I can't focus on anything anymore. It's eating me up inside. This raw and beautiful desire. Thorn calls it a lie but lies are supposed to be harmful. Whatever is happening inside of me is anything but suffering.

I sit and wait for a while in anticipation of his return but my loins are burning with a strange sensation that is growing hotter and hotter. I stand up and I pace around the camp. This craving has come out of nowhere. It has taken us both by surprise. I know that I am under the effects of a mystical connection but I can't resist it like he can.

It is screaming at me. It is turning me into a raging monster until I complete its request. I am no longer in control of my own thoughts or actions. And for the first time in my life, I like it.

I track him to the lake. It is the one place where we both go when we need time apart to clear our heads or to just be alone. It has become quite the safety net over the last week when Thorn and I have our minor disagreements.

The only downside is that the other always ended up turning up to check in. Though we like our space, we also like to be together. I can't imagine my life without him now and that's both crazy and terrifying.

The wolf situation doesn't bother me as much as it probably should. The old me would have screamed and ran as far as I could. I would never have accepted something so scary and unnatural but this new me is willing to accept anything to avoid going back to my old life.

Sometimes I wonder if it's that. Sometimes I wonder if it's the mating bond. Most times I just look at him and I know that it's neither. There is a person in pain beneath that supernatural armour. There is a man that gave up his old life too. Someone that remains deeply confused about his feelings and his choices.

Being half-wolf is just one part of who he really is. The other parts are slowly breaking through. I am honoured that I am the one that gets to witness them blossom even if the end result will ultimately change everything that we've built together.

He hears me of course, no matter how quiet I try to be. He stays still in the water and slowly circles his arms as I start removing my pants.

"What are you doing?" he says.

"I need to bathe."

I enter the lake carefully in just my shirt. We've never bathed together, we've always taken turns. Mostly because he's always asleep when I first wake up. The water is freezing and my teeth chatter as I merge deeper into the water. I push myself into a swim.

"Stay over there," he says.

I ignore him and swim closer.

"Fuck sake," he mutters, looking for an escape route.

He twists in all directions uncomfortably. He can't choose one before I reach him.

"What are you doing?" I say as I swim around him.

"Trying to get space from you."

"Why?"

I know why. We both know why. He gives me quite a cautious look instead of an answer and I grin back at him. I lean my head back and I dunk my hair underneath the surface.

"Leave then," I say.

I push myself forwards and I meet his eyes as he walks through the water. His hand presses up against the lower part of my spine and he pushes me against his wet body. I cling to his shoulders until I feel brave enough to grab onto his hair. He kisses me this time. The kiss is so powerful that it awakens parts of my body that I never knew were there.

I can only imagine that the bond is making his mind go as haywire as mine. He lifts my legs up so that the bare lower half of my body is straddled tightly around the waist of his underwear. I asked him once why he bizarrely bathes in his underwear and he said it was because he has been forced to spend most of his life naked so he prefers to wear them as much as he can. This is one of those times when I am not grateful.

My body begins to move as he backs up towards the small slope. He twists me and gently drops me to the soft ground on my back. I am powerless to stop it. He takes a seat beside me and closes his eyes, his fingers circling his temples.

I push up on my elbows, completely perplexed by this random pause. "Thorn."

"Shut up. I'm thinking."

Thinking about what? He looks torn between something that he wants and something that he thinks is wrong. I can't believe this. Is he actually...?

"Are you actually trying to figure out if I'm giving you consent?" I demand.

"Yes."

"What the hell is giving you the impression that I'm not?"

His fingers stop abruptly. "Don't you think that it's a tad bit strange that these cravings have come out of absolutely nowhere?"

I roll my eyes. "I don't care."

"I care. You're not yourself. The bond relaxes after the mates give in. You'll regret it."

"So?"

"No human in their right mind would want to do that with something like me," he says. "You're not thinking straight."

He's right with that at least. No human would. The bond is what ties us together, it is what stops us from being repulsed or scared of each other and these growing infatuations. It's not conventional and it's not understandable but that only makes it more exciting.

"You said that the mating bond lasts a lifetime, right?"

"Usually."

"So it doesn't matter if we resist it or if I regret it. We're stuck with it for the rest of our lives."

"I am."

"What does that mean?"

He shies away from the answer. I don't know what his problem is. I am offering this to him. I am his for the taking. I don't think that I could make it any clearer but he doesn't want to give in and despite how frustrating that is, I have to respect it.

"This is only going to get stronger tomorrow," I sigh. "And the day after that and the day after that." I frown as I pick some grass. "Is it me? Are you not attracted to me?"

He chuckles under his breath. "No, Devon. Attraction isn't the problem."

"Then what is?" I say. "Talk to me."

He pulls his knees to his chest and looks out at the lake. "I feel like I'm being baited."

"By me?"

He shakes his head.

"By the witch?"

He nods. "None of this is coincidence. You are here because her curse placed you here. The bond, the isolation, the twinges in your DNA, it's all for a reason."

"What reason?"

"She dangled you in front of me like some twisted game of morality. All I have ever wanted is for my people to be free and she made sure that would never happen!" He clenches his jaw. "The only reason that I brought them to this fucking country was to track leads on a cure."

"Cure?" I say, crawling closer. "There's a cure?"

"I never intended to start a war with the mountain pack but Atticus wanted rid of us. We were getting closer to it."

"Thorn," I say, my voice harder. "What cure?"

He finally looks at me. "This part of the world grows rare and valuable plants for werewolves. Some heal fatal wounds while others offer strong pain relief for the transition. But there's one type of plant rarer than them all. There is a plant that can suppress the transition completely. It's not thought to be permanent but there were rumours that it stopped a werewolf from transitioning basically until he ran out of supply."

"And he got that plant from here?"

He nods. "I've looked for a hundred years and I've never found it. It must grow on the mountain."

I look up at the mountain with him and a disgruntled sigh escapes my lips. "You've never been up there?"

"There is no point," he mutters. "The cure is meaningless while we're trapped here. I'd rather that they remain afraid to face me than give them an advantage by taking the cure. As long as I leave them alone then they leave the community alone."

His voice is soft and thoughtful. The entire situation is odd. There's a whole community of werewolves on that mountain that have been conditioned into only existing to make Thorn suffer. The way he described them to me made them seem like unpredictable and vicious killers. But if he's never actually spoken to them then there could be a chance that they're not.

"How do I break the curse?" I whisper. I have asked him this question many times over the last few days and he never gave me an answer. It's time for one last try. "I want to help you."

"I know you do," he says. "But the curse cannot be broken. Forget about it."

"I can't forget about it. Not if it means that you're trapped here for another hundred years."

"It's not such a bad life." He smiles at me warmly. "I'm starting to get used to this crazy concept of company."

I smile back, reaching for his hand. Our hands play together for a short time before I nudge myself to his side.

"We should leave," he says. "We've been out in the open for too long. There's still a lot of people out there looking for you and that puts me extremely on edge."

"Okay. I'll get dressed."

I drop his hand as I stand and walk around the lake to locate my pants. Thorn changes into his clothes a short distance behind me. I bend down to tie the loops on my boots and a giant shadow starts to cast itself over me. I watch the shadow curiously as I slowly stand.

"What the-?" I begin.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Thorn growls. "Devon, run!"

I squint up at the sun which is becoming darker and darker. A round ball of blackness starts to move over it, blocking out the light around us. "It's an eclipse," I say.

"Run!" Thorn shouts. "Get to the waterfall cave. Now!"

I hesitate.

"I'll be right behind you. I need to lead them away. Run to the cave and don't stop. Go!"

The urgency in his tone is enough to start me running. Everything is suddenly dark. The trees are blocking out the only glimpse of light left. I run hard down the path and I climb the steep hill that he showed me the other day.

The whole ground starts trembling. It's like the earth is moving. I grip onto the top of the hill for my life as an echoing thumping noise bursts from the mountain.

It's them. They're coming.

They're coming now.