Chapter 8

She woke up slowly the next morning, her body felt numb aside from the pain in her ribs and lines of red on her skin. The day's ride on horseback likely didn't help either. Atlas was still in the chair beside her bed, but he wore different clothes and was reading a book.

She studied him for a moment while he didn't notice she was looking. His features were sharp, his nose and his jaw all angles, making up a rather handsome face. His eyes intrigued her, the amber of them bright and nearing the colour of rubies but remaining more earthy instead. They were shaded by his hair, black and somewhat shaggy, as it hung down in front of them in a way that made their colour that much more vibrant in comparison.

He sat in the chair with a posture of someone that was ready to be interrupted but looked like they didn't want to be. He had such a serious resting face, the expression of someone experienced with things beyond their age. And it was beyond his age, his skin showing no signs of wrinkles and his hair a solid black without any grey. She didn't know his age but she guessed no more than twenty-five.

Burdened. The word came to her and she decided it fit him well. She only hoped that it was his regular look and not as a result of bringing her here.

"Atlas?" She called quietly. She didn't know where to begin with him after the last two days, but she knew she couldn't keep staring at him silently forever. His eyes snapped up from the book to her and he put it down on the night table beside her.

"Good morning. How are you feeling?" He asked and she looked away now. She was not used to having someone be concerned for her.

"Sore." She admitted feeling the complaints of her body.

"I have the healer waiting to look you over. We were only waiting till you woke up. You needed the rest. Do you think you can eat something?" He asked with a hopeful but small smile. He was talking to her like she was an animal, something that he was afraid would flee if he spoke too loud or startled her.

Dawn nodded but seemed wary of the situation, pulling the comforter up more to her chin. She was still expecting him to turn on her in some way. Regardless, he smiled a bit brighter seeing her agree to eat. He reached for a pitcher of water on the nightstand and she flinched away, thinking he would hit her. His expression pinched into sadness and he moved his hands slower, pouring her a glass of water.

"I swore to you last night that no harm would come to you here and I don't break my oaths." He said softly. It wasn't a reprimand but a tender reminder. He looked at her still huddled under the blanket. She wouldn't look at him and he sighed silently. She had been through hell. He was more cautious of his movements when he stood up from his chair.

"Will you be okay here while I fetch food and the healer?" He asked, hesitant to leave her alone. Dawn still didn't look at him, only nodded. She needed to be alone for a moment. He nodded back even if she wasn't looking.

"I'll be back shortly, try to drink some water." He assured before turning and leaving the room, shutting the door behind him softly.

She waited till he was gone before sitting up. She looked down at her hands. Her plain normal human hands. Hands he had so gently brought back. It had been so intimate. He had seen her demon and he hadn't screamed, instead he had shown her compassion and care. It was too much, he had to want something from her. And yet, when she had offered the only thing she had to give, he hadn't looked, preserving her dignity, and refused her like a gentleman. It left her confused about herself and the nature of the dark duke, the so-called leader of the wolf clan.

Perhaps he was a magician and he had fooled her long enough to calm her down and get her to his house. Perhaps there was something more that he could take from her that she didn't know of. She dropped her hands and looked to the large window in her room.

She could run. Break the glass and jump. It was the third floor, maybe she would survive the fall, or maybe she wouldn't. If she did, she could get away, run for the trees, find a way to survive all alone, where no one would find her and she would never be a problem for anyone ever again. If she didn't, she would be rid of this world and the demon that had forsaken her since birth.

The knock on the door startled her from her thoughts and, after a second, Atlas strolled back in with a tray full of food in his hands. Behind him was a shorter woman, wide set in the hips, but she carried herself with confidence. She was older than Atlas but it didn't appear to be by much, despite the greying of her hair.

Atlas set down the plate of food on top of his book on the nightstand, noting as well that she hadn't touched the water. He tried not to let his worry show as he turned to her.

"Don't worry about not being able to eat it all, just eat whatever you can." He encouraged, then addressed the woman he had brought with him. She held in one hand a bag of medical supplies.

"This is Del, my family's healer. I will leave you in her capable care." He smiled, then went to the door to give the two of them privacy.

Dawn pulled her knees up to her chest, smoothing the dress over them to cover herself. She was worried. Would the healer be able to tell she had a demon inside her? Atlas knew and hadn't been disgusted but he had been a first.

Del was extremely gentle as she looked over Dawn's injuries, bandaging what she could. She handed her a bottle of something that smelt sweet and Del could see the question in her eyes.

"For the pain. It will help heal you too." She explained and it did not ease Dawn's confusion. Del sighed, looking at Dawn with an expression of sadness.

"Atlas will explain it." She said with a small sympathetic smile and Dawn nodded looking away. She set the bottle on the nightstand, not ready to drink the mysterious liquid. Del sighed again before getting up and leaving the room. Dawn could hear whispering outside the door for a minute then a short knock, before Atlas was back. His eyes immediately went to the food to see if she had eaten and she felt a bit of guilt for having not touched the food. He sat back down in his chair beside the bed.

"Del said you should be fine and heal well if you drink the healing elixir." Atlas said, looking at the brown bottle on the nightstand. Dawn tightened her grip on her legs pulled up to her chest.

"....Are you trying to drug me?" She asked, fear trembling in her voice till she saw Atlas look surprised, his eyebrows disappearing under his bangs and he shook his head.

"No. Of course not. Why would you think that?" He rushed to defend himself, thinking back to what he had done and how it may have been taken the wrong way. Did she think he wanted to drug her through the food?

"What's in the bottle?" She asked, daring to look at him. He blinked, looking like he didn't understand the question.

"There's no such thing as healing elixirs. My father would have bought them all for my mother if there were." She said and a look of understanding came over him. "So what is in the bottle?" She asked again. He took a breath pushing back a feeling of overwhelm for her. There was so much she didn't know.

"Lady Dawn, the world of shifters is more than just the forms we take." He said it carefully, watching her face for the first signs of distress. His gaze made her look away.

"Magic runs through it deeply. Our healers have learned how to harness it for our kind but they only work for shifters, thus there would be no reason for you to know of them in the human world. They are as real as my wolf is within me." She absorbed the information slowly. There was more to this world and she wasn't sure how to process the information yet. Her face remained blank as he continued.

"Along with my clan of wolves, there are also ravens, deer and bear shifters." He said cautiously, no better time than now to tell her the structure of the shifter world.

"Bears..." Her eyes flashed with recognition, thinking back to the day in the palace gardens. "There's more?" She looked up at him now, needing to see his eyes to know if he was telling the truth. He nodded.

"There's a whole underground society of us. You, however, are a fox. They were said to be extinct. You're an exceedingly rare jewel among us." Her eyes seemed to glaze over as she listened to him, her mind retreating inside.

"A fox." She said the word but almost didn't believe it. Obviously she knew her demon looked like a fox but she had tried so hard to forget that part of herself, to call it a demon and push it away. It seemed far too simple a name to call it a fox. She looked out at Atlas, trying to see the wolf inside him like the demon fox was in her. She couldn't see it. Didn't even know it was there. He kept it hidden so well, able to change portions of him on command. She'd never even done a change willingly, only ever when she was afraid, so the thought of such control made her doubtful.

"Being a fox is just as much a part of you as this is. Normally children are taught how to control their magic and forms. I can see that was neglected from you. If you wish, I can help you learn." He offered kindly.

"I don't want it to be a part of me..." She said quietly. "It has caused me so much pain." She looked down to her knees again. "I just want to be normal, disappear into the crowd." Atlas wanted to reach for her hand, to comfort her but he held back.

"I understand your apprehension. However you can very easily turn what you believe to be your curse into a blessing. Learning to control your form will keep you from shifting at inappropriate times." He was trying to be compassionate but she snorted a derisive laugh at his statement and he knew he had made a misstep with his words.

"Inappropriate times." She said it slowly and laughed again, cynically. "It's never appropriate." She looked up at him sharply with anger in her eyes. She pulled the collar of her dress to the side, revealing a jaggedly melted burn scar next to one of the bandaged belt lines.

"My father gave me this after I changed when thunder scared me. He laid a fire poker against my fur, melting it to my skin. I was six." She let go of her collar and moved her hair to the side to reveal a bald patch behind her ear.

"When my father's priest found out, he poured hot wax in my hair and pulled it out, saying it would cleanse the demon from my body. I was ten." She let her hair fall back, hot angry tears falling now.

"My ribs are bruised, and it hurts to breathe because my fiance kicked me after I changed because I dropped a fork." Her voice cracked as she spoke, too much pain in her body and mind. Atlas's eyes filled with sorrow listening to her.

"I'm sorry you endured that. You should never have been punished for just being who you are. There is nothing wrong or evil about you." His voice was strong with conviction and sincerity and again he wanted to reach for her hand but didn't.

"Why am I like this!?" She looked at him pointedly, demanding for an answer. "Was I cursed? Bitten? Maybe my soul was stolen like they always told me it was?" She pressed, anger still in her voice directed at herself. He shook his head before she was even done talking.

"It passes down in family lines." He explained. "You are not unflavored by any deity, I assure you."

"My father wasn't like this!" She shouted now. "He never would have lain with my mother if she was like this!" He was answering her questions like they were obvious and it made her angry. She'd been asking herself these questions her whole life, hating herself for not knowing and he was answering them so easily.

"I don't know. It's very possible neither knew. Foxes have been extinct for a very long time." Atlas did his best to speak gently, knowing this was hard for her.

She didn't say anything more, just hugged herself. She was confused. She had hated herself since forever and here was someone telling her she wasn't alone suddenly and it made her feel all that more lonely. She took a few deep breaths, calming herself, then looked up at him with serious eyes.

"I need to see it." She'd never made a demand of anyone but she needed to see it now or else she wasn't sure she could go on.

"Please." Her quiet tone returned as she pleaded her demand. She needed to see him change. Needing to know he was telling the truth and his paw wasn't some magician's trick, but more importantly, she needed to see it being controlled. She needed to know it was possible.

He looked at her for a moment, knowing what she was asking. He had wanted to wait, wanted to ease her in slowly before she saw him, but he knew now she wouldn't go forward until she did. He took a deep breath and nodded at her. He stood from his chair.

There was no long drawn out change like when she became her demon. One minute it was Atlas standing beside the bed and the next, it was an abnormally large black-grey wolf. She gasped watching, she had seen him change but it was so fast it looked fluid and nearly natural despite being entirely unnatural. It looked at her and she saw the amber eyes of the duke staring out at her. She should be afraid. She should be terrified.

But she wasn't.

The wolf watched her for a moment before moving to the end of the bed and jumping up. Dawn watched him move with fascination, she had never seen a wolf before, let alone a wolf shifter. He laid down on the bed facing her, eyes so sharp, watching to see if she would be afraid.

She let go of her knees, letting them fall, opening herself up more to him. She reached out her hand hesitantly, wanting to touch his fur, feel that he was real, but pulled back feeling it was inappropriate somehow.

"Atlas..." She said his name, not sure if it was a question or statement, not sure if she wanted to know if he was still in there. He nudged her hand on the blanket beside him with his nose in answer to her call, as if encouraging her to pet him. She tentatively touched his fur, marvelling at how soft it felt.

A wolf was in front of her. Atlas as a wolf was in front of her. He hadn't been lying to her.

Her eyes welled up with tears again. She wasn't sure why she was crying but cry she did. He shuffled forward slowly, gently putting his head in her lap, wanting to offer her comfort. All the emotion of the conversation and the last few days coming out and against all judgement she hugged him, sobbing into his dark fur.

He laid there quietly, letting her get her emotions out, his tail lazily flopped once or twice on the mattress, assuring her that he wasn't a threat.

She didn't know how long she carried on for, at some point the tears stopped, and she just laid quietly against him, listening to his heart beat under his fur.

"T-Thank you." She mumbled with a stuttered post cry voice, not even sure he'd heard it.

He let out a soft whimper and nuzzled her closer, moving to wrap around her tighter, protective of her.

She held tightly to his fur and fell asleep even though it was midday and she had awoken not long ago. She was so weary from emotions and pretending her whole life and the soft body holding her was comforting. His heartbeat and breathing lulling her into sleep with the silent promise that she did not need to pretend anymore.