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“Sorry,” I whispered. “I had to.”
“I understand… but now I’m covered in blood and in your slobber.”
“I’m a Princess, I do not slobber.”
Tallin shook blood and hot saliva off his furry body, warm droplets striking my snout and cheek. “Oh, really?” he asked.
I rubbed my paw against the side of my face to get some of the goop off my eyes. “Point taken.”
Tallin scanned the clearing and the trees beyond. There was light, here—a perfect circle of moonlight that touched the rocks gathered in a circle around us. At the head of the circle was a small tower made of rocks, each inscribed with a series of small runes I couldn’t hope to understand.
“Well… now what?” he asked.
“The last time I was here,” I said, trailing off. “My mother did this…”
Taking a deep breath, I threw my neck up, shut my eyes, and sent a long, deep howl against the face of the moon. I rarely got a chance to howl like this, to let my throat work the way it was supposed to. My mother always told me not to do it in the castle, because a sound like this would scare the citizens of Windhelm. I always felt like that was too cautious, too restrictive, but I followed her rules.
Out here, though, there were different rules…the rules of the wild.
I had gotten a taste of them. A real taste. Myfirsttaste.
I let the howl slowly fade away into the night. When I opened my eyes again, I wasn’t in the clearing anymore, but high up along the side of a cliff, on a small outcropping, inside of a stone circle identical to the one in the woods. A single trail led down a mountain, leading away from where I was standing. Across the way, tall, jagged peaks of dark, snowcapped rock rose out of the ground as if to protect the valley below… and in the valley below, bathed in the green, and blue, and pink of a gorgeous aurora, was a village of hide tents and fires, of hunters and prey, of wolves and Fae.
I had made it to the home of the Moon Children.
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
“Wow…” Tallin gasped. He scrambled over to the edge of the cliff and stared into the valley below. “It’s beautiful.”
“Who would’ve thought a city of tents could be so pretty?” I asked, joining him. Looking up, I noticed the moon in the sky hung far lower, and looked far bigger, than it had in the forest a moment ago. The shimmering, wavy light of the aurora danced across the sky, illuminating everything it touched in beautiful shades of color.
I had been here before, but I had never seenthis.For all of Windhelm’s breathtaking vistas, there was something about this place, something incredibly magical, and wonderful that Windhelm lacked.
This place felt powerful.Instantly, powerful. I had barely been here a few moments, and already I could feel raw, untamed magic coursing through me, empowering me. And that was the most important word—untamed. There was a wildness about this place, something ancient and primal that stirred up feelings inside of me I didn’t know I had.
“We should probably move… right?” Tallin ventured. “You know, just in case our friends go through that portal thing and wind up inside of us somehow?”
“I don’t know if that’s possible,” I said, but I wasn’t sure, so I stepped aside anyway. “I should go and find my brother. He has to be down there, somewhere.”
“He’s the Alpha, so, he’s probably in that big tent over there.”
“Unless he’s already out here,” came a deep, strong voice from behind us both.
I nearly leapt out of my skin. My fur bristled and rose along with my hackles, and when I turned around, I saw the man who had spoken. He wasn’t as tall as I remembered, but he was a lot more muscular. He had a large, barreled chest, broad shoulders that looked powerful enough to hold up the world, and strong, masculine features. Black hair framed his face, several streaks of silver shooting through itandhis beard, and while he had my father’s wide, proud stance, he had my mother’s eyes.
I had no idea where he had come from, no idea how long he had been standing there, or even how much he had heard. I didn’t care. Without skipping a beat, I brought myself up to standing, shrugged out of my wolf form, and threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around his shoulders in a relieved hug.
“I’m so glad to see you, big brother,” I said against his chest.
Radulf wrapped his arms around me and tightly squeezed. “You’re far away from home, little wolfling,” he said, “But I’m happy to see you as well.”
I pulled away from him and smiled at him, while also pretending to hide tears that nearly spilled out of me. “You’ve gotten bigger… even if you haven’t gotten taller.”
His eyes narrowed, and he leaned closer as if to inspect my face. “Just as I suspected…”
“What?” I asked, frowning.
“There’s a wart on your nose.”
