I scooted back, frowning at the boy as he was looking around my hiding place. His brown eyes took it all in, taking it upon himself to step inside.

My eyes squinted, wondering why this boy was all alone. Better yet… why did he follow me?

After a thorough gander of the enclosed space, the boy turned to me again. I felt my lip curl a bit while he placed his hands on his knees and cheerful greeted, “Hi!”

Narrowing my eyes further, I did my best to bend my knees to block my private areas. He was still, after all, a kid. He looked to be no older than seven or eight—somewhere along there—and he was still in his bent forward position when he took a few steps closer. I scooted back again.

The boy blinked, tilting his head and asked, “Are you all by yourself out here?”

He glanced to the items beside me that I’d stolen and he raised his eyebrows in surprise before turning back to me.

“So you’re the one taking all our stuff!” He laughed lightly, shaking his head and piped, “I knew it!”

My eyes widened, lowering a brow when he added that he’d seen me several times this week but wasn’t quite sure if he was imagining me running around or not.

I had to think back the number of times I’d been at the campsite. I had been in wolf form at the time. How in God’s name did this kid think I was there if he only saw me in human form today?

Chuckling, the boy tilted his head and smiled, “I’m Emory! What’s your name?”

I scrunched my nose, curling my lip a little and growled in warning since I noticed the kid trying to get closer. He shook his head that he wasn’t going to hurt me, but just wanted to talk.

Yeah. Right.

Feeling trapped, I could feel my wolf getting agitated. Without realizing it, my vision on the boy was a bit clearer than before and that’s when I knew my wolf eyes took over. It was a defense mechanism to hopefully scare off the kid. But aside from the surprised widening of his eyes, the kid straightened and another grin pulled onto his lips.

“Hey! Your eyes changed to blue!” Then he pointed a finger towards his eyes and nodded, “Mine do too!”

I was now the one startled when his dark eyes changed to the same radiant electric blue my wolf had.

The kid was still grinning happily, tilting his head when someone shouted for him. They kept getting closer and I should have panicked about that but I was still panicking about the fact that this kid’s eyes just turned blue! Blue!

He was a werewolf! But—but why were his eyes blue?!

“Emory!” Someone gasped, barging their way through the bushes and the boy turned around to face the tall girl whose eyes were already on me.

The boy looked between the both of us then jumped up and down excitedly. He ran over and tugged on the girl’s hand, pointing at me.

“Look, Vicky! She’s just like me!”

Vicky, as I now knew her, frowned down at the boy and scoffed, “What are you talking about?!”

She glanced at me a second then returned to the kid nodding frantically while he pointed at me again.

“She’s like me! Honest! Her eyes are blue too!”

Vicky snapped her gaze my way and gave me a once over. I turned my chin slightly, offended by the way she was eyeballing me. I know my appearance wasn’t the best, but I still didn’t like being looked at like that.

The tall girl bent down to squat in front of the boy and held onto his hands. Her stern look seemed to be a normal expression even with how gentle she spoke to him.

“Emory… You can’t just go running off like that! You know it’s dangerous!” She shook her head, frowning, “You do remember how dangerous it is for you, don’t you?”

Emory’s little face turned into a scowl, looking down at their joined hands. His little shoulders sagging as he nodded. He offered a small apology and waited until Vicky let out a relieved sigh to return to his peppy self.

Emory bounced up and down with a finger in my direction.

“We gotta tell Iota, Vicky! We gotta tell Iota about her! And we can take her back to camp too! She’ll keep her safe!”

I scowled at the mention of this Iota person and the thought of being found out by someone else was not very ideal for me. With these two finding me, I’d blown my cover and now had to go elsewhere.

Annoyed at this revelation, I scoffed, “I’m not going anywhere with either of you!”

The boy stopped his hopping and looked at me as did Vicky.

The tall girl rose to her full height, raising a brow as she mumbled, “So she speaks…”

I threw her a look, grumbling that I wasn’t mute, but more keeping up my defenses. “Not that it did any good!”

Rising to my feet, not bothering to hide my nakedness—though Vicky quickly stretched out her hand and slapped it over Emory’s eyes—I placed my hands on my hips and huffed, “You’re Werewolves.”

Emory struggled against Vicky’s hand over his face. He was trying to slap her hands away while Vicky scrunched her nose that, yes, they were Werewolves. She let her hazel eyes look me up and down before sneering, “And you are too. I can smell you.”

Now it made sense why I thought I smelled Weres. They were the ones sleeping in that last tent.

“Don’t you have any clothes to put on?” she snapped, gesturing with her free hand towards the boy beside her.

I rolled my eyes, shrugging my shoulders.

“I don’t have any. Haven’t for the past five days since I’ve been here. But what difference does it make? We’re werewolves. It’s natural to be this way.”

The girl huffed, shaking her head and muttered that she had a feeling I was going to be difficult. My eyebrow rose at this. Vicky looked at me and stated that it might be natural for me to be in the nude where I came from, but it wasn’t all the same in other places.

“Some of us Werewolves have grown accustomed to the coy habit humans have of seeing others in the nude in public.”

Vicky pointed at herself then at Emory who was successful finally in shoving her hand away from his face.

The kid raised his eyebrows and looked up at her with a head tilt. “I don’t mind seeing her naked.”

I narrowed my eyes, turning my chin slightly at his comment then looked at Vicky who sighed, rolling her eyes, “Of course you don’t, you little freak weirdo! You’d be stark naked now if I hadn’t wrestled you into your pjs last night!”

Emory grinned at me, shrugging his shoulders as he shook his head, “She’s not wrong.”

I couldn’t help the slight tug at my lips but then shook my head and glared at the tall girl. I demanded to know what she wanted.

I received a reply that she wanted nothing from me. She just wanted to get the boy back to the campsite where he should have remained instead of chasing after me. I totally agreed with that.

“So don’t you worry about me saying anything about seeing you here. We’ll just be on our way,” Vicky snapped, making a notion to start turning away.

“But Vicky!”

Emory tugged on her shirt and she looked down to acknowledge him. He glanced at me then back up at her.

“We can’t leave her alone! She’s like me, remember?! Iota will want to keep her safe too!”

I raised a brow, tilting my head, “Who’s Iota?”

Emory beamed at me, taking my sudden interest in this Iota person as a possibility in wanting to go with them. He skipped over to me before Vicky could grab hold of him and Emory grabbed my hand. I stiffened at the contact and leaned away a little. It didn’t bother him a bit.

“She’s a nice lady! She keeps me safe from the bad wolves! Iota says I’m special, so that’s why we have to hide here!”

“Emory.”

Vicky gave him a stern look when we looked at her then she threw me a narrowed eyed glance before telling Emory that he didn’t need to be blabbing about why they were here in the State park. Or about who he was.

I frowned at the kid sheepishly leaning away from Vicky, then asked no one in particular, “What do you mean he’s special?”

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Vicky quickly answered, marching over to come take Emory away. But the boy obviously didn’t get the hint that he wasn’t supposed to speak more.

Emory smiled at me and said that he was special because he had a special wolf that was going to be really strong one day.

“That’s why my eyes turn blue! I’m a Snail!”

My nose scrunched, tilting my head as I repeated, “Snail…?”

I looked at Vicky making her way over with a stomp and she shook her head at Emory, telling him to stop talking and that it wasn’t called ‘Snail’. She bent to pick him up but Emory yelped and ran around me to the other side before she could nab him.

Vicky groaned in frustration.

“Emory, this isn’t funny! Get back here!”

She tried again to nab him again but Emory bounced around me to my other side and I was getting dizzy with the number of times they ran in circles.

I growled, shaking my head and quickly grabbed onto Emory’s wrist to catch him. Vicky sighed in relief and grumbled her thanks when I held his hand out to her. She took hold of him, despite the boy struggling against her and grumbling for her to release him.

“What is a Snail…?” I asked her.

Vicky rolled her eyes, shaking her head that she wasn’t supposed to tell me… or anyone for that matter. That telling was what had them on the run in the first place.

I shook my head, wrinkling my nose and gestured around me at the forest surroundings.

“Who am I going to tell? Don’t you think that maybe we happen to be in the same boat?”

“I wouldn’t know.” Vicky eyed me cautiously. “For all I know… You could be tricking me. You could just be saying that you are out here alone and you could be one of the ones following us! You could be one of the ones after Emory!”

I glanced at the boy who stopped struggling at this point and was now pouting up at me. He was studying me a moment, tilting his head. Then he looked up at Vicky, softly speaking that he didn’t think I was like the others chasing them.

“She’s like me… Remember, Vicky?”

Shaking my head, I growled out what the boy was talking about calling himself a Snail because he was special.

Vicky eyed me a moment, looking down at the kid beside her then sighed before leaning her head back to groan out loud.

The she-wolf looked back at me and huffed, “He happens to be eight. So Emory gets what he is called mixed up from the lack of attention he pays when we talk to him.”

She paused, swallowing hard and looked around us like others were listening to our conversation.

When she faced me again, Vicky sighed with a frown, “Emory’s a Quail Wolf.”

My eyes widened, looking down at the boy who had been staring up at Vicky then turned to me with the same blank stare before his toothy smile appeared.

I stuttered with my words as I asked if she was sure.

Vicky nodded, running her hand back over his hair.

“He is. I didn’t believe it at first, but his eyes change to blue instead of gold like normal Weres. And the blue eye color is indication of only one thing, which is the first sign of the Quail Wolf.”

The girl frowned, shaking her head as she continued to caress his hair.

“What’s odd is that he’s eight. He hasn’t hit puberty yet and already he can change the color of his eyes which is followed next by shifting. He hasn’t done that yet, but it’s scary to think that a child would be able to do that.”

Vicky looked at me, shaking her head.

“There’s very little knowledge about the Quail Wolves, but even for what we do know, Emory’s case is strange. And with the others putting blame on him that he was a danger to everyone because of not knowing what he’s capable of, that’s why Iota and I are here with him. To protect him.”

We both looked at the boy beaming up at us.

I swallowed hard, frowning as a stormy feeling filled my chest while staring at this boy.

There was no explanation what it was that I was feeling towards him other than a connection of some sort. It was pulsing through my veins with the close distance between us, and it was because my wolf side was acknowledging this newfound information about another Quail Wolf.

“So you’re a Quail wolf, too?”

I looked at Vicky giving me a curious stare.

Nodding, I answered, “I am.”

She nodded, running her fingers through her hair and sighed. Then she asked how old I was.

“Nineteen. Why?”

Without answering my question, she asked another of her own. “When did your eyes change?”

I shrugged a shoulder. “When I was thirteen. That’s when I started puberty.”

Vicky nodded, glancing down at Emory then faced me again.

“When did it start?”

Raising a brow, I questioned when did what start. I pried that she was going to have to be a bit more specific.

Vicky pursed her lips then scrunched her nose.

“When did the feeling start for you? The Darkness that Iota and I refer to as a ‘raging fire’. It’s that uncontrollable sense you feel when you start knowing you’re losing the battle with yourself. With your wolf.”

I swallowed heavily, the fact that she was so spot on describing the Darkness as this “raging fire” frightened me even more.

Looking away, I closed my eyes to try and remember back to the first time I started feeling the rage. When I opened my eyes, I solemnly sighed, “After meeting my mate.”

Vicky’s eyes widened, shaking her head, “That’s impossible!”

“What is?” I frowned, scrunching my nose.

The girl shook her head again, looking at the ground as she was mumbling to herself. Then Vicky looked at me and stated again it was impossible.

“What is?”

“The fact you met your mate! Quail wolves… they….”

She paused, looking down at the boy whose brows were raised and listening in to the conversation. Vicky’s hesitation had me urge her to finish what she was going to say. She nodded, scratching at her temple.

“Even though it’s difficult for normal Werewolves to find their mates—taking years even—it’s possible for us. But Quail Wolves… they are meant to be mateless because of what kind of power they hold. They are too dangerous at how Dark they can become. Mates don’t exist for them.”

“Why not?”

Vicky seemed to have more information on Quail Wolves than I knew so I was willing to get as much as I could.

“Because,” Vicky raised a brow, crossing her arms. “Quail Wolves are lone wolves. They are for a reason. They are the ultimate weapon in a war with the intent to kill at any cost. That’s why the Darkness is always in their favor. Because they don’t have the need to have sole responsibility to a romantic counterpart.”

The she-wolf shrugged a shoulder.

“With a mate, it would put Quails in a difficult position in war. Their mates would be the target and that would act as their biggest weakness.”

I was suddenly thinking back to that day of Ridge’s wedding when that manic she-wolf said she was using Ridge to draw me out. She knew that Ridge was my mate and used him as bait.

Vicky continued, frowning, “And because of how dark a Quail Wolf can get, they can turn against even their own pack that they are fighting alongside.”

She noticed my frown and reminded me, “Quails are lone wolves, remember? They answer to no one. But they will fight against those who are threatening to the Quail Wolf. They don’t care so much about who they are fighting for.”

“But what—what about the whole light and dark paths that we can choose? Doesn’t choosing the light mean that Quail Wolves will fight for those who can’t defend themselves? For the common good?”

I glanced at Emory who blinked at me in wonder.

Switching my gaze to Vicky, she took a moment to think of her response.

“Quail Wolves that have existed in the past… all of them… all of them have chosen the Dark. There’s never been record of a Quail choosing the light. The Darkness is too tempting, and it gives more power because of the lack of emotion the wolves have that allows them to not have to think of consequences of what is right and wrong.”

“So you’re saying…” I looked at Emory, him holding Vicky’s hand and leaning his cheek against her arm. “That there’s no hope for either of us.”

I lifted my gaze to the girl.

“We are going Dark no matter what.”

“I don’t know now,” Vicky sighed, running a hand through her hair.

Confused, I asked her what she meant.

She nodded, shrugging, “I mean that I really don’t know now because you found your mate. That’s never happened before. Ever. And neither has Emory’s case of being able to change between his human eyes and wolf’s at his age.”

Vicky raised a brow, eyeing me suspiciously.

“You two are showing to be exceptions. And that might be a good thing.”

I felt a bit of hope at her words, but then I looked away, shaking my head that that couldn’t be it.

When I told her of why I had been hiding in the state park, because I’d been banished after attacking my mate from letting me fight another she-wolf, Vicky was silent. She tilted her head, pondering out loud that maybe I shouldn’t lose all hope just yet since I had managed to pull back control at the last minute.

“Maybe Iota could explain a bit more since she knows more about Quail Wolves than I do.” She shrugged a shoulder, nodding her head to the side. “That’s if you want to stay with us… to be safe.”

I swallowed, contemplating the invitation. It would be a lot easier to stay with them. I wouldn’t have to be all alone. I hated the loneliness.

With a small nod, I smiled, “I’d like that, please.”

Vicky narrowed her eyes. She hummed behind her lips before nodding, “Good. First though, I will have to get you clothes from my bag and bring it back for you. You can’t show up to the campsite naked.”

My grin widened and I shrugged nonchalantly.

“Second…” Vicky raised a brow. “I’ll need a name to introduce you to Iota with.”

I’d forgotten that my name hadn’t ever come up in the entire conversation.

“I’m Gianna. But almost everyone calls me Gigi. I prefer either.”

Vicky nodded, “Alright, Gigi. I’ll be right back. I need to take Emory back to the campsite and then bring you those clothes.”

But the boy protested that he wanted to wait here with me because he’d never met another ‘Snail’ like himself. I laughed lightly at the silly name he called us then looked at Vicky frown. I shrugged a shoulder that I didn’t mind watching him for a few minutes.

Vicky glanced at Emory looking hopeful at being able to keep me company and then she rolled her eyes.

“I’ll be back.” was all she grumbled before turning on her heel and making her way back through the bushes and disappearing from the treeline.

Emory suddenly turned to me and smiled, “Hey! Show me your eye color again!”

Lowering a brow and asking what for, my eyes followed the kid hopping up and down. He kept asking for me to change my eye color and grabbed my hand as he leaned forward, “Like this!” and then proceeded to demonstrate his dark eyes switch to the mesmerizing blue I was so familiar with.

Narrowing my eyes at him, I playfully growled at him and he looked surprised a second before scrunching his face and growled back through bared teeth. His growl sounded like a puppy. It was so cute I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Come on!” Emory pleaded, tugging on my hand.

I sighed, “Oh, alright! I don’t know why you want to see it so badly when you can do the exact same thing!”

I relaxed, looking down at Emory as I felt my pupils pulse before they switched to my wolf’s. My vision adjusting perfectly.

The boy squealed, jumping up and down before wrapping his arms around me and squeezing. My body stiffened at the child hugging my naked body and I glanced around awkwardly before chuckling a bit.

My hand rose to give an awkward pat on his head then Emory turned to look up at me. He rested his chin on my stomach.

“Gianna?”

“Um… yes?”

Emory stared at me, his blue eyes slowly seeping back into dark irises. His eyebrows furrowed and he bit his lip. “You’ll keep me safe… won’t you?”

Startled at his question, I hesitated before reminding him that he had Vicky and this Iota person to protect him.

He nodded in agreement, but then said that they weren’t like him and me though. That they didn’t know the feelings that we had to fight in ourselves and around others.

“I’m still little!” Emory told me, tightening his hold. “And I’m scared that I’m going to be bad like everyone says I am!”

My heart sunk at hearing such a small child say those horrible words. But the truth was that he felt the exact same way as I did. Emory was just as scared as I was about going Dark and never being able to recover from that.

Lowering my hand, I brushed his hair off his forehead and offered a small smile.

“Emory, was it…?”

He nodded slowly.

“Look… I don’t know what’s going… going to happen. Because I’m scared just as much as you.”

Emory’s eyes widened, lip pouting, and I shook my head.

“But that doesn’t mean we can’t try our very hardest to fight this. Someone very special to me once told me that it’s the faith we have in ourselves to stay in the light, and to stand just as strong as a dark Quail Wolf would. Even if that means we have to fight ten times harder because we would know the difference between right and wrong.”

The boy looked at my stomach, seeming to ponder my words but I didn’t know if he’d really understand at his young age.

Emory looked up at me again.

“You mean—mean that its not too late for me then? That the raging fire won’t take me?”

I smiled, shaking my head and brushed his hair out of his face.

“I won’t let that happen to you, Emory. I promise.”

The boy beamed, returning to his happy self and looked at Vicky when she returned with the clothing that she promised. He bounced over to her and informed her of my promise that had her glance at me.

Vicky nodded, frowning softly at him with a small group before looking at me to hand off clothes she brought me. After pulling on the sweats and a tshirt that was a bit too tight on me, I followed the pair out of the treeline after collecting my knapsack with all the belongings that I stole.

Vicky chastised me that I’d have to give all that stuff back now that I was going to be sticking with them. I grinned, nodding that I would and looked up ahead at Emory shouting for us ‘slow pokes’ to hurry up.

“He seems a bit happier about your promise,” Vicky pointed out.

I looked at her and she solemnly stared after the boy bouncing ahead of us. Emory was chasing a bird hopping up the road and I smiled at this before nodding at her.

“He does…”

“I just hope that you can make good of it.”

Frowning, I gave her a look that asked her, ‘what do you mean?’

“He’s a Quail Wolf, Gigi,” she reminded me.

I nodded that I knew this, but that he was still little. That he wasn’t going to start feeling the Darkness take over for another four or five years.

Vicky shook her head, letting out a frustrated sigh.

“Didn’t I tell you that you and him are different than the historical rest? That you having found your mate and the fact that Emory’s eyes change at only eight years old means something different for both of you Quails?”

I nodded, “Well, yeah… but…”

“But nothing!”

Vicky stopped, frowning at me for a moment. She sighed, shaking her head. The she-wolf was now looking over at Emory ahead of us.

The boy was knelt down and petting a rabbit that had appeared from the brush nearby. He looked over at us and waved before petting the rabbit again.

Vicky faced me again with a stern look on her face. “You said that you started feeling the Darkness now that you are older, right?”

“Yes…?” I replied wearily.

My brows furrowed at the solemn look on the other girl’s face. She ran her fingers through her hair and shook her head, staring back at me.

“Well, so has Emory.”

I blinked, not sure I heard right.

“What do you mean so has Emory? He’s eight! He can’t possibly feel it yet!”

“Yes, he can. And he has,” Vicky corrected with her neck craned forward and raising her brows.

Her lips formed a tight line, almost like she was thinking about whether or not she wanted to tell me what she was going to say. But with having told me so much already, Vicky frowned, “Because he’s the reason his parents are dead.”

I frowned, wide eyed and we both turned to look over at Emory again. He looked over at us and smiled so brightly. He was waving at us once again.

I stared with my mouth dropped as I stammered, “You mean…?”

“Yes, Gigi…” Vicky sighed, frowning, “Emory killed his parents.”