Page 62 of Quest of the Wolf

Duncan brushed my shoulder and pointed his snout toward the woods. The cars with the wailing sirens were turning into the lot, lights flashing. Yes, leaving would be best. This was too much for a wolf’s senses, and I… I had an inkling that something significant had happened, that this woman had seen us change and knew what we were. Nothing good would come of that. Any moment, she might try to shoot us.

After giving me a significant look, Duncan ran between two cars, then angled across the lawn and toward the woods. I followed him into the vestiges of the night.

20

“Luna?”

The distant call woke me, and I blinked in confusion. I was not in bed. Instead, I shivered as frosty fern fronds came into focus scant inches from my eyes. The only reprieve from the cold was a warm body pressed against my back.

“Luna?” That was Bolin. “Are you out here?”

He stood at the edge of the woods, shining a flashlight beam around the trees, and I remembered where I was—and what had happened. And I groaned.

“Does that mean we’renotout here?” Duncan murmured, stirring against my back.

After the fight in the parking lot, we’d hidden in the woods in our wolf forms, vaguely aware that we should avoid the human woman and her allies that had arrived. But, despite peering in our direction a few times, they hadn’t come out to search for us. They’d been dealing with the death of one of their officers, and they’d also dragged one of the injured intruders to an ambulance. This time, neither Duncan nor I had lost ourselves completely tothe savagery of our magic, and we hadn’t killed any of our enemies. But it wouldn’t matter. The female officer had seen us fighting, and she might have seen me change. I feared she would figure out that we were werewolves—and that we’d been responsible for the previous deaths.

“I camemorethan four minutes early for the dawn excursion,” Bolin called a little tartly as he swung the flashlight around again. The police must have departed before he’d arrived because he wasn’t keeping his voice down; his tone didn’t warn that I might be in trouble. He didn’t yet know…

“Dawn excursion?” Duncan asked.

“I recruited help to storm Radomir’s castle—wherever it is.” I pushed myself to my bare feet, brushing fir needles and dirt off my skin.

“And you’re not in your apartment,” Bolin added. “OrDuncan’s van. I checked.”

“I’m here,” I called back, “but meet me at the office, okay? I need to get…”

“Breakfast?” Duncan suggested. “Supplies?”

“Dressed. I doubt my young intern wants to be subjected to my naked mom bod.”

“Your mom bod is fabulous and in wonderful shape.”

“Were you examining it while I slept?”

“No, I was sleeping while you slept, but I enjoyed being snuggled up to it, and you’ve been naked often enough in my presence that I’ve imprinted the memory. I believe I mentioned that.”

“You did.”

Bolin swung his flashlight—maybe that was only his phone’s light—in our direction, but he jerked it away when the beam illuminated us. He lowered it to the ground and looked away.

“I’ll wait at my car.” Bolin turned and walked toward the parking lot.

“See, he was traumatized by our middle-aged nudity.” I looked around the apartment complex before stepping out of the trees. A cloudy dawn was lightening the grounds.

“My nudity is magnificent, not traumatizing.”

“You’ve a high opinion of yourself.” I led the way toward my apartment.

“I occasionally look in a mirror. I see what I see.”

“I wouldn’t have guessed you could fit a mirror in that van.”

“It flips down from the visor above the driver’s seat.”

“I have that same kind of mirror in my truck. It’s only good for seeing your eyes. Maybe whether you have nose hairs that need to be trimmed.”

“Nothing on me needs to be trimmed. I keep myself impeccably groomed.”

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