Elara's POV
Two years later
The coffee mug shattered against the floor.
"I'm so sorry!" I grabbed a towel, scrambling to clean up the mess before my boss noticed. My hands shook—they always did when I got too tired.
"Elara." Mr. Peterson sighed from behind the bookshop counter. "That's the third mug this week."
"I know. I'll pay for it." I didn't mention that paying for broken mugs meant skipping dinner again.
He studied me with concern. "You look exhausted. When's the last time you slept properly?"
I couldn't remember. Between my day job here and my night shifts at the diner two blocks away, sleep was a luxury I couldn't afford.
"I'm fine," I lied, forcing a smile.
The bookshop bell chimed. A customer entered, and I escaped to the back room before Mr. Peterson could argue.
I leaned against the wall, closing my eyes. Two years. Two years since that horrible night. Two years of hiding in the human world, working myself to the bone, barely surviving.
But at least I was alive.
The back door creaked open. I didn't need to look to know who it was.
"You forgot your lunch again." A deep voice—male, human, achingly familiar even though it shouldn't be.
I opened my eyes.
Ash stood in the doorway, holding a paper bag. But he wasn't my shadow-wolf anymore. He was a man. Tall, dark-haired, with eyes that still flashed wolf-gold when he was upset. Devastating and impossible and wrong in ways I couldn't explain.
"You didn't have to bring it," I said quietly.
"You would've starved." He moved closer, and I hated how my heart jumped. "Again."
Six months. That's how long Ash had been human. Since that night with the demons, when he'd transformed to save my life. We never talked about it. Never discussed how a familiar becoming human was supposed to be impossible.
We just... existed in this weird, tense space between what we were and what we couldn't be.
"Thanks." I took the bag, careful not to let our fingers touch. Every accidental contact sent electricity through me that felt dangerous.
Ash's jaw tightened like he knew what I was doing. "Elara—"
"I should get back to work." I moved toward the door, but he blocked my path.
"You can't keep doing this. Two jobs, no sleep, no—"
"What choice do I have?" The words came out sharper than intended. "I have no magic, no family, no money. This is survival, Ash."
"Let me get a job too. Help with—"
"No." I'd told him this a hundred times. "You barely understand how to be human. You can't just walk into a workplace and—"
"I'm not useless," he said quietly, and something in his voice made my chest ache.
"I didn't say that."
"You think it." His golden eyes met mine. "You won't let me help. You barely let me touch you anymore. You act like I'm some stranger instead of—"
"Instead of what?" I challenged. "Instead of my familiar? Because that's what you are, Ash. Not a man. Not really."
The hurt on his face was immediate and devastating.
I regretted the words instantly. "I didn't mean—"
The shop bell chimed again. Multiple footsteps. Heavy ones.
Ash's entire body went rigid. "Get behind me."
"What—"
He pushed me back, positioning himself between me and the door. His eyes flashed wolf-gold, and shadows started pooling around his feet.
The door burst open.
Three men in expensive suits filled the doorway. But I recognized the supernatural grace in their movements, the predatory way they scanned the room.
Magical enforcers.
My blood turned to ice.
"Elara Thornwood?" the lead enforcer asked, though he clearly knew who I was.
"That's not my name anymore," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "I was exiled. I'm not part of the magical world."
"And yet here you are with a transformed familiar." His eyes fixed on Ash with disgust. "Do you know what the penalty is for such an abomination?"
Ash growled—actually growled like the wolf he used to be.
"He saved my life," I said quickly. "We didn't break any laws on purpose—"
"Intent doesn't matter." The enforcer pulled out a crystal that glowed with binding magic. "The familiar must be executed. You'll be questioned about how this happened."
"No." The word came out flat and final. "You're not touching him."
The enforcer laughed. "You have no magic, girl. You can't stop us."
He was right. I was powerless. Helpless.
But then Ash stepped forward, and something changed in the air.
"If you want her," he said, his voice dropping into something dark and dangerous, "you go through me first."
The shadows around him exploded outward. But they weren't normal shadows anymore. They had teeth. Claws. They moved like living things.
The enforcers stumbled back, shocked.
"Impossible," one breathed. "Familiars can't channel magic without their witch—"
Ash moved faster than any human could. He grabbed the lead enforcer by the throat and lifted him off the ground with one hand.
"I am not," Ash said softly, "just a familiar."
He threw the enforcer through the doorway. The other two attacked, but Ash was already moving—graceful, deadly, more wolf than man despite his human shape.
The fight lasted seconds. Three trained magical enforcers, defeated by someone who'd been human for only six months.
When it was over, Ash turned to me. His chest heaved with breath. His eyes blazed gold. Shadows still swirled around him like wings.
"We need to run," he said. "Now."
"Ash, what are you?" I whispered. "That power—you shouldn't be able to—"
"I don't know." For the first time since his transformation, he looked scared. "I don't know what I am anymore. But I know they'll send more. And next time, I might not be strong enough."
The defeated enforcers were already stirring. One reached for his communication crystal.
Ash grabbed my hand—no hesitation this time—and pulled me toward the back exit.
"Wait!" I yanked free, running to grab my bag from behind the counter. The only photo I had of my mother was in there. I couldn't leave it.
"Elara!" Ash's shout was desperate.
I grabbed the bag and spun around—
—and ran straight into someone who definitely hadn't been there a second ago.
A woman. Beautiful, ageless, with silver hair and eyes that held galaxies.
"Hello, little witch," she said, smiling. "I've been waiting for you."
She touched my forehead with one finger.
And suddenly, I wasn't in the bookshop anymore.
I was standing in a forest I'd never seen. Ancient trees reached toward a star-filled sky. Magic hummed in the air—real magic, wild magic, the kind that existed before the Council's rules.
"What—" I spun around, but the woman was gone. The bookshop was gone. Ash was gone.
Then I heard his voice, distant and terrified: "ELARA!"
And I realized something that made my blood run cold.
This wasn't a vision.
This was real.
Someone had just teleported me away from Ash.
And based on the absolute panic in his voice echoing through our bond—
They'd left him behind on purpose.