Love By Feral Wolves

lness and a bird song that appe

ove, there was the creak of forest leaves, letting through fingers of golden light lik

s that weren't wolves at all? Or had the whole ordeal spa

. The forest wa

e, no hoods. Just me, among trees and quiet. My heart fell.

saw th

y wrist-a pale crescent moon surrounded

I stood up slow, scanning the underbrush for any sign of where they'd vanished. Nothing

t threatened.

I cou

but irresistibly. Trees which I had thought I knew had twisted themselves into new shapes. The thread of a

I walked through any longer. It

in mid-air. The deeper I went, the quieter everything grew. No crick

the whisp

. Like leaves shuffling togeth

s. Not in front of m

n moonlit cliffs. A woman kneeling at a sto

abbing hold of

lone," a voice spok

urn

yn

if it had been woven from sap and mist. His silver hair fell ove

real," I

are. Which, given what you

wide. "What doe

o have stayed by the fire. The for

p without

oment I could see the wolf in h

were watching. We needed to

apt. "So it

art doesn't awaken completely. The forest

ark on my wrist.

I could feel the hum grow stronger, lik

w," he said quietly. "To us. To

wrong, that all of it was madness. But t

want to

ile, the woods parting before him like they knew him. Paths emerged wh

re we?"

ok at you," he said. "They need to

tten that Thorne's gold e

rest tested peop

miled, a rare, thin smile. "You d

the sunlight. There was a small cottage nestled into a hill, its chimney exhal

g a dagger on a riverrock. He looked up when we arr

trees brough

less, sun-kissed hair wind-tousled and disheveled, a scar

ded, flashing teeth that w

ed," Raynor

"Well, that makes two of us. I've been

ed. "Ex

m," Raynor

? I'm just saying wha

r, poised as ever. She smiled at me and inv

wa

, bound charms, and maps scrawled in marks that

of stew. It tasted of wild mushro

arek?" Rayn

swered. "And Lazaro is.

me," I rem

me. "Not watch

as amazing. But even as I ate,

now?"

m me. "Now, we see ho

m fell

n at the mar

already kne

ve fur, didn't have teeth sharp behind my lips. But there was something else-

re and now. "The Moonheart isn't a symbol. It's a gateway. You

ith the kind of respectful amusement. "Don't wo

The more time you spend here, the more the forest ma

y I never had before-not because I was weak, but because something gigantic was about to y

ght, the moon will be full. That is

and to know

in, I kne

brought me he

o longer ju

ged to

d had acc

__