The mention of Earth’s satellite had my skinstrumming.
When we reached the door, I bent to put on mysneakers.
He drew the front door open. “You won’t be needingshoes.”
Right. . .
“Stay close to me during the run,okay?”
I nodded. Outside, a steady stream of Rivers were exiting their respective cabins and making their way toward a field filled with long, swaying grass that tickled mycalves.
“My Rivers. May the Wolf Moon light up your paths tonight and for the rest of your lives. Be wild. Be free. Be merry,” Zack hollered, yanking off his T-shirt before tugging down hisjeans.
I averted my gaze as the sound of zippers and rustling fabric filled theair.
“Consider this training,” Liam said, chucking his shirt on theground.
“Training?”
“For the duel. You’ll have to strip in front ofeveryone.”
I bit the inside of mycheek.
He pulled down his jeans in one quick swoop. When I realized he wasn’t sporting anything underneath them, I looked down at my toes poking through the longgrass.
“I’d offer my assistance, but you’d probably bite my headoff.”
Ugh.I really didn’t want to get naked in front of Liam, or anyone else for thatmatter.
Sighing, I pulled off my tank top and then rolled my jeans down. Liam’s gaze struck my bare collarbone and the swell of my breasts. I turned so I had my back to him, and then I crouched, unclipped my bra and shimmied out of my underwear. Finally, I removed the leather strand speared through with my mother’s wedding band, which I always wore around my neck, and stuffed it inside the pocket of myjeans.
Screened off by the long grass, I let the change sweep throughme.
13
We ran long and hard,trampling miles and miles of moonlit grass, clay-rich soil, and fresh mountain streams. My tight muscles stretched and coiled as I raced parallel to Liam and Zack through the Rivers’domain.
It dawned on me that, for all my talk of leaving Boulder, I was unwilling to give up my ability to travel the earth as awolf.
Twigs cracked, and leaves drifted over me like fuzzy down. I halted and raised my head. Hanging mere feet above me was a black beast with gleaming eyes. At first I thought it was another wolf, but wolves didn’t climb trees. I eyed the creature, and it eyed me back. A blackbear.
Liam’s muzzle bumped into my haunch.He won’t come down. Too many wolves,he said through the mind-link.
Some Rivers had stopped beside me and were pawing the ground, alternatively snarling and yapping at the creature hanging for dear life on a branch that seemed too flimsy for its massiveweight.
One of the Rivers got on his hind paws and batted the branch with his front leg. The bear bobbed and then let out a blood-curling sound of his own. Emboldened, other wolves lurched up and punched the branch, howling at the bear that skittered backward toward thetrunk.
A sharp crack sounded over the pack’s garish attack, and then the smell of warm blood wafted through the air, tantalizing, intoxicating. Stiff, horizontal tails poked out of frenzied bodies. My own tail came up inanticipation.
Ness, move!Liamyelled.
Even though I wanted to leap onto the bowed branch and help bring our prey down, Liam’s order had me backing up. I whimpered, not understanding why he was making me step back from the kill. I tried to poke back toward the tree, but Liam growled, and my body sank lower to theground.
I’m hungry,Iyelped.
And you’ll eat, but let them do the kill. We’re on their land. That bear’s theirs tokill.
His explanation didn’t smother my hunger, but at least I understood why he was making me recede. I shot my gaze up to the creature that had reached the trunk. One of the wolves leaped and latched onto the bear’s back paw. The bear released a guttural yap and kicked at the wolf’s head, sending the ball of brown fur tumbling and rolling. Another brown wolf scampered toward the collapsed wolf, licking at a weeping gash on her packmate’shead.
