Chapter 5: Silver in the Yard

Hester woke her before dawn and walked her into the trees behind the cabin.

"Nobody sees this but me," she said. "Not Junie. Not him."

"He's twenty yards away."

"Then he can face the road and think about his sins."

Lachlan stood where the truck was parked, his back turned, hands in his coat pockets.

He had not slept. Rowena could feel that he hadn't.

"Take off your shoes," Hester said. "Don't think about a wolf."

"Think about the part of you that always wanted to run."

Rowena had wanted to run since she was six years old.

She shut her eyes and reached for that old, empty ache.

It answered at once.

Her spine pulled, her ribs rolled, and her bones went through the same terrible fast change as before.

This time she stayed on her feet. She felt every moment of it.

When she opened her eyes, the forest was sharper, and every smell in it had a direction.

Hester put both hands over her mouth.

The wolf stood taller than the old woman's shoulder.

Her coat was white with a silver wash along the spine.

Her paws left prints wider than Hester's spread hand.

"Oh," Hester whispered. "Oh, look at you. Look at what they thought they'd bury."

Rowena tried to ask who they were. What came out was a low, bubbling huff.

Hester laughed through her tears and scrubbed her face.

"Slowly. Take a breath. Breathe in through the nose and say your name in your head."

Rowena did.

Her name was still there, inside the wolf, all of it.

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