His Mate, Her Choice novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The White Wolf

"I can't," I said. "Not here. They'll see."

"Then not here."

Dain took me by the elbow, careful of the burned hand, and walked me down the back stairs.

We went through the kitchen, which was empty and warm, and out a side door into the snow.

The cold hit my face.

It helped, but only a little.

My bones ached as if they were coming apart.

"Don't fight it," he said. "It's been waiting eight years. It knows the way."

"I don't know how."

"You do. You've only forgotten."

We crossed the yard and went up the slope behind the lodge, past the kennels, into the dark between the pines.

At the top, where the ground flattened and the trees fell back, my legs gave out.

I went down on my hands in the snow, and it came.

I had been twelve the last time.

I remembered a small scared body with soft paws, and nothing more.

This was not that.

My spine bent and lengthened, and every joint in me cracked and slid.

The pain was huge and clean and short.

Then it was over, and the cold was gone.

I was standing on four feet with the whole night rushing in through my nose.

I could smell the pines and the frozen creek.

I could smell the kennels, and the smoke from the burned books, and the man beside me.

Dain.

He had shifted while I wasn't looking.

He was a huge wolf, black from nose to tail, with gold eyes.

He stood very still and lowered his head.

Keep reading free with an account. Start His Mate, Her Choice from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.