She stood on her tiptoes and kissed my nose. “Oh no. It is. You did your best to prepare me and that’s all I can ask. And of course, your promise you’re going to bear out if anything goes sideways.”
“That’s…”
She frowned at me. “If you say rational like I’m somehow irrational, I will tell all these wolves I have a bearskin rug for sale.”
“Courageous,” I finished, wanting to keep my skin on my back. Did I accidentally add something to that bath? I searched us with a whisper of magic and staggered to find a real rope of bond connecting us.
“Thank you. I won’t lie and say our second kiss didn’t sway me, but I decided if I’m getting through this whole thing, I’m going to fake it till I make it. So prepare yourself for ‘trying’ Evie.”
I didn’t know if I was prepared for that at all, even though I asked for it. It was only half a day’s walk at Evie’s new pace, so we reached the outskirts of Acerni in the hottest part of the day. I expected complaints of sweating and tired legs again, but Evie’s attention snagged on the rough log houses and dense vegetation that wove in and out of the buildings. The settlement looked more like a jumble of shelter growing out of a forest than a town in any conventional sense. The thick brush and leaves were perfect cover for a wolf pack. It also appeared deserted.
Evie held up her hands in question. “I thought we were going to have to quick-walk for our lives here.”
My bear heard nothing. Evie distracted me with her chatter. “Quick-walk?”
“I’m still not sure I could actually run in this pack,” Evie jangled it on her back with enough noise that I cringed. If they didn’t know we were here, they did now.
“Let’s not have to find out, mate.”
I took in a deep breath and confirmed there were wolves in the woods. I smelled them, or more accurately, smell their heat. It was the wrong time of year for any of the females to be in heat. They could be gone because mating rituals occupied them somewhere else in town. It didn’t matter. I would take the small grace that wolves weren’t boiling out of the forest towards us.
I looked down to find an appropriate amount of focus on Evie’s face. “Don’t leave my side. Keep your head down,” I said.
The dense foliage stood tall and broad enough to be primeval. Certainly large enough to hide a wolf shifter that rarely took any other form. Ferns as tall as my bear, trees as mighty as a dragon, gave their territory a hushed aura. Even the dust motes whispered here. Magic sat undisturbed in the air in a way that only untouched places accomplished. It was why the wolves slunk in the shadows and guarded this place so carefully. There weren’t many pockets of wild magic left in the Harrowlands. It was said that strengthened them, made them more vicious, and quick to anger. Most of the other Kings and Queens thought the untamed magic here turned them into feral dogs to be put down.
Winding through the town’s narrow paths took us down a few dead ends. They didn’t have streets so much as game trails that led from building to building. It would have been impossible for a human to navigate when everything looked the same, but my bear scented the crisp snow in the mountains beyond. The tree canopy was so dense we wouldn’t get any help from the sun, either. At least it was cooler in the shade. Moss muffled our steps as I helped Evie over the uneven ground.
As she stepped down from a large, fallen pine, Evie wrapped around me. I took her full weight and kept walking at a quick and steady pace. She was light enough. Whatever caused her concern was only solved by leaving. The faster we were out of town, the better. If we made it through the shifter haven with no displays of animal savagery, it would be a miracle.
“I saw something. In the shadows,” she whispered to me.
It surprised me that she wasn’t a snake. Perhaps she was getting more comfortable with this. “Head down,” I reminded her.
She buried her face in my shoulder. “I can’t get any closer to you.”
“Untrue.” I couldn’t resist flirting a little, and it brought color to her cheeks as she squeezed me tighter. Her orange and whiskey scent grew bolder, which meant it intensified for the wolves surrounding us, too. I heard them rustling through the undergrowth, the birds above chirping a warning.
Shift.My bear rumbled in my mind.
I don’t need to shift. I can protect her. It will only escalate things here,I replied to him.
His angry pacing told me he wasn’t convinced, but I had a lot of practice suppressing him. He normally couldn’t take over the shift. I reinforced his magical cage after the stunt with the flower.
You put her in undue danger without me,he said.
I ignored him. I could handle these wolves magically.
“Don’t run, Evie.” I hugged her closer to my side.
“I don’t think my legs would let me. We saw what happened with the pork.”
Shadows raced beside us, flashes of long canines glowed in the dark. Leaves rustled all around us until the wood echoed with it. It made pinning down an individual wolf impossible. The forest itself breathed down our neck.
Welcome, fellow shifters. We see you heed the Goddess’ call.A wolf—easily the size of my bear—stood in our path, lips pulled back into a near snarl. Its dinner plate-sized paws dug into the earth.
“Not this again,” Evie said under her breath.
“We’re only passing through,” I told him.
