Page 26 (2/2)

With a snarl, I dropped to all fours, pine needles skidding out below ht air was cool, not a cloud in the sky Perfect I chasedat his flanks like ere still teenagers, but e finally reached the ridge, I dropped back Stopped So pulled me in the opposite direction from him and the others

I longed to go down the mountain Toward the Sheffield ranch next door

Where humans lived

Where it was forbidden to run

Boyd ran by, his wolf loping with an easy grace He enjoyed these runs alone before heading back to satisfy his hu atmy teeth, and he ran on without me

What was down there?

It didn’t ate Not in wolf for to let my wolf out all week

I started to follow the pack, but every step I took o the other way

Fuck it

I turned back and trotted to the ridge again Puton the wind Nothing detectible, nothing I could describe to another wolf, but I would swear there was a scent calling to me

I cocked er wolves in the pack learning how to hunt Rob, the alpha, would kicka pack rule We didn’t run in huerous for the pack

No one could know there olves in this area There’d been issues in the past, and none of us wanted more

But I tore down the ravel on the steep slope I ran hard and fast, following

Not until I ran straight past the Wolf property line, where my alpha’s family lived and ranched I found myself on human property, on Old Man Sheffield’s land where I used to work as a teenager Even though it had been over a decade since I’d last worked here, I knew this terrain inside and out, and it felt as much like home as Wolf Ranch