Chapter Four

Terrick

I sniffed before I opened my eyes. What the fuck had I done? Where the fuck was I? Okay. No. Back track. Who was I? Anger pounded in my temples and my tails wagged. Tails? That was new, right? That was definitely new.

“Come on! Come on!” A low but chipper voice sounded off inside my thoughts.

“Who are you? Why are you inside my head?” I asked, wanting to rub temples that were no longer there.

I did have temples, right? Once upon a time I was pretty sure I walked on two legs, because these paws were strange. I couldn’t wrap my mind around lumbering around so close to the ground.

“I’m you now! Well, maybe! Come on! The red headed one awaits!”

“Who?” I blinked.

“Our mate!” The voice said and my tails all wagged so hard I was pretty sure my ass was going to take off like a fucking helicopter.

“Mate?”

“Come on! You have to let me get up! We’ve got to go! Time is short and the trip is long!”

“I think I’m hung over. I don’t feel like going on a trip,” I groaned.

“The walk is short, but the trip is long,” the voice said again. “Come on! Aren’t you happy to have a mate? A true-mate.”

True-mate.

The words echoed around my thoughts and hit square in my chest. While I couldn’t figure out why I was here or who I was angry with, that was a phrase I knew. True-mate: The man I chose to spend every life with while we were all just talking wisps in the Other World. Maybe he’d know what the fuck was going on with me. Maybe he’d know why I was suddenly a dog when I was ninety percent sure I hadn’t always been.

I gave into the many-tailed off and allowed him to rise to his paws. They were just as massive as the rest of him. He lumbered forward, skidding along the dirt, as he picked up speed. Scents flew at me from every direction. A deer was nearby and my throat burnt for its blood.

“No time to eat the deer! Gotta get the mate! The trip is short, but the journey is long!” The weird dog sounded off inside my thoughts again.

Was this a dream? Was I laid up in some hospital bed with someone trying to wake me up? If so, who was shaking me? Who was watching for me to come back? Surely, even if I wasn’t dreaming all this, someone had to be looking for me. I lost track of what the dog was doing or where he was headed. My thoughts spun over and over. Maybe I’d always been a dog and just couldn’t remember it. Maybe I had a concussion or something. Maybe I was bespelled. If I was, I bet a dragon did it. That’s the sort of nonsense dragons got up to.

In the end, it didn’t matter. I was along for the ride until I woke up or remembered who I was and why I was here in this weird smelling village. Sleep pulled at the edges of my mind. It would’ve been so easy to slip down into the abyss and just say fuck it. Except, one scent pulled at everything I was. The dog opened his mouth and breathed in. The scent of the true-mate I was yet to meet washed over me: Warm, coppery, and somewhere between sorrow and rage. That last part felt like home. Sorrow and rage made great bedfellows because one always led to the others.

“MATE! THE MATE! OUR MATE!” the weird dog sounded off in my thoughts and picked up speed.