Chapter 11. Captured for the wrong reason

WILLA’S POV

The red wolf prowled in the packhouse garden below, its fur gleaming like fire in the sunset’s dying light.

My throat felt parched.

That wolf—it was the same one that had saved me from the female hunter. There was no mistaking it. The dire wolf.

A noise behind me shattered my thoughts, and when I looked back, the wolf was gone, nothing but the rustling leaves left in its wake. It must have vaulted over the fence. Maybe.

“Is something wrong?" the old librarian asked.

"N-no," I stammered, quickly kneeling to gather the fallen books. Could it really be the same wolf? Had it followed me here somehow?

Once I had the books back in order, I picked one at random and moved toward a quiet corner, a little nook tucked away from the main aisles. It wasn’t much, but it offered a semblance of privacy—a place where I could focus.

The first few books yielded nothing about the curse I sought. By the time I reached the fourth, night had fallen and the old man had lo