and the pair of us ambled out of the room with a leashed energy that told me we were both feeling the strain and neither of us wanted to show it.
When we made it outside, we let the change hit us, and the relief that came with being in our second skin was acute. It felt damn good to be back on four paws mostly, I knew, because I could scent her better in this form.
And she was a she-wolf.
And awake.
A whine escaped me at the realization, and Austin shot me a look that said he’d sensed that too.
The she-wolf who ought to be weak, considering she was a wolf child, was somehow not overcome with the desire for blood, nor was she dozing in the post-transformation coma that was an integral phase of the gift of shifting.
Weirder and weirder.
The pair of us took off at the same time, loping through the forests that we knew as well as our own faces in the mirror. The early morning scent made everything richer, more pungent. Dew slicked the ground, the brisk chill in the air spoke of the sun not yet having had the chance to warm things through, and the woods were starting to awaken to the day with our prey just beginning to emerge from their shelters.
We weren’t on the hunt, and they knew that. Knew, still, to avoid us.
No point in pissing off a predator.
Every now and then, Austin would ram into me. Not to be an ass—which he was—but just to connect. Our wolves were close, probably closer than the human forms, which I knew was odd. Especially since we lived together and, more than that, led most of our lives knocking up against each other. However, that was different.
As humans, we had so much to prove. In wolfskin? Things were simpler. We were who we were, and our wolves loved each other, regardless of the crap that gnawed at us about the other’s personality.
The tumbling and playing slowed down as we sensed the clearing where Eli had taken her.
It surprised me to note it was close to the council meeting grounds. The energy from the totem slalomed through the ground with the force of a pneumatic drill that made my paws vibrate, even though we weren’t that close. I heard Eli chuckle and the she-wolf keen…sounds that had my ears pricking high and sharing my surprise with Austin.
Very little surprised him, and his eyes were narrowed as he slouched forward, slinking quietly toward the clearing in an effort to get closer to the scene without disturbing things.
In my other form, I’d have rolled my eyes.
Eli had to know we were close, so Austin trying to pull one over on him was just amusing.
From between the stark, stripped trees, I saw Eli holding the she-wolf, who was shaking a little. But before I could absorb more of the scene, Eli’s head twisted toward Austin, and his face twisted too, but the expression morphed too quickly for me to recognize what was going on with him.
I saw exasperation and acceptance before I really knew what else I was seeing, so I stepped toward my alpha and the newest member of our pack with little to no shame.
Ambling forward so I didn’t frighten the she-wolf, I lowered my haunches and kept myself springy. Yeah, I knew that sounded weird, but I didn’t want her to think I was stalking her.
I was, sure, but she didn’t need to know that.
Her head tilted to face me, and Mother, it was rammed home once more just how beautiful she was. Not only was her fur glowing in the dim morning light like a precious metal, but her eyes? I hadn’t seen the gleam in the darkness, but now I did, and the power of them struck me in the gut.
She had bright blue eyes.
Bright. Fucking. Blue.
I’d never, not in my entire life, seen a wolf with eyes that color. Bland colors were for the humans who’d been transformed. Naturals got all the beauty…as well as the power. So with her coloring, everyone would know she was one powerful beast.
A keening sound escaped me at the sight of those eyes, and her ears twisted like she knew what I was saying.
Beautiful.
She dipped her chin coyly, and if I’d been a man, I’d have laughed at that.
“No need to laugh at my expense.”
I broke to a halt at that. My paws skidding in the leafy loam as the words filtered into my mind. It