The memory of that night never left me. Even though the she-wolf had resisted, her body trembling under my influence, my instincts still clung to every fleeting touch, every shiver that ran through her fur. I had been clouded by drugs, but even then, my wolf-heart knew that I owed her a debt a promise I swore to myself before darkness claimed me. I would take full responsibility for what I had done, for every scar left behind.
Yet even as that memory lingered, Anastasia's presence crept into my thoughts like the scent of a fresh trail through the forest. There was something in her pulse, her rhythm, the way her wolf-blood stirred beside mine it mirrored the intensity of that long-ago night. My instincts howled at me to keep control, to not let imagination overtake reason. I must repay both of them. One for what was taken, the other for the bond that is mine to protect.
