Free Awakening the Wolf by Crymsyn Hart

once a day. Most of the time Illiana was not there and Lelana promised she would return. Other times when Illiana was at home, she would not see him. But those instances were few and far between. His father told him to give up. Of course that was what he wanted. He did not understand that Belik was not going to abandon his hope of having Illiana for a mate. Every time he thought of her and saw her, it stirred his desire and nothing else mattered. Every thought he had was focused on how to win her. She was the kind of woman for whom material things did no justice. She needed something else, a show of devotion that would make her realize he was the only one for her. When he reached that understanding, he realized that he really did not know Illiana that well. After trying to ask her mother about her, he came up empty-handed. Lelana had told him if he wanted to get to court Illiana, then he had to ask her things directly. She had more important things than becoming a go-between.
    So after a month of getting nowhere, Belik decided he had to approach Illiana another way. One night while he was on his way to try again, he saw her slip away from the aerie. At first he did not think about following her, figured that she was going out to fly, but she did not disrobe. Instead, she walked the whole way, moving between branches and bridges that connected the village. Then she was gone. The next night she did the same thing. On the third night he wondered if she was going off to meet her wolf friend. Maybe they were having a tryst and she did not want anyone else to know about it. Of course if anyone did find out about it, then Illiana could be exiled from the flock entirely. He had only ever heard of that happening once before, and it was hushed about within the flock. Belik had shivered to think about it. However, he decided it was time for him to follow her. If there was any impropriety, he decided he was going to watch out for her. Belik had slipped off his clothes and was flying over the trees. He followed her to their sacred grounds and saw her meeting with her aunt.
    After three months’ worth of watching her during the night, he was becoming a little sleep-deprived. It did not matter. Once he discovered her routine was learning with her aunt, he figured she was training for the priesthood. That did not change his feelings about her. It only intensified them. Priestesses were allowed to mate if they wanted, but some of them did stay solitary. Belik never truly understood the faith the ravens believed in, but he knew there was something more. He prayed that Illiana would wish to share her life with him.
    After all the observing he had done and what he could hear, he learned she was trying to take control of something else inside of her. Another element that she had access to, but during all the times she had tried, she could not get the hang of it. Tonight was different. The bonfire she had built rose higher and higher the more she stared at it. Sparks floated along the breeze, and the scent of cedar reached him in the trees. Belik watched her step into the flames. A caw escaped his beak that he could not stop. The terror that possessed him almost forced him to drive into the clearing below and interrupt the ritual. Coret screamed at Illiana to get out of the fire. But a miracle happened. The flames surrounded her until she was completely covered. For what seemed like an eternity, his heart threatened to escape his chest. The fire turned white instead of orange, with the tops burning blue. When he thought Illiana might be burned alive, the bonfire died down. Illiana stumbled out of the fire, and her aunt caught her. Seeing her come out of the flames set his heart to a normal pace. However, it only made her more mysterious. It also opened his heart so that he was not going to give up on her. The fire had bathed her. He knew that someone or something had accepted her. It also cinched something in his mind. He was not going to wait any