Gannon doesn’t speak to me or project the debate I see flash inside his bright gray eyes. Snow falls on his face, dappling the doubt that collects there for a moment before a snort erupts from his muzzle. He leaps to his feet faster than I can track. Then he snaps his teeth at me like he’s testing the playful waters.
It’s my signal to run.
I don’t know how I know that, but I do, and I give in to the driving need until I’m once again a flash of fur amidst the trees.
Gannon’s bounding steps are loud and determined behind me, and I hear Perth not far behind him. My instincts and excitement push me even faster. I can feel their eager tenacity through the thin bond connecting us, a bond that felt overwhelming and daunting just days ago.
Today, everything feels…different.
Better.
I race for a strange-looking mountain that’s not too far off. It looks as though someone took a knife and cut off the bottom of it, the peak now having a flat wall for a base. I’m almost to the flat sheet of rock when I sense Perth and Gannon start to close in. I glance behind me to find they’re even closer than I realized.
Shit.
They move like machines built solely to hunt, capture, and claim whatever they want. There’s a seamless grace to how they work together. It’s built from years of running through this forest, part of a den, one of the pack. Witnessing their fluid power and wild focus has me unconsciously slowing.
I catch myself before I can do something embarrassing like trip over my paws or drool, but the honed way that they’re stalking and running me down…does things for me.
Hellooooo, wolf daddies.
I’m suddenly more intrigued by the impending thought of being caught than the chase.
“Look, Gan, I think we tired her out,” Perth taunts me mentally as they break off wide so that each of them can come at me from the sides in a coordinated attack.
“Too bad, I was looking forward to wrestling her to the ground,” Gannon replies.
With a sassy swish of my tail, I flash them some fang.
A hum of amusement trickles through the bond from them to me, but I can’t tell if it’s Gannon’s or Perth’s or both.
Spinning, I bound for a ridgeline that’s steep, a scrawl of gray rock across the landscape. Gannon’s right on my tail, his teeth nipping at my haunches, and a zing of heady anticipation zips up my spine.
“You ready to be caught, kitten?” Gannon presses, the dart of his words landing way too close to the bullseye.
“You ready to get bitten?” I counter, turning to snap at him when he gets too close.
A sultry laugh invades my mind, the rich sound of it like static electricity against my fur. “Only if you bite me the way that I want you to,” Gannon baits.
I’m suddenly bombarded with the memory of his mouth on mine and the way he’d pulled back slightly to nip my bottom lip before delving back in to deepen the deliciously molten kiss. The entanglement flashes from me and Gannon on the deck to what just happened with me and Perth in the clearing. Hot awareness ripples through me and I can’t tell if one of them pushed those thoughts at me or if I summoned them on my own.
I whirl around, ready to face the two shifters head-on. They both stalk confidently closer, herding me back in a very calculated, practiced way. Snow is starting to collect on their coats, the flakes falling even faster while the wind kicks up, forcing the flurries to dance to the gale’s swirling tune.
My heart races.
I position my body to pounce, bunching my muscles in anticipation of Perth and Gannon’s advance. I’m not sure if wolves can smile, but if they can, I definitely am.
Gannon and Perth study me like I’m their next meal.
“Are you going to be a good girl and submit, kitten? Or do you need Perth and me to show you why you should?” Gannon mindspeaks.
A growl and a flash of heat detonate inside me simultaneously. Why do both options sound so damn appealing?
I’m careful not to let that thought slip from me to either of the two wolves in front of me, but Perth chuffs with amusement as though he heard it loud and clear anyway.
“Come on, beast tamer. It’s our turn to tame your beast,” Perth projects to me, an amused laugh accompanying the bad line in my head.
“Bring it. I’m not sure you’ve got what it takes,” I quip right back. OMG, am I wolf-flirting?
Gannon makes a deep throaty noise somewhere between a bark and a growl, and I’m pretty sure it’s his wolf version of laughter.
Perth stalks closer and my hackles go up as I bare my fangs at him.
“Our little mate wants it rough,” Perth mindspeaks to both me and Gannon. “Good, that’s how I like it too.”
He leaps for me so fast I barely have time to make sense of it. I’m not sure if I’m alarmed or exhilarated, but there’s no time to think before both Perth and Gannon close in on me. I start to spin in an effort to keep them both in sight, and then a plan forms. If I didn’t already have some experience with leap-frogs-of-death, I wouldn’t try it, but lucky for me, I do.
Instead of facing them head-on, like they expect because they think they have me trapped, I turn and sprint for the flat rocky base of the mountain. Perth and Gannon instantly give chase, their roguish threats egging me on. I have to block them out and focus. When the wall of rock grows closer, I push myself even harder.
Go. Go. Go!
A euphoric thrill buds in my chest, petals blooming bigger and fuller with each stride I take. I can feel Gannon and Perth on my heels, and just when Perth surges forward to swipe my back legs out from under me and take me down, I leap for the sheet of stone.
In a feat of power that shocks even me, I rebound off the rock’s surface like it’s a trampoline and not the base of a mountain. I twist mid-air and soar over Gannon and Ruger, who are several steps behind, trying to mimic my maneuver.
My paws touch back down to the snowy ground in triumph.
Then I run for all I’m worth.
Speeding away, I’m a bullet of brown fur and elation.
They didn’t really think I’d give up that easily and just let them catch me, did they? Stupid boys.
I chuff to myself as I tear through the forest, letting my paws and nose lead the way. I push my body as hard as it will let me, and I’m in awe of what it can do. Muscle and sinew, instinct and drive, power and magic.
How was I ever afraid of this?
I run until my joints start to ache, my soul feels free, and my heart is happy. When I start to slow, looking back for Perth and Gannon, I realize they’re not here.
That’s when the first splatters of fear hit me like slush that’s been launched from the side of the road by a car driving too fast.
Instantly, I reach for the mental link between me and the den, and relief rushes through me when a jumble of voices bombard me all at once.
“Where’d everyone go?” I gibe as I take in my surroundings. The big mountain we’ve been playing around all day is pretty far off, and a sinking feeling takes root in my stomach. I think I ran too far.
“Thank fuck!” Gannon exclaims, and I can sense his exasperation through the mind link. “You shut us out and took off,” he accuses, as though that hasn’t been the game we’ve been playing for hours.
Well, maybe not the shut out part; I didn’t know I could even do that.