The foolishness of what Violet had done finally hit her when she was in the shower. Anton had ordered her to stay away from Benjamin, and Anton didn’t respond well to his orders being ignored.

She just wasn’t thinking clearly and had to see him. Even from a distance. She had to know that her little Benji was still alive and that he was in good hands.

It had been a mistake to go. He would know. She had no idea how, but he would know.

Anton was good at sniffing out lies. Violet suspected that the vicious animal hiding within him allowed him to smell other scents on her, even just a soft touch, even after a long shower.

She sunk down to the warm tiles as the hot water washed over her head. There was a shakiness in her exhausted limbs as she covered her face and tried not to focus on what Anton would do when he got home. She tried not to think about the pain she would be in tonight.

She pushed the evil tiger shifter out of her mind and tried to think about something else. Something happy. There weren’t a lot of happy thoughts swirling in her weary head, but one managed to pop up.

The memory was so clear. Even now she could feel the beautiful warmth that had filled her up when that man’s amber eyes turned black. It felt like his soul had penetrated her body, merging with her own in the most pleasing way. She had been overcome with a feeling of safety and security by his side. It had been so long since she had felt even a hint of those feelings that she hadn’t even recognized it until she was in the car driving away.

I should have stayed with him. He would have protected me.

She didn’t even know his name, didn’t know what he was like, but she knew that it was true. She could feel it, sense it. She was safe with him.

But she wasn’t with him. She was here by herself.

And soon, Anton would be home.

Go to him.

The dangerous thought just sprang up in Violet’s head. It was a thought that could get her killed.

Violet’s life hadn’t always been like this. She was happy once.

Her childhood was a nice one, full of happy memories with two loving parents. She got along with her two sisters and they had a nice house among the vineyards in California. Her mother was a school teacher and her father was a floor manager in a factory. They went to the beach on the weekends or hiked along the beautiful trails in the countryside. Her father told the best stories and always had his family in giggles as he recounted the tails of when he courted their mother. Some were true, most weren’t. Violet liked to believe her father that he had slain a dozen dragons and stormed a hundred castles to save her mother, but she knew that his imagination was sharper than his skills with a sword ever were.

After high school, Violet traveled around the country with one of her sisters in an old beat up Westfalia van that they had bought for a few hundred bucks. They had a blast touring the country and experiencing all kinds of adventures. It was on one of those adventures when she met Anton in Miami.

He was so good looking and smooth and immediately had Violet wrapped around his finger. His voice was so soft and sensual in the way he purred like a cat. He had expensive clothes and a shiny sports car, and Violet was so stunned and thrilled that a man like him would even look at her, let alone fancy her. She gave him her virginity in the back of the van, and the next morning the two girls were off again to explore the southern states.

She had been with other men since then, but a girl’s first always lingers in the back of their minds a little longer than the others. So when he called out of the blue two years later and asked her to meet him in Montana, she had agreed.

It was a good time for another adventure. She was in between jobs and at twenty-two years old, she was itching to get out of her parents’ house and get to know the man who had lingered in the back of her thoughts for the past two years.

She packed up her old blue car and drove out to meet him, expecting to arrive at a huge mansion in the mountains. She had concocted a whole Cinderella story in her head about how he would be madly in love with her, and shower her with praise and expensive gifts. They would get married and be happily in love for the rest of their lives.

She couldn’t have been more wrong.

The first red flag dropped when she pulled up to the address he had given her. It wasn’t a mansion, but a rickety cabin in the middle of nowhere. The closest town was an hour away, and the second closest, a small town called Colwood, was an hour and a half away.

Maybe it’s nice inside, she thought to herself as she got out of the car, but her heart was pumping and she was nervous and unsure. Not a day passed since then, that she didn’t wish she turned around and drove home.

But by then it was too late. Anton came out of the woods, looking disheveled with a wild look in his eyes. He took her keys and made them disappear. After that she was stuck.

The first few weeks were terrifying. She felt like a prisoner. She was a prisoner.

Anton wasn’t the smooth, charismatic ladies man who she had met in Miami. He was losing his mind and dragging Violet down with him.

It was so confusing back then, but when she saw him phase into a tiger for the first time, it all made sense. The animal within him was taking over, eating away at his humanity.

She was always walking on eggshells around him, always terrified to set him off. He had a vicious temper and got violent whenever she did anything to displease him.

At night, she would close her eyes as he ravaged her body. It was easier to go to another place, back to the beach with her family, while he had his way with her.

Anton would spend most days hunting in his tiger form as she went crazy in the cabin, desperately looking for her car key. It was only after Benjamin was born that she had found it under the front porch. Benji had dropped a toy between the cracks and when she went down to retrieve it, she saw a hint of silver. That had only been a few weeks ago and today had been the first day she had the guts to use it.

Looking back, she wished she would have thrown Benjamin into the car the second she found it and driven as far away from Anton as she could get, but she had lived under his rule for so long and was terrified that he would find them. She didn’t want to know what he would do if she tried to start the car and it broke down a few feet away after being untouched for two years. She was afraid for her son. And for herself, if she was being honest. Anton wasn’t the type of man to disobey. He would make you pay in ways you couldn’t imagine.

Violet had been terrified when her stomach first started showing. She had hated the baby all throughout her pregnancy. The baby was part Anton and the thought of having a part of him growing inside of her made her sick. She had nightmares of giving birth to demons and prayed for a miscarriage.

But that moment when she had given birth on the rotting floor of the kitchen and saw his squished up little face looking back at her, it all changed. It was strange having a happy moment while in hell, but holding him in her arms had been the happiest moment of her life.

He was all she had. He was the light of her life.

But Anton was determined to make her life miserable so he made her give him away. Benjamin was only five months old the day he walked in and saw Violet and her son laughing at each other. He let out a low growl, sat down, and calmly said. “I don’t want him here anymore.”

“What?” she said with her stomach churning as her face paled.

“Tomorrow we’re getting rid of him.” She watched with horror as Anton got up and calmly walked outside.

She had spent the night throwing up and shaking on the floor as Benjamin slept soundly, not knowing what was in store for him.

It was better this way, she had told herself. He didn’t deserve to grow up with an evil man like Anton as a father, as a prison guard. He would be better off in the real world with a family who loved him. He would be better off spending the days hearing fun stories on the beach like she had or hiking with a loving adoptive family. Violet couldn’t provide any of that for him, and so she let him go. Like she had a choice in the matter…

With a heavy sigh, Violet turned off the shower and forced herself to get up. She dried off with the towel and put on her ratty clothes. Anton would be home from hunting soon, and he didn’t like it when she cried.

She was in the kitchen making dinner when his tiger came slinking in from the forest. She cringed as the horrible sound of his phasing hit her ears.

“WHAT THE FUCK!?!” he screamed from outside. Violet’s stomach hardened as he stomped into the house.

He knows…

“You used the car!” he shouted as he whipped the door open with his face flaming red.

It was now or never. She squeezed the handle of the butcher’s knife in her hand as he rushed forward with murder in his eyes.

She knew the car was working and finally had a means to escape. Benjamin was safe and she knew deep down that the man with the amber eyes would protect her if only she could get to him.

I’m not staying here another minute.

He rushed at her with his hands squeezed into fists and Violet let him have it. She sunk the knife deep into his stomach until the handle hit his skin and warm sticky blood poured out onto her hand.

His eyes widened as the cords in his neck tightened to the point of snapping. “You… fuck,” he grunted as she let go and backed away in horror.

Adrenaline pumped through her veins as the feeling of helplessness that was in her for so long finally melted away. He dropped to his knees and grunted in pain as he slid the knife out and let it fall to the floor with a clatter. There was blood everywhere and the sight of it had her frozen in place.

Move, Violet. Now!

The little voice inside jerked her out of her daze, and she took off in a sprint to the car. She grabbed the key from under the balcony and got into the car before his fast healing powers kicked in and he came after her.

She floored the car backward, nearly running off the road as she turned it around.

Her pulse was racing as she sped down the narrow dirt road. She glanced at the open door through her rearview mirror as her heart pounded in her chest.

There was a turn coming up and she took one last glance at the open door behind her, expecting to see a tiger pop out but there was nothing there.

With a breath of relief, she turned the corner and sped off to return to the firehouse.