Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
I nodded, having no problem trusting her. If she’d wanted to kill me, she could’ve ordered it done weeks ago.
“How about I’ll just run, and you can do whatever you want?”
She looked out at the wood, at the shadows elongating and deepening as the sun lowered. “Yeah, fuck it. Let’s see how fast you are.”
We picked up a sack from the stables to put our clothes in. She held it in her mouth as she shifted, growing and growing until she was huge, burgundy with golden dusting, as beautiful in dragon form as she was in human form. She took to the sky immediately, and my wolf took off running as fast as she could, a thrill zipping through us as she did. Scents drifted by and the cool night ruffled our fur. Her paws barely touched the ground, zips of lightning in the growing night.
I’d shifted again since that first time, and I’d run with Weston, but his wolf had always been close, monitoring my wolf’s progress. She had been afraid to do something wrong and hadn’t let loose. She hadn’t gone wild or pushed her limits.
Now she did, leaving the path and sprinting through the trees. Another wolf with a scent she recognized joined us from the right, and she leapt, her feet landing on his back and rolling him across the ground. Her yip conveyed her playful intentions, and the chase was on, with him coming after us with everything he had.
She was faster, but not only that, she was cleverer.
She slowed just enough to let him catch up, then she darted right, ducking between two reaching trees and dodging left around a boulder. Another wolf ran out, and mine opened her mouth and ran her teeth across the other wolf’s back, shaving a bit of her tail in the process. That wolf started after us, too, and then another, our mad dash zooming in and out of various guard posts and attracting their chase.
A roar sounded overhead. Fire blew across the tops of the trees. The failing sun streaked across gold dusting.
Finley was probably trying to tell us to stop playing around and get a move on.
We were going the right way, though. I had zero sense of direction, but my wolf was not so unlucky. She used smells and markers and whatever else to remember her trek on the way to the castle. She cut across the land, nearly bowling into a big black wolf with silver tips on his ears. Its scent registered immediately: Dante.
Another thing registered, too: his wolf’s magic reached toward us in a familiar way, trying to pull us into the pack bond. Weston could do it easily—or maybe it was that my wolf always wanted him to, allowing him to suck me into him magically and holding me close. Dante, though, didn’t have nearly enough power.
My wolf slapped his attempt away and bent, taking a nip at his chest.
His wolf growled, spun, and lunged. We were already gone.
I internally laughed with glee, riding up close to the surface of my wolf, taking in all the smells with her and the delirious, amazing feeling of running through the woods with the pack on our heels. We weren’t united, and my wolf wouldn’t jeopardize the pack bond or Weston’s trust, but even just having them with us was a thrill unlike any other. I understood why everyone had gathered to hunt in the old village, even when they usually didn’t come back with anything. They wanted this feeling of running together, of working as a unit, as a pack.
More wolves ran out, and my wolf dodged. Still more joined us, only one getting close enough to nearly trip us up: Nova. She had great instincts. None of them could catch us, though, not until we finally crashed through the trees and met the big queen dragon waiting on the other side.
Her fire blistered the air, and my wolf was already dodging the blast when she realized it wasn’t directed at us. In fact, it was up into the air, over the trees. The wolves behind us slowed at the tree line, watching my wolf for a moment before silently turning and drifting away back into the wood. Once they were gone, Finley shifted, ending up crouched over the pack holding our clothes.
My wolf cleared out of the way, and I shifted into human form, panting with the effort of the mad dash.
“Weston has been babying you too much.” Finley handed over my things.
“He’s trying to get my wolf used to the bond and her body and all that stuff.”
“Yeah. Slowly, right?” She lifted her eyebrows. “He’s babying you. Mates tend to do that. You need to flex or you’re never going to learn.”
“I think I just did.”
She laughed. “Damn right you just did. Felt good, right?”