Chapter 7: First Run

At dawn my wolf wanted out, and I was done telling her no.

I went out onto the porch in Halvard's shirt and a pair of his wool socks.

The sky over the lake was the color of a peach.

He was already up, splitting kindling in the yard with his sleeves pushed past his elbows.

The husky watched him from the step.

He looked at me, and at the way I was standing, and put the axe down.

"Going for a run?"

"I haven't shifted in two years," I said. "Lucan never liked me running alone."

"Lucan isn't the boss of your wolf."

"I know that now."

"Then go." He nodded at the trees. "Stay inside the mile. I'll follow on snowshoes and bring your things."

"You don't have to."

"I haven't seen a wolf run in ten years," he said quietly. "I'd like to."

Something in his face made me not ask.

I walked down the steps to the edge of the yard and pulled the shirt over my head.

The cold bit every inch of me.

I didn't care.

I let go.

The change came up my spine.

Bones slid and lengthened, fur flowed over skin, and the world went sharp and loud and full of smell.

Spruce sap.

Old snow.

The husky's warm fur and the coffee grounds in the bin and the sweet-sour tang of the man standing ten feet away.

I dropped to four feet, shook myself, and took off.

I had always been small in wolf form, in the pack's eyes.

Lucan used to say it softly, like a compliment, my little grey Luna.

The wolf that ran out across the snow was not little.

She was long and silver with a white blaze down her face.

She covered the first hundred yards in a few powerful strides.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Leaving My Alpha Husband in Ice Cold Regret from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.