I jumped around the back of the hut, but he wasn’t there.
Frowning, I closed my eyes. Callum’s scent was stronger than ever before. He was close.
Maybe part of the test was locating him before he jumped out at me. Whether that was a bonus element of my training or not, I had to get this right. My need to see Kit was becoming unignorable.
Closing my eyes again, I zeroed in on Callum’s scent. He couldn’t be more than a couple of steps away. Turning in a tight circle, my nose led me towards the hut. I raised my head, and the scent grew fainter.
Opening my eyes, I crouched down and parted the tall grass growing around the hut. A grinning Callum was tucked into a hole under the crumbling wall.
‘Well done.’ He climbed out of his hiding place, his face transformed from slightly murder-y to beaming sunshine by his smile. ‘You did much better than any of the others.’
I tried not to let my chest puff too obviously at Callum’s praise. He wasn’t stingy with his compliments, but only doled them out when I’d actually mastered something. At no point since I’d become a trainee wolf did he give me false hope that I was ready to head down to the village.
‘Does that mean I can leave the mountains now?’ I’d resisted asking before, too aware of how overwhelmed I was by my new abilities. But I wasn’t battered by distant sounds and scents anymore, didn’t crush cups or fall each time I jumped unnaturally high.
I was ready to go to the village. To go home. To Kit.
Callum regarded me for long seconds during which I refused to squirm in case it was another test, before he set off at a jog down the mountain. Despite his pace being way beyond what I could have managed for more than half a minute as a human, I easily fell into step beside him.
‘I think you’re ready,’ he said.
I had to resist leaping ten feet into the air and yelling. I wasn’t sure how conditional my release from the mountains was.I didn’t want it immediately revoked because I’d acted in a way no human could when giddy.
‘Cool. Cool cool cool.’ I’d packed my bag every morning for the past week. ‘Can I go as soon as we get back to the cabin?’
‘Sure.’ Callum squinted, which couldn’t be a sign that he was struggling to see something. His eyes were even more super-powered than mine. ‘There’s one last thing I need to discuss with you before you leave.’
‘Yeah?’ Hopefully whatever it was could be covered before we got to the cabin. Then I could say a tearful goodbye to Aster, grab my stuff, and be down with Kit before dinner. My mouth watered at the thought of devouring his lasagne. Callum was a good cook, but he leaned towards stews and soups unless Aster demanded hash browns. I craved pasta and mountains of cheese.
Callum’s beard twitched as he clenched his jaw. He didn’t look at me when he said, ‘You need to be careful when you have sex.’
My foot caught on a jutting tree root. Before I could throw my arms out, the ground slammed into my chest.
‘Ow.’
Callum’s hand landed on my shoulder. ‘Lucas? Are you alright?’
‘I’m fine.’ I quickly picked myself up and dusted the worst of the grass from my front. ‘Please don’t take away my pass to leave the mountains.’
Callum half rolled his eyes before setting off at a more sedate jog. ‘You can leave soon.’
Right. After the birds and the bees talk: werewolf edition.
‘We can’t contract or pass on sexually transmitted diseases but when you orgasm, there’s a chance your claws will appear. Your fangs might pop and your eyes glow.’
‘I, um.’ I cringed and kept my gaze on the grass both so I didn’t have to look at Callum and so that I wouldn’t fall over again. ‘I already knew all that.’
Aster’s detailed recounting of his and Callum’s sexy times should have prepared me for this final aspect of my wolf tutoring.
Callum’s cheeks above his thick beard reddened. ‘Of course you do.’
‘It’s not going to be a problem,’ I reassured him. ‘I don’t plan on having sex any time soon.’
I didn’t know if that was a sad statement for a twenty-three-year-old to make, but it was true. My heart didn’t miss a beat. My aims on leaving the mountains were to get to Kit as soon as possible and not let him go until an animal crisis called me away. I didn’t have anyone I was planning on humping, since it wasn’t like turning into a wolf would make sex any more enjoyable. My inability to fancy anyone wasn’t something a werewolf bite could fix.
Callum nodded. ‘Just be aware that we’re generally very fertile, so always use a condom when having sex with a woman. You might have new urges to bite and sniff your partners.’
I forcibly did not think of the love bites Aster had shown me this morning on his inner thighs. I’d tried to focus on his dancing cookie boxers rather than the imprints of teeth on his freckled skin.
