survive a meeting with the man from what I've heard about him.

"Yes."

My mind remembers something important that I have neglected to ask all this while. "Hanser, how did Shepherd find out about Aria?"

"The doctor." He has a strange look on his face.

"Where is she?"

"She was executed the day after she reported it."

I frown. "Why would she do that?" It makes no sense from what Aria has told me about him. How cruel he is and how desperate he was of getting rid of her. Its baffling why anyone would volunteer that information.

"I don't know. Maybe her conscious was eating her, and she thought the king deserved to know." He pauses. "News of the queens escape and passing rocked his image."

I nod. I don't know but it doesn't add up. Why would that doctor do that? But maybe Hanser is right. "So, she told the king about your involvement, and they took your family?"

"Yes, a month ago."

"But why would she wait so long?"

He shrugs. "Who knows."

I nod. Something isn't sitting well with me and now I want to go back to my family, but I also know I can't take him with. I don't trust him fully around her. And a desperate man can do anything.

"You should return to your home."

"Are you going to help me?"

"I'd have to think about that. I will contact you."

"Igor, please."

"Fine, but it won't include Aria or handing myself over to that man for your family."

He thinks for a while. "So, a way to free my family without exposing you?"

I nod. "What does he like, value the most?"

Hanser snorts. "You mean besides General Shamus?"

I remember Aria telling me about the affair. An idea comes to me.

"I may have a plan." I utter. And his face morphs to hopeful. I am not sure how much I trust him, but I have to try to help him with his family. As a last act of kindness for his grandfather, my first friend in this realm.

"What is it?"

"Tell me everything you know about General Shamus."

He furrows his brows. "Why?"

"Do you want my help or not?"

"Tell me about him, the king, Aria's and Shepherd's parents. Everything you know, have heard, true or speculation."

He starts talking and telling me. A plan forms as he talks. When the sun starts going down, I point him to fruit trees around the river for food and I leave him there with instructions to leave. I can't risk taking him back.

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