Fractured Fate

One: The Doctor Is In

At first, Sophie told the monster no.

She'd been confident at the beginning. Initially, she'd thought a simple no was enough. But this was before the cruelty of the world came for her. Before she realized she had more to lose.

The monster did not accept that answer.

If she had said yes, maybe the monster would not have kidnapped her sister. If she had said yes, maybe the guilt of it all would not feel like steel wrapped tight around her throat.

Maybe—

"Sophie."

Dr. Sophie Griffin blinked back to the present. She stumbled, the toe of her shoe snagging on a jutting rock.

A firm hand grabbed the back of her collar, catching her before she could tumble to the forest floor.

Pay attention, Sophie. "Sorry."

Next to her, Cael stared down at her. Clouds covered the wide expanse of the sky, making it overcast. The weather made Cael's eyes look more gray than their usual blue. She'd never met someone whose eyes seemed to change in different lighting, but Cael's did. And it was fascinating.

Cheeks heating at her own clumsiness, Sophie clutched the first aid pack closer to her chest and continued forward.

Silence threaded through the air between them. If there was one thing Sophie learned in the last month here in the Southern Shifter Territory, it was that Cael was not a chatty shifter. He never took the time to break the silence, nor did he feel a need to keep the conversation going. If he had something to say, he would say it.

After being blackmailed and held hostage by Bartholomew Reison, she'd been pressured, lied to, and fooled. Despite the silence, Cael was not only refreshing but straightforward in a way that, oddly, settled something inside her.

"How much further?" She asked. Her footsteps crunched the leaves and brush along the forest floor. Meanwhile, Cael's footsteps were silent.

"A mile." He told her. And that was it.

Sophie blew out a breath. Thank Elphyr she'd been good about walking the treadmill most days...prior to Reison.

"Exercise is good for the body and the brain," her sister Katarina used to say. Though that was often when Katarina was trying to get Sophie to join her in some ungodly new exercise routine.

Katarina. Her heart clenched.

A mile felt like a million years, though it was more likely less than 20 minutes by the time she and Cael walked up to a small enclosed cave on the territory.

Among the trees, the cave remained well hidden. A large, flat outcropping of stone rested in the front, a fire pit arranged away from the nearby brush. A breeze swept over them, rustling the ivy coverage above what looked to be a small opening in the rock. If they were not looking for it, Sophie knew anyone else would have walked right past this area.

Sophie shivered as the wind nipped at her cheeks. The nights were getting longer as the weather cooled down. They would see snow soon, after the rest of the leaves changed and fell. Her thin jacket would not be enough for the weather. She would have to stock up on better clothes... or make her way back to her dingy apartment in Veron City.

If her landlord hadn't already evicted her and sold off all her possessions.

She might have nothing left—the thought made her eyes burn.

Cael stopped in front of her. She yelped, stumbling into his back. "Sorry!"

"You say that a lot," he said. He tilted his head towards the sky, listening for something that Sophie's piddly human ears could not catch. She strained her ears anyway.