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I wasn’t given time to process the revelation because the wolf took off. Another howl to the Gods, thanking them. Vin kept up, staying just off my left side like he’d been a wolf his entire life. He always knew more than he let on.
Wolves came at us from every direction, falling in step as we ran past, my second taking her place at my right hand, and my brothers falling in behind. My guards. The tension rippled through us, the feelings felt and shared in this state.
I pushed it out of my mind, the hunt front and center. The wolf didn’t seem worried. He wanted blood. He wanted to feast, and then he wanted to fuck. Hunger stirred in my gut, and he slowed as he caught the scent of something.
We changed direction on a dime. Head low, a full-out sprint toward the direction of the moose, only slowing after miles and miles. He was close. Fresh droppings. The pack quieted. The forest echoed with the sounds of the night around us, unaware of the danger.
The wolf crept. Vin held back, letting the wolves pass him, everyone giving him a long look and a sniff. They knew what his position in the run meant but maybe didn’t quite understand the meaning behind him being there. The position of honor on my left side held for my mate, but maybe they considered a possibility for it to be something else. Or it could be the wolves understood innately what the humans would not. He was my mate, and once a soul was tied, there was nothing to be done about it.
Only dark magic could attempt to break such a bond.
They left him alone, eyes on the prize. We moved forward in unison, this part of us so ingrained in instinct, no communication was needed. We surrounded the massive creature in silence. The biggest moose I’d ever seen. The earth was gifting us with a good year. A good omen before I broke my news. I hoped the feast would soften the reception. Good omens had a way of doing that.
I crouched before the monster of a moose, canines bared, waiting for what, I didn’t know. Only my wolf did. I was merely the observer. Different wolves experienced the shared bond differently. Two of my brothers explained their shared form in a different way than I’d experienced mine, but it amounted to the same thing. The beast was in charge. There were those of us who didn’t remember their time as a wolf, or so they claimed. While Az claimed he was his animal. If I hadn’t grown up with them, maybe it would have scared me to find out how differently we experienced the same condition.
I was glad to be separate from my beast. I clung to the few parts of humanity afforded to me. But tonight was one of the few nights there was no controlling him.
The wolf leapt, going straight for the jugular. The moose screamed, much like an angry bull. Loud, sending the rest of the forest around us into fear. He turned to run, and when he realized he was trapped, he gave me the antlers. Missing his neck, my wolf got a mouthful of bone. The clang echoed through my bones. He snarled while the rest of the wolves closed in around the bucking moose. Rage showed in the moose’s eyes; he wasn’t going down without a fight.
The wolf redoubled, coming around to take a chunk out of his throat. The moose screamed again, and the rest of the wolves descended upon him, ripping him to shreds, piece by piece, spilling his blood on the dirt, an offering to the earth. The circle of life feeding us all.
My wolf ripped off a piece of meat and left the dead beast to the pack, trotting over to drop the flesh at Vin’s feet, where he hung back, still under the cover of the canopy.
He laughed, squatting to run his fingers through the blood, bringing it to his lips to suck off the red fluid. “Thank you, Vargr.”
Vargr?
Did the wolf have a name?
I tucked away the piece of information to ask Vin about later. How had he known how to address the wolf?
The wolf smiled, displaying bloody teeth. Pleased with himself, he nuzzled into Vin’s side, smearing the blood on his muzzle all over Vin before turning back to tear into the meat. He ate his fill, blood lust simmering beneath the surface.
Would this be the straw that scared Vin off? He’d never witnessed this side of me, this side of us.
Wolves gorged themselves on flesh in every direction. They ate until they were nearly sick before shifting back to their human forms. Bodies in all stages of shifted collapsed in the grass throughout the clearing to slumber off the meal they’d consumed.
Vin turned toward the wolf, running his fingers through his hair, petting the beast like an oversized dog, not seeming to mind the mess. Vin scratched his chest and leaned closer, putting himself face to face with the wolf. I gasped, silently trapped in the in between. There were days I wondered if I even existed when I occupied this space or maybe I suffered from some form of delusion.
The wolf laughed at me while rubbing against my mate.
Bastard.
The wolf only laughed harder before licking Vin.
Did it make him a traitor to love my mate as much as I did? Or perhaps the soul tie linked the three of us. All of it made me uncomfortable to dwell on. It was easier to let it be.
Now that he’d had his fun, the wolf offered my body back, and I accepted, trading places. He returned to the cage in my mind while my flesh morphed.
I stood in front of Vin with my face and chest smeared in blood. My cock hard and standing straight out from my body while the lingering metallic taste of blood infused in my senses, all making it nearly impossible to keep ahold of the lust threatening to take over.
I sucked in a breath, chest heaving like I’d just run a marathon. Blood lust was bad enough, only enhanced by the solstice and our drive to breed—I’d never wanted Vin as badly as I did right now.
“You have a little—” Vin stepped forward, dipping his head to swipe his tongue over my collarbone. “—blood just here.”
“Just there?”
“Well, some here too.” He sealed his lips over my skin.
