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“How sweet,” Pete says, laughing.
I pause, wondering how he heard me, then it hits me. He can alter his hearing the same way Liam and Ramsey can. Liam’s half-changed now, quieting his growling, breathing steadily.
It’s a transformation unlike Ramsey’s, which was all rage and suddenness...or calm; serenity like he’s in a coma.
“Fuck. He’s changing,” Pete says, his voice getting more distant. “All right, boys. Take the girls alive if you can. I’ll handle the wolves.”
“Boss,” a gruff-sounding man says. “Let’s do it.”
Liam grumbles, walking toward the door on all fours, pacing up and down, and sniffing at the ground. He’s changed quickly, his clothes shredded, his silver fur bristling dangerously. It’s easier to study Liam as a wolf than Ramsey, easier to see more objectively the raw and deadly power of it.
When I look at Ramsey, I seemywolf. Liam’s justawolf, letting me appreciate how terrifying they can truly be.
Turning, I walk over to the corner, to Ramsey.
He’s still on his back, his mouth shaping into a wolf’s jaw, his body heaving and muscular and hairy.
Please, I whisper silently.Soon, Ramsey. Please.
Outside, Master Pete – no, justPete. I remember how pissed Liam got about that, the protectiveness in his voice. He didn’t want me to place myself beneath this so-called master.
ButPeteis roaring, screaming as he changes.
It sounds like a fast one. Distantly, I note how strange that is, how regular that sounds.It sounds like a fastone.
As if changing into a wolf is the most regular thing in the world.
“I’m so sorry.” Mom walks in behind me, looking down at us. “Oh, Ruby.”
I place my hand on Ramsey’s forehead. Outside, a wolf howls, then another, closer.
It’s Liam.
His howl makes the walls of the barn rumble. Tools fall off the walls, and somewhere something snaps like a piece of wood tumbling to the ground.
“Ramsey,” I whisper, stroking his shifting jaw; his shape changing beneath my hand. “Please.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
Ramsey
I’m the wolf, and I’m walking, and she’s before me.
This wolf is younger, with deep brown hair, smelling like Ruby. Then I get closer, and my heart shivers strangely.
SheisRuby. Her scent washes around me, but it makes no sense.
“How are you a wolf?” I nuzzle her, shocked at the sound of my voice, shivering in the air. My human voice. In the wolf form, which is impossible but also feels normal somehow. “Ruby? I didn’t change you, did I?”
“You didn’t change me but made me a wolf.”
“I don’t understand.”
“A wolf overcomes the fear and pain. They master their demons.Youhelped me master mine. Without you, without that heat….”
I growl softly. The moon is far too big, seeming close enough to scent, looming over an ocean the color of iron. It swirls beneath us, clashing on the rocks.
“It was all you,” I say.
