" Because you still have that,” he said, pointing toward the wolf. “You kept it secret. You kept it safe.”

“It was important,” I muttered. “I had this cubbyhole in the back of my closet in the compound. I hid it away.”

“Like a hole in a tree.”

I closed my eyes. “Yeah. I guess.”

“And no one was able to take it from you.”

“No.”

“Good,” he said. “And I know you’re still you, Robbie. I know it with everything I have, because that’s not your wolf. It’s Kelly’s.”

I took in a stuttering breath.

He was in front of me then, and he bent over, trailing his nose along my hairline to my ear. “You took it with you wherever you went,” he whispered. “Because you loved it so and couldn’t bear to leave it behind. With you, it was safe. With you, he was safe. After he was taken from your mind, part of you still held on. Even if you can’t remember anything else, remember that. I asked you once why you carried it with you all the time. You said it was because you never thought you could have something so special, and you needed to remind yourself that it was real.”

He kissed my forehead and let me be, closing the door behind him.

I sat there for a long time, the wolf of stone in my hands. "

― T.J. Klune , Heartsong (Green Creek, #3)