Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles) - By Nancy Holder Page 0,96
with their heads close together.
Mr. Fenner raised his head and lifted a finger in the air. “Get ready,” he told her. Then he tossed off the bathrobe, revealing a pair of boxers and a cheap white T-shirt.
He meant for her to undress, too. She’d put on loose shorts and a T-shirt beneath her clothes, and she looked around for a good place to stash her stuff so she’d be able to find them again in the morning.
Hopefully before anyone else wakes up.
Her skin was beginning to tingle. They had cut it close. The change was coming.
In the next instant, Katelyn found herself surrounded by several half-dressed young men, including Steve Berglund. They ringed her, walking slowly around her, acting as though they were sniffing the air. Her chest tightened. What was happening? Was Mr. Fenner going to choose a mate for her tonight? She opened her mouth to scream a protest and it came out as a howl.
She could feel the moon pulling on her, calling to her. Fire traced its way through her veins and she could hear her bones cracking. Her clothes ripped at the seams as her body changed.
She glanced up and saw everyone changing around her, and fresh horror flooded her.
I’m lost.
18
Running
Bounding
Yipping and howling
with the pack
with the group
with the family
One among many
The pack is mighty!
Who do you run with?
Wolf girl, wolf boy
Dashing, soaring, flying
unfettered, free, released, unleashed
freedom in unity
the hills, the woods, the deer, the deer, the deer
the blood
the waterfall
the heart of rock
the waterfall
The males were loping around her, singling her out, and the wolf that was Katelyn rejoiced in her attractiveness while she snapped her jaws at them. But it was the waterfall that caught her attention, that and the rock; there was something about them that was important. Did predators lurk there?
A danger.
A monster.
A promise.
An answer.
Then the wolf that was Katelyn lost her name, as she was lost in a river of fur. In the pack. And all thoughts vanished in the hot, steaming blood.
Katelyn awoke and felt the frosty dirt beneath her cheek. She sat up swiftly. My clothes. Where did I leave my clothes?
But she and Doug had only just made it to the meeting site before everyone started to change. She’d still been wearing all her clothes, which meant they were ruined, the shredded remains scattered who-knew-where.
Mortified, she rolled over onto her stomach. Drowsing scatters of naked people surrounded her. Jesse lay sprawled unashamedly on his back with his arm over his eyes. Farther on, Mr. Fenner was lying with his back to her, a clump of forest tangle shielding his backside from view. Past Mr. Fenner, Steve Berglund lay beside an older woman Katelyn knew she had met, but she couldn’t remember her name.
She saw blood in the grass and tasted some in her mouth. The air smelled of a deer they had taken down. She remembered washing Mike’s blood off. She’d be taking another shower before she saw her grandfather.
Behind a tree, someone was shushing someone else and giggling. Katelyn scooted behind the next one over, trying to cover herself.
What was she going to do? She had no idea how to get back to the Fenners’ house, where she had a change of clothes in her overnight bag. Then she heard a soft step behind her and crossed her arms over her chest, hunching forward, before twisting to look over her shoulder.
Hannah, the young woman she had seen in Babette’s, held out a T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. She herself was dressed in a jog bra and bike shorts.
“Thank you,” Katelyn said, gratefully taking the clothes.
“You’re welcome,” the other girl murmured, eyeing Katelyn — the new girl at school, the new girl in the pack.
“I’ll give these back as soon as I can,” Katelyn said as she yanked on the T-shirt and then pulled on the sweats as fast as she could.
“Don’t worry about it. I once got caught too close to the change. I know how it feels,” she said, wrinkling her nose. Then she bent down to offer her cheek to Katelyn. It still didn’t feel natural to kiss total strangers on the cheek, but Katelyn did it, remembering to offer her cheek to Hannah in return. Hannah brushed Katelyn’s cheek gently.
Before she could say anything else one of the women called out, “Hannah!”
“Gotta go,” Hannah said, disappearing into the underbrush.
Katelyn stood up, stepping from behind the tree. Most of the two dozen or so others were awake now, chatting as they dressed.