Greta had given August a t-shirt, zip up hoodie, and sweatpants, and August made note of one more reason to adore the peachy-haired girl. She was like an instant sister who knew what would be most comfortable.

After slipping the dry clothes on, August looked in the mirror for the first time in a month. She almost didn’t recognize herself. Her face was thinner and pale save for the recent flush from being so close to Graeme. But her eyes… August gasped.

“August, are you okay?” Greta called, but Graeme rushed right in without waiting for her reply. She noticed he had changed into dry clothes as well.

“What is it?” He grabbed her lightly around the waist and spun her to face him so he could look her over.

“My eyes…” She turned back to the mirror and leaned closer, pulling the skin below her eye to see the eyeball more completely. At first she thought it was the reflection of the amber filaments in the lightbulbs, but no—her eyes were other-worldly. The irises were a sparkly crown of gold amidst her regular blue.

“Were they not like that before?” he asked as his sister appeared behind them.

“No. No, not even close,” she leaned back and felt him against her, his hands still holding her lightly. She looked at his reflection in the mirror that stared back at her. At that moment the gold shimmered deeply. She caught it out of the corner of her vision and gasped again, leaning back in to look.

“Wow, I think my eyes like you,” she said in awe as if they were a distinct entity from herself, unaware of how it sounded until it was too late.

Graeme laughed lightly, tilting an eyebrow to her reflection. “Yeah, I kind of wondered about that.”

She glanced back at him and his sister in the mirror. Her face turned a deeper shade of pink, and she noticed this in the mirror as well. ‘I might as well have a blinking neon sign on my face,’ she thought.

“What’s happening to me?” she asked, turning around to face the brother-sister duo.

Greta stepped forward and hooked August’s arm in hers, patting her lightly on the arm with her other hand. “Come. Let’s check your vitals and we’ll fill you in on what we know.”

A short time later, they found August’s vitals were all stable and August had heard about the university’s clandestine pandemic-related experimentation. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, shaking her head in disbelief. “What were they going to do with me?” Her face paled. “Did my parents know?”

Graeme and his sister exchanged a look, wondering about the pace at which they should unfold the rest of what she had yet to hear.

“We don’t know,” Greta said honestly.

“How did you find me?” August looked at Graeme, “The forest was so empty,” she swallowed remembering.

Graeme paused, considering his phrasing for a moment. “I caught your… scent.”

“My scent?”

He nodded but said nothing more.

August thought back to when Marius had entered the room. It made her nauseous. She could still taste his blood in her mouth, and she squeezed her eyes closed at the memory.

“M—Marius,” she gulped, pushing back the fluid rising in her throat, “he said some things.” And thought some things. She shuddered involuntarily. Greta came to sit next to her on the bed and took August’s hand in both of hers, squeezing it lightly. “He called you a monster.” She looked up at Graeme curiously. “What did he mean?”

Graeme’s dark eyebrows dipped together in thought before his gaze returned to her, sweeping over her face. How would she react? A couple beats too long had passed since her question, and worry started to prick her eyes. He would just have to say it.

“We’re lycans,” he breathed the last word. When her expression didn’t change, he tried again. “Like… werewolves.”

Werewolves. August frowned. “You change into a wolf?” she scoffed, clearly not believing him. He nodded. She looked at Greta at her side who had a soft expression on her face. “Both of you?” Greta smiled slightly and nodded. Then August gasped, and one of her hands flew up to cover her mouth. “The animal. In the forest. The one chasing me…” and her eyes fixed on Graeme in disbelief.

“I wasn’t trying to scare you,” he gulped and looked at his feet.

“You—you bit me,” she whispered, and her eyes had started to water.

“No—no, I was just removing the tracker,” he said hoarsely. “I was only trying to help.”

August stood up from the bed and retreated to the large window looking out at a cross-section of trees. How far up were they? Like Alice, somehow she had tumbled through the forest into another reality. Surely she should be dead.

If werewolves exist… She crossed her arms defensively at the ludicrous thought. Then what else is out there? Isn’t the evil in humanity enough? She caught the reflection of her burning eyes in the glass. “What am I then?” She whispered, her heart shuddering in fear. Graeme and Greta looked at each other again.

Graeme walked over to stand behind her, resting his palms on her shoulders before running them down the length of her arms and embracing her. He breathed into her hair, “It seems you are my soulmate, August.” The answer was not what she expected and seemed equally as ludicrous, but his voice kindled a surprising warmth in her again. And his touch, his embrace… It was like home.

“Soulmates,” she whispered again, watching how her eyes burned in response to the word. She had never believed in such a thing. Her parents were divorced and her stepfather was abusive. Where was her mother’s soulmate? She wasn’t even sure about the whole idea of “soul” in the first place. But somewhere she understood that whatever this was with Graeme was different, and it was the reason she was alive.

“What does that mean?” she asked quietly.

Once again, Graeme faced the challenge of distilling something so much larger than himself into words. Greta had always been the talkative one—the one with all the answers. He sighed softly with August’s head tucked under his chin, remembering how his mother had explained it to him when he was young.

“It means… our souls recognize one another as partners,” he interlaced his fingers with hers. “It means we are mutually entangled in the very fabric of the universe itself. We are a story told together with one voice,” he turned her around gently to face him, his expression soft and searching hers. Suddenly he didn’t need to search for the explanation. It was there in her eyes.

“It’s an oath that doesn’t need to be spoken, because it binds two beings together with a force that no one can deny or break. And were I to mark you here,” he paused, pushing back her sweatshirt and running his fingers over the curve of her neck, “we would be even more intimately connected—sensing each other’s thoughts and feelings.”

Goosebumps arose on the spot he touched. He could see her delicate light hairs sticking up, and suddenly his mouth began to water. He let her damp hair fall back, hiding it from view.

“Mark me?” she whispered the question. Like a branding? Her eyebrows furrowed.

An uneasy smile spread across Graeme’s face, and he sighed. “Don’t worry. I won’t do anything like that unless you want me to.”

August felt her mouth go dry. “Oh—okay.”

His dark eyes had consumed her again as he gazed down at her, and she felt her stomach trill. She had never witnessed something like he was describing, but for some reason she wanted to believe him. Her body already did, it seemed, because it lit up like a Christmas tree when he so much as looked her way.

She wondered if the soulmate thing had something to do with the aura she saw around Graeme during her fevers. It had seemed to gravitate toward her, and it gave her the impulse and strength to overcome Marius.

As she opened her mouth to ask Graeme about this, a phone rang in the other room. Greta retrieved it, handing it to him as he stepped away from August.

“Hello?” His voice was different on the phone—deeper and intimidating. August shivered at the authority it held. “She is now, yes,” his eyes narrowed into the air. “I understand.” He ended the call and glanced at Greta.

“They already know she is awake?” Greta asked, incredulous.

He nodded. “They want to see us first thing tomorrow,” he sighed, tossing his phone on the bed.

“Who is they?” August asked slowly, sensing this was not a good thing.

“The pack’s council of elders. They are our governing body, you could say. And they are eager to meet you,” Graeme sighed. “I wish we had more time. There are some more things I need to explain to you before we see them.”

August nodded, crossing her arms in front of her as if bracing herself for more, but her stomach growled loudly.

“But let’s get you something to eat first, you poor thing.. You must be starving!” Greta hurried to her side and hooked one of her arms again, leading her out of the room.