Changed Ch. 10

It took close to two days to finally get out into the jungle, the entire time, Karen only answering crucial questions, and even then only with yes and no. Theo didn't mind though, at least he was around her. Her scent, and seeing her was enough to help ease his burden. Perhaps Brett was right because even though she acted aloof and cool towards him, there were times he caught her looking at him in a way that made hope flare in his heart.

*We'll get her back* he thought to his wolf, who whimpered at him pathetically. Theo didn't care though, at least his wolf had come out of hiding, lying curled in a tight ball in the back of his brain.

Karen sighed as she watched the helicopter fly off, dread and some other emotion settling in her stomach as she realized that she was alone in the jungle with Theo. Taking a steadying breath, she turned to face him, hoisting her pack onto her back.

"Are you ready to start?" she asked emotionlessly.

Theo nodded, settling his pack on his shoulders "You set the pace and lead the way, I'll follow."

Karen let out a soft scoff and rolled her eyes. Instead of saying anything, she pulled out the GPS, turning in a slow circle to get the direction they were supposed to go. Once she was pointed in the right direction, excitement filled her chest.

"Off we go then." she said as she made her way into the dense underbrush of the amazon jungle.

The first few days Karen led them in a punishing pace from dawn til dusk they made steady progress through the amazon. Each night, they took turns preparing the food, dehydrated packets of mystery food. At the end of the 5th day, they came upon a small clearing, where a tree had fallen. Though it wasn't quite dusk, Karen set her pack down and turned to Theo.

"Good spot for camp tonight?" she asked

He gave her a small smile and nodded. Karen went to set up her tent, sneaking glances at her silent companion. She had never been on a trip with someone else before. There was a part of her that wished that they talked when they broke for camp, or while they were walking. It was even more lonely having someone with her and not talking, than being alone.

*You can change that ya know* her Spyrim half said peevishly

Karen rolled her eyes so hard it hurt. * I am aware of that, but I'm still really upset about what happened. He attacked me, my arm still hurts. Do you know how hard it is to keep it clean in the fucking jungle?*

*I'm just saying, maybe you should start talking to him. Would it hurt to make small talk? Besides, maybe if you start talking he'll explain why he did what he did. *

Karen made a disgusted sound and shook her head.

"You okay?" His soft voice startled her out of her head.

Despite herself, she blushed. "Yeah just... heh" she pointed to her head "Arguing with myself. Totally normal."

Theo gave her his crooked smile and nodded "I know how that is."

After camp was set up, Theo went to find dry firewood and Karen pulled out the beige vacuum sealed pack of food and groaned. She was quickly growing tired of eating the tasteless food. She then pulled out her first aid kit and began to change the dressing on her arm. Theo normally took a while to gather the wood, so she would change it while he wasn't there. She removed the white bandage and the gauze pad, letting out a sigh of relief as the wound was aired out. She pulled out the schedule that Becca had given her, letting her know when the stitches had to come out. To her surprise, it was actually today that they were to come out. As she was digging for some scissors, a pained gasp startled her. As she looked up, there was Theo, arms full of wood, standing a few paces away. His face held a pained expression, his eyes swimming between his honey brown and gold. He took a step forward, dropped the wood and then continued until he was right in front of her. He dropped to his knees, his eyes pleading.

"Karen," he said softly, his voice raw "I'm so sorry."

Her back stiffened, and she leaned back slightly, "Yeah well..." she trailed off going back to look for her scissors.

"I can heal you," his voice cracked slightly, as he looked down at his hands which were clasped in his lap

"What?" She asked startled.

"I...I... I can heal your arm," he stammered

Her eyes narrowed at him "How?"

He heaved a heavy sigh and swallowed, looking at her through his lashes "Wolves have a healing ability in their saliva." he flinched a little.

"Saliva?" she asked incredulously "you'd spit on me?"

He let out a shaky chuckle "Not exactly." he rubbed a hand on his neck and sighed again "I'd lick you."

She gave him a deadpan stare "Lick me?"

"Mmmhmm," he nodded sheepishly "I'd also have to be in wolf form."

"Ah," she said turning back to the first aid kit. "Yeah, that's not going to happen."

Theo just sat there looking at her, she dug furiously through the kit. She set it down with a growl and glared at him, her eyes glowing a slight blue.

"What?" she asked furiously, "You think you can just lick my arm and everything will be better? Everything will go back to normal? You fucking attacked me!" she jumped up to her feet, her tattoo glowing in the dim light.

"WHY DID YOU ATTACK ME?!" She screamed, tears suddenly flowing down her face.

Theo quickly stood up, holding his hands out to the side, his own eyes starting to prickle. "I let my wolf take over. Your words hurt me, and I took the easy way out, thinking it was better to hide and the let wolf run things for a little while. What I didn't realize, was that he was also hurt by what you said. Along with that, he took your words as a rejection. He didn't know how to handle the hurt and the fear of losing you. His mind is more primitive than ours. He lashed out at the thing that was hurting him."

She looked at him incredulously "Really?!" she shrieked "You're going to blame me for this? YOU HAD MY THROAT IN YOUR JAWS! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME!!"

Theo nodded, his eyes pleading "You're right. We both caused the fight. I was wrong to let my wolf take control." he gave her a soft smile "If you let me heal you then we'll be even."

Karen made a disgusted noise and looked at him like he was insane "How would we be even?"

He took a couple steps closer until he was within an arm's reach from her. His smile grew just a tad bit and slowly he tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear "I distinctly remember being pinned to the forest floor with a knife pointed to my heart."

Karen blushed a deep red but didn't pull away as he gently cupped her neck, secretly craving his touch.

"Please Karen," he begged "Let," he grinned slightly and gave a slight shake of his head, "Cuddles heal you."

"I don't know Theo." she said softly stepping away, "I don't know if I can face him."

"I will be right there with him, he has to be the one in control, but I will be there also. He wants to apologize too. Trust me. He feels awful. I haven't heard anything from him since the incident"

"Please," He begged again "Please Karen, let us heal you."

She took a shuddering breath, steeling her nerves.

"This won't make everything better," she said with a small quaver in her voice "I don't know if things will ever go back to how they were. Don't think that me letting you heal this will magically fix everything."

Theo nodded stepping back "He's going to submit to you, if you'd like to forgive him, not saying you have to, but if you'd like to, just, rub his chin and belly."

Karen nodded and looked at her boots as Theo stripped down. Karen looked up when she heard a soft whine. There in front of her was the massive wolf, laying on his stomach, his pale gold eyes sad. He whined again, and slowly crawled forward. Karen's heart was racing as he slowly approached, but his eyes were so sad, and it was so pathetic to see such a massive predator inching towards her. The third whine broke through some of her defenses. She sighed and relaxed slightly. Theo's words ringing in her ear. When she took her anger away and thought logically, what the wolf did to her was no different than a hurt domestic dog biting someone who tried to help. It still made her mad, and the fight that had lead to the attack, still set her blood boiling, but she found she couldn't be mad at the wolf in front of her. She reached back into the kit, finally finding her scissors. She gently snipped the stitches and pulled them out.

"Okay," she said softly, holding out her arm

The wolf thumped his tail once or twice and got up, walking towards her. Karen shied away slightly when his cold nose brushed her arm. He whined and looked at her pathetically, and she smiled.

"Your nose was cold. I'm okay."

The wolf chuffed at her, before gently laving her injury. At first nothing happened, but then, with each swipe of his tongue, the laceration slowly shrunk until all that was left, was smooth, pink skin.

"Wow," Karen whispered as she looked at her newly healed arm.

The wolf let out a soft whine again and laid down, rolling to his back, his tail wagging slowly. Karen smiled and knelt down, gently rubbing his chin and tummy.

"I forgive you Cuddles, just not your other half." she said softly, letting out a chuckle as his tail picked up speed, thudding against the ground.

Cuddles rolled over and began licking her face, his happiness clearly showing. Karen laughed for the first time in days and scratched him behind his ears.

"Who's a big softy?" she asked in a cooing voice

Cuddles barked and snuggled his large head onto her shoulder, his whole body wagging with his tail. She loved on him for a while until her stomach growled loudly. Cuddles jumped back and into a play position.

"Yeah," she said gloomily " It's dinner time. More... " she sighed and held up the packets "Shit"

Cuddles barked and ran around the campsite a few times. He stopped in front of her and licked her face again, before taking off into the woods. Karen laughed softly and started the fire. It was at least an hour before Karen heard the underbrush rustling.

"Cuddles?" she asked, slightly nervous. The massive gray wolf bounced into the clearing with happy yips before disappearing back into the underbrush. A few more minutes of rustling in the brush and Cuddles came back, hauling the large carcass of, what appeared to be, a large pig-like creature. Karen burst into laughter as Cuddles bounced around like a puppy.

"Were you tired of those nasty meals too?" she cooed.

She turned to get her knife out of her tent, letting out a squeak when she turned around and Theo was standing behind her, his jeans slung low on his hips. She swallowed, refusing to let the beautiful picture in front of her affect her. He gave her that crooked smile she secretly loved.

"He got a little carried away," he said sheepishly, running and hand through his hair.

Karen gave him a small smile "That's okay, I was really getting tired of the food. Fresh meat is a welcome change. Plus, if we start it now, we could probably smoke some of it to carry with us."

She moved past him towards the animal.

"Karen," he said as he followed her "Stop, you don't have to clean it. I can do that"

She looked up at him with cold eyes, "Why?" she snarled "Don't think I can do it?"

He gave her a soft smile. "Of course you can do it," he knelt down across from her "You just haven't had much use of your arm, and I would hate to see you tire it out trying to hack into a pig. That's all."

Karen narrowed her eyes at him, then looked down at her healed arm. She sighed in frustration before handing him the knife. "Fine," she said getting up and grabbing her machete. "I'll go get saplings for the drying frame."

Theo just gave her a smile and nod. His heart feeling lighter than it had in forever. His wolf was back to normal, instead of sulking in the back of his mind.

Later that night they sat by the fire, bellies full, and the remaining meat smoking in a makeshift smokehouse. Karen was cleaning her knife when Theo cleared his throat.

"What?" she said without looking up.

"Thank you for forgiving," he paused "Cuddles."

Her lip twitched up at the corner "I can kind of understand why he did what he did. An injured dog will snap at whoever, even if they are trying to help. I guess that was kind of what happened with him." she shrugged "Besides, even though he's massive, he's adorable."

"And I'm not?" Theo said in a teasing voice.

Karen gave him a look "No, you're still pretty cute, but you don't have an excuse like he did. Or if you do, it's not going to be as good as his, so I'm still pissed at you."

Theo nodded, his crooked grin turning her insides to jelly, "I can understand that. But..." he trailed off as she raised an eyebrow "Do you think we can at least talk to each other. I've never been so lonely out in the woods before."

Karen sighed and put her clean knife down, resting her arms on her drawn up knees. "I guess we could do that," she said with a shrug.

Theo just smiled at her.

After they had tucked in for the night, Karen was sound asleep in seconds. She almost didn't wake up when a soft whine come from outside her tent. Groaning she rolled over and checked her watch:3:27 am. The whine sounded again, and her tent flap was pawed.

"Cuddles?" she asked groggily and she moved to unzip the flap. She met the giant wolf face to face. His ears were pinned against his head and he whined again.

"Whasamatter?" she asked rubbing her eyes.

He simply whined again and pushed against her, crawling into her small tent. Karen groaned and moved over slightly, letting the massive beast inside. "You're pushing your luck pup" she grumbled laying back down as he curled himself around her. His tail gently thumping her legs telling her he knew he was and didn't care.

******

Karen stretched as her watch beeped at her and snuggled back into the warm body wrapped around her.

"Theo" she whispered softly with a contented sigh. She ran her hand up his smooth chest, missing how his skin felt against her. Skin? Her eyes snapped open and she met his warm honey browns.

"WHAT THE HELL?!?!" She shrieked backing as far away from his naked body as the tiny tent allowed.

He gave her a sheepish smile, his heart still racing from hearing his name unconsciously on her lips.

"Calm down," he said groggily, his rough voice sliding over her skin. "There was a big cat prowling around camp last night. 'Cuddles' refused to not be by your side to protect you. Plus, he knew that you would welcome him a lot quicker than you'd welcome me. He took over, and must have convinced you to let him in. Once he felt you were safe, he calmed down. When we go into deep sleep, we revert to human form. I'm sorry."

"He didn't convince me," Karen said sullenly

Theo looked over at her, bits of his old self poking through, "According to him, you didn't put up much fight either," he said before yawning. He looked so much more rested than he had in a while. Karen narrowed her eyes.

"Not that I care," she said stiffly "But when was the last time you got sleep?"

Theo looked over at her with raw eyes before turning away with a shrug. "Does it really matter?" He asked quietly as he crawled out of the tent. She followed him with a huff.

"Yes. It does."

He turned towards her, his shoulders slightly slumped. "Do you want to know the last time I got a full night sleep or when I last got any sleep?"

"Both." she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

He gave her a wolfish grin and her insides fluttered a little. " I haven't had a full night's sleep since I walked into your little glass shop," his grin faded to nothing "The night of your last trial was the last time I got any kind of restful sleep"

"Oh," Karen said softly looking away "You should have talked to Becca, she could have given you something." she shrugged "That's what I had to do."

Theo looked at her with pain filled eyes. "I'm so sorry for what happened Karen," he turned and started pulling on clothes "Besides, pills don't work on wolves, drugs, alcohol, medication, none of it works, we metabolize it too fast for it to be effective."

Karen just nodded and packed up camp. Luckily the meat wasn't touched by the big cat, so they ate a breakfast of jerky and started the hike for the day.

As they hiked, they made small talk, but it was mostly empty, making both parties feeling even worse. A little after midday, they broke through the brush onto what appeared to be a paved road.

"Whoa," Theo said as he looked left and right down the length of the road "This is unusual."

He looked at Karen, who was standing stock still.

"Karen?" he asked walking up behind her. "Are you okay?" His voice trailed off as she turned to face him. Her eyes and tattoo glowing a brilliant blue. He could feel her power rolling off of her as he stood close to her.

"Karen," he asked softly, his hands cupping her face. Inside he was mystified at the amount of power that was radiating off her. It was unlike anything he'd ever felt.

"We're close," her voice crawled against his skin, making his hair stand up on end. He moved his hands down her arm to close around her hands as she stared unblinkingly.

"Lead the way, Sweetest," he said softly, as she turned right and started down the road at a jog. Theo held on tight to her hand, afraid that in this state she wouldn't notice any danger. They jogged for a while, and Theo was again impressed with her, this time with her stamina. As they jogged, low walls started to appear on the sides of the road and Karen increase the pace until she was running full out. They ran like that for an eternity, the walls morphing into ruined buildings. She continued to run, taking different side streets as they appeared. Suddenly, she stopped dead in front of a massive ruin. Theo looked around, his senses trying to tell him something, but he was too focused on Karen to notice. She stood there, not even breathing hard, not a drop of sweat on her.

"Are you okay?" He asked again, framing her face with his hands, his own breathing heavy from the exertion.

Slowly the glow dimmed until her eyes were her natural hazel. She took a shuddering breath, as everything came crashing down around her. She leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his waist as she started to shake. He held her tight, whispering nothings in her ear. Finally, after a good 10 minutes she calmed down and moved back enough to look at him, but not break out of his arms. She looked up at him, all of her emotions flowing across her face.

"I'm scared." she whispered.

He kept one arm around her and moved the other to cup her cheek. "I'm sure you are," he smiled, his heart racing at just having contact with her again "But I'm here. Everything will be okay."

She nodded and he placed a soft kiss on the top of her head. He released her, but took one of her hands in his, his heart clenching when her fingers closed around his. Together they explored the massive building. Room after room held an untold number of empty shelves. The only thing sitting on anything was years and years of dust and debris. They searched for hours with nothing to show.

Frustration began to build in Karen, her tattoo pulsing with each heartbeat.

"This is useless!" She cried, letting her frustration flow through her arm before punching the wall.

"Karen!" Theo admonished, grabbing her hand, looking for breaks, but she wasn't listening. Instead she stared at the wall, as soft blue lines began to swirl out from her point of impact.

"Theo, look!" she whispered.

He looked on in awe as the markings, the same that were on her body, slowly spread upwards. As they looked up, following them, they could see a ledge and some more shelves.

"There's another floor!" she exclaimed as she began to scour the walls for a path up. She found one, and quickly stripped off her heavy hiking boots.