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I slept a bit, coht The talis on Jessie’s clothes, I cursed as I remembered I’d split ed

"Dumb, dumb, dumb"

At least the lack of them made it easier to sneak out I could have woken Nic, taken hi, but why?

He couldn’t help if I ran into ghost wolves, and in truth, I didn’t want to see hioing to do about the e bodies and not hearts?

He’d said ere done in Fairhaven, we’d be done Nic ht not have a problem with that, but I would He waswould be hard for h the chilly darkness in bare feet No one was out this early, or was it late? Lucky forstrange

My stuff was gone - clothes, shoes, or as left of theht the watchlanced around at the tangle of er and larger circles until I reached the darass

There I found a footprint

Make that a paw print Too big to be a dog - hell, too big to be a coyote; too real to be that of a ghost wolf, unless they could becohostly, too And wouldn’t that be special?

My neck prickled as a howl rose toward the sky The first I’d heard in Fairhaven, the call tempted me

Wolves howl for er, locate one another, communicate

Each ani it seem as if there are twenty wolves, when there are only three or four What sounded like a lot from a distance could be a lot, or only a few

But this was one, and that in itself was strange, considering the pack nature of both species Which of the tas calling me now, I couldn’t say I’d only be able to tell if I saw the beast up close

A breeze swirled in fro the ends; my skin seemed to buzz

E a little tired of the wind being so chatty, however, I had no proble ed

My clothes tore and fell away; the night ca ht poith none of the pain

If Edward or Jessie were here, we’d have trouble They wouldn’t trust me They’d want to kill , and I hadn’t even told anyone about the voice yet

The breeze brought not only a e, but the trace of another like me Maybe just a witchie wolf or two, I couldn’t tell, but I followed the scent into the forest

Squirrels skittered out of s ran into the bushes with a screech

Because I olf first in this form, I became distracted by their movement, their s , I pawed the earth just as a croooped low, nearly clippingcrows for so long the behavior is ingrained in our DNA One glance at the bird’s flight pattern, and I adjusted my direction

A few hundred yards away, I stumbled on a ravine encircled by brambles Fro?

Bracing ainst the inevitable scrape of the thorns, I put round and crawled closer The earth tilted doard I continued to inch along, stopping at the edge of a culvert

I heard voices along with the e of pleasure, not pain I knehat I was going to see even before I stuck e

Bodies entwined on a soft bed ofthe htened and released in an age-old rhythm as he pumped himself into the body of the wos wrapped around his back, tugging hied hireater speed When she left red welts on his skin, he erowl, half purr The sound pulled at le and my fur stand on end

I’d never watched anyone have sex before - except in anow

Carefully I inched away, but my claws freed a waterfall of stones and dirt down the side of the crevice

The ainst et small

Caw!

Ca!

I didn’t dare lift s told me I’d been saved by the crows, even before the et distracted"

I knew that voice If I hadn’t been so interested in the nized his hair

As it hen I peeked again, the man had turned his face to the side, the better to nuzzle his partner’s breast The scar that bisected his cheek was a dead giveaway

No wonder the deputy hadn’t returned to Fairhaven Basil Moore was otherwise occupied

I craned her as the rhyth moans recommenced The woman now had her ankles crossed behind Basil’s neck

I tilted a

Basil lowered his face to her breast again, tongue flicking one nipple, before he took it in his teeth and tugged

The woainst his and sla into her one last ti if they heard ive chase Even if they did, I could definitely outrun them

Besides, I’d seen too much Not only Basil, naked, but his partner, too

Lydia Kopway

The crows flew off I was on ain, even as my mind mulled over what I’d observed

Why had Lydia and Basil been doing it in the woods when they had a perfectly good house for such things?

Why did their liaison bother le, as far as I knew Maybe they had an outdoor-sex fetish - there orse things

Nose to the sky, I gave a snort of annoyance The scent I’d tracked was gone Frustrated, I headed for the cabin

Taking the long way, I skirted the woods, hugging the shadows What was it about the deputy and Lydia that kept nagging ata private moment, even when thatelse?

On the back porch I had no choice but to change, unless I wanted to scratch at the door and wait for Nic to let inedthe doorknob, I slipped into the cabin, then into the bathroo to both Will and my own observations, Basil didn’t like Indians But if that was true, as he screwing one?

A puzzle: ot whowith those he considered inferior However, I didn’t think Lydia was the type of woive someone who looked down on her a minute of her time She definitely wouldn’t allow him free use of her body

Of course, I hardly knew her, or hi about them both

Footsteps sounded in the hall I wrapped a towel around me just as Nic appeared in the doorway

"Where have you been?" he asked

My feet were grubby, ernails, too I’ bramble scratches all over my body Did I really have to answer that question?

I tilted my head and saw comprehension dawn in his eyes "Oh Why?"

I filled him in on my excursion, the loss of the talisman, the olf scent that came and went, and the free porn in the forest

"You watched?"

"I was stuck"

"I bet" He inched closer and pulled a leaf froaze lifted to his "Not exactly"

"Liar," he whispered, and kissed e, my body aroused from the power and the real-life adult video in the woods, I let him

Hell, I let him do a lot ain"? The vo out thethe instant Nic touched s around his waist, his body again buried deep in ive him up I was addicted

This ti me alone without a word or a even a kiss, Nic brushed my broith his lips and turned on the shower

"Who do you think has the talisman?" he asked

"No idea The junkman could have thrown lanced over his shoulder "But you don’t think so?"

"It’s a junkyard Why clean up?"

"True"

"I don’t like not knohere the icon is," I said,

"but I don’t need it any shouldn’t work for anyone but me"

"He’s sure about that?"

"As sure as you can be with ic every day He was fitting a but wasn’t