Dena fled to her bathroom and hurled into the toilet. Her entire body ached and she recalled her actions while Taurian had said she was possessed were foggy like a dream she couldn't clearly understand or remember. She'd swiped at him with her scalpel, and guilt chewed on her insides.

Oh God, she'd tried to kill him. That was what the other Taurian wanted. She groaned, placing her hands on either side of her head. A headache pounding against her skull. She'd done whatever Taurian told her...why had he...wait, in her mind, the image of him shifted into the demon. And the coyote, it had known the demon wasn't Taurian and broke out of the cage to protect her because she’d helped it or had it just sensed danger?

Dena pushed off the bathroom floor and stumbled out of her room and down the hallway. In order to keep from falling, she trailed her hand along the wall. The floor spun beneath her as she picked her way to the exam room.

Her equipment cabinet was turned on its side with drawers and cabinets busted. Papers, medicine, and medical equipment were strewn across the floor. The veterinarian door lay torn halfway off.

The stench of blood and death assaulted her and she clapped a hand over her mouth. Her coyote lay broken and dead on her porch. Dena rushed forward, feeling for a pulse or breathing but the animal didn't move.

“Thank you for trying to save me.” She stroked its fur. “If you had stayed in your cage, you'd still be alive.” Her throat tightened. “And if it hadn't been for me keeping you here...then you'd be alive. I should've let you go as soon as I stitched up your leg.” That wasn't true. The coyote had needed rest to ensure that it didn't reopen its wounds. She'd planned to let the animal go in a few days, but now it was too late.

“Least I can do is give you a burial.” She shuffled to the toolshed her father built when she was a kid before his heart attack and took down the shovel. Pushing aside her throbbing headache, she brought out the wheelbarrow too.

After she picked up the coyote, she struggled with its weight to lay it in the wheelbarrow. She placed the shovel across the top, then wheeled everything into the woods. The night air cool against her skin. She could barely see. Damn, should've brought my flashlight.

Next to a Sycamore tree, she dug a hole. Her arms ached, but she pressed the shovel blade in deep and lifted out the dirt.

Once the hole was deep enough, she laid the coyote inside.

“I'm so sorry.” Tears falling freely down her face, her stomach clenching. “I wish there was some way to repay you for trying to help me.” Dena wanted to rip the demon or Tryn or whatever it was called. Because of that alien monster, this innocent coyote had died. And she wasn't human anymore. She felt it down deep inside her. A foreign presence that coiled around her soul. It simmered there, waiting to be released, waiting to manifest, waiting to turn her life completely inside out. Like Taurian had done.

She pushed aside her thoughts and scrubbed the back of her hand over her eyes. Her teeth clenched as she shifted the dirt over the coyote. Each time the shovel hit the pile of soil, she imagined it was the damn demon she was striking.

By the time she finished, her arms and back were screaming at her.

“Be at peace, little one,” she whispered to the grave. Her heart aching for the animal.

She should've sensed something was up when the coyote had barreled against the cage. When Taurian had been near it, the animal was calmed quickly despite the injury from the metal trap. She had even allowed Taurian to carry her to Dena's clinic room and soothed her while Dena gave her the anesthesia shot.

There was nothing Dena could do now. The coyote was dead because she didn't heed the animal's warning and didn't figure out what was going on with the demon fast enough.

And now Dena wasn't even herself...not human...the phrase kept beating on her mind. As much as she loved the idea of traveling the Galaxy, seeing Taurian's home, and discovering new species of animals, the idea of forced exile from Earth sat like a bowling ball in her gut.

Would becoming a dragon hurt? Part of her couldn't believe it. Sure, she'd seen Kohl change from a dragon into a human in the middle of the swamp near her home, but never thought she'd be one too. Her mind was spinning, yet she forced herself to pack the shovel into the wheelbarrow and head back to her house.

In the distance, three coyote puppies yipped nearby. Oh gosh, are they looking for their mom? “Here, little ones,” she sing-songed.

One spotted her and stopped.

“That’s it,” she dusted her hands off and knelt, “I won’t hurt you. Come on and I’ll get you something to eat.” At least they looked old enough to eat solid food. She’d die inside if they were still nursing and she’d just buried their mother.

The other two pups stilled and stared at her. Then they lowered their heads, backing away.

“No, wait, I won’t hurt you.” A snap of a twig behind her caused her heart to leap into her throat. She grabbed the shovel. Was the demon back? Would it kill her when it discovered she wasn't controllable anymore and hadn't murdered Taurian? She scanned the forest, but couldn’t see anything except the faint outline of trees. Her instincts screamed that someone was there…watching her.

“I have a weapon.” She tightened her grip on the shovel until her nails bit into her palms. Sweat trickled down her back as her gaze scanned the darkness for any movement. Why hadn't she brought her flashlight? Or her gun?

Darkness sped toward her and she smashed her shovel into the attacker. The brunt of impact hit something solid and sent a reverberation back up the wooden handle and into her arms. Even her teeth rattled.

She blinked as the figure stood there staring at her. Or at least she thought it was. She felt its gaze on her, and it had caught the shovel in its hand.

Demon! She pried her hands loose and whirled to run. Her thigh catching the edge of the wheelbarrow. Lancing pain sliced across her leg as she careened through the night to her house. If she could get inside, she could use her rifle.

Her breaths shortened and she panted as she raced along the path, heavy footsteps behind her. Whatever it was, it was gaining on her and fast. Fear strangled her, making her heart beat hard enough to explode out of her chest. She pumped her feet harder biting through the pain of her injured leg.

Her cabin was three yards away when strong arms yanked her back against hardness. She kicked and elbowed and screamed.

“Christ, Dena, will you fucking chill?” a male voice asked.

She choked back a sob. “Dave?” Her ex and pain-in-the-ass mistake.

“Of course it's me. Who else would come here in the middle of the night?”

Pushing away from him, she spun. “What the fuck are you doing out here? Stalking me?”

“I was in the area and I thought I'd check on you. A woman living this close to the swamp...alone...it’s dangerous.”

God, he had no idea. She crossed her arms. “I'm totally fine on my own. So you can leave and go back to banging...what was her name...oh, right, the homewrecker, Nichole.”

“She and I broke up.” He trailed a hand down Dena's shoulder, but she moved aside.

“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes. More likely, the two had had a spat, but he’d be back with her before the week was up, just like he’d done the last two times. No more. “Get off my property, I’m busy.”

“So I saw. You damn near took off my head with that swing. I feel sorry for the tree you smacked.”

Tree? God, she was beyond tired and didn’t want to deal with her ex right now…or ever. If Taurian were here, her ex would turn tail and run. She shook her head, no she was still pissed at Taurian. But her conscious nagged at her that he’d saved her life and she should be grateful, not resenting that she wasn’t human exactly or had to live on his planet every other month.

“What are you doing here, really?” She refused to go inside her house ’cause he’d just follow her inside. This way, he’d go once the mosquitoes got too bad. If he went into her home, she might never get him to leave.

“Come on, baby, let’s put the past behind us and get back together.” He slapped his leg.

“Not in this lifetime.” She lifted her chin. “I can never trust you again. Every word out of your mouth was a lie. We were freaking married, Dave, and you had girlfriends on the side. What the fuck? You’re lucky I didn’t blast a hole in you when I found out. Now get out of here before I change my mind.”

“Fine.” He stomped away from her, and she breathed out a breath.

When she turned to her house, a shadow drifted out of the darkness. “Dave?” Her body froze and she couldn’t move as the huge figure slinked closer.