Eight
Even with the moonlight illuminating the forest, I would have been lost without Daniel’s scent. I wasn’t used to relying on my sense of smell, but that’s exactly what I was doing as I walked back through the woods towards what I thought was the town. In my peripheral vision, hazy flashes of maroon darted by. It had scared me the first few times I saw it, but then I realized what it was. I was seeing the heat living creatures gave off, just like I was looking through an infrared camera.
My sharpened senses made me feel more alive than I ever had. It seemed like I’d been sleepwalking the previous twenty-eight years of my life, numbed to all the brilliance of the world around me.
Of course, I knew what this was - the wolf in me, getting ready to be freed.
It was the main reason why, after sitting in the forest watching the sun fall and the moon rise, I was walking back to the town. Chosen or not, I was part wolf now. I couldn’t go back to my family, friends or co-workers, not knowing what I was capable of, even if I did make it out of these woods. If the choice was sacrificing months of my life dealing with the strangest scenario imaginable, versus risking people I loved by hoping Daniel was wrong and I wouldn’t one day eat them . . . well, there was no choice. Not in my opinion.
That wasn’t the reason my heart started to beat faster when I recognized the man leaning against a tree just outside the limits of the town. All right, I’d had more motivation than just protecting my loved ones by returning. With every step I’d taken away from Daniel, something burning and heavy had settled in my heart. It was as unfamiliar, frightening and exciting as the other changes I’d experienced this week. How could I care so much after such a short period of time? I’d been with Paul for three years, but hadn’t felt the crushing sense of loss at our break-up that I did walking away from Daniel. Was it some supernatural hormone gone haywire? I didn’t know. I only knew it was the most real thing I’d ever felt.
“I thought you were letting me go,” I said. “Yet here you are, still in the forest instead of in bed in your cabin.”
Daniel turned. He was still too far away for me to see his expression, but his voice sounded raw. “I was letting you go, but no wolf can sleep while his mate is in danger.”
Mate. Such a primitive word, and so possessive. All things considered, we barely knew each other. Why wasn’t I uneasy at hearing it? Why did warmth spread over me, even as I was shivering in the cold night air?
I swallowed. “How can you be sure?”
He was at my side in the next heartbeat, enfolding me in his arms, his body heat almost searing my skin.
“I knew it as soon as I smelled your scent,” he said, low and rough. “I told you, that’s how it is with wolves. That day with Gabriel - I wasn’t tracking him. He and the others had masked their scents so I wouldn’t be able to trace them. But I found them anyway because I’d been tracking you.”
This was overwhelming. I shuddered even as I leaned in closer to him. “Daniel, everything has happened so fast . . .”
He caressed my face. “Don’t judge by that. Breathe me in. Tell me what you feel.”
I inhaled near his neck, absorbing the mix of wood smoke, cinnamon and musk that made up his scent. Contentment battled with lust inside me. I wanted to throw Daniel to the forest floor, rub my body all over his, claim his flesh as my own, and then hold him and never let go.
“I feel more than I have a right to,” was what I said, my voice shaky.
He bent so that his lips were almost brushing mine. “I give you the right. I want you to claim me as yours.”
And I wanted to be claimed. That was the truth of it. Whether it was me or the wolf inside who’d made this decision, I didn’t know. But I felt it through every fibre of me.
I’d asked Daniel days ago if it was him I was talking to or the wolf. It’s both, he’d said. Always. I hadn’t understood then, but I did now. The wolf didn’t feel like it was a separate entity from me any more; it was me, but without all my fears, doubts or hesitations. The wolf was me stripped of all my pretence, and it knew, unequivocally, that Daniel was mine.
And so did I.
“Take me home,” I whispered. It was an invitation and a promise. I wasn’t giving up my family or my friends, but I’d first learn to live in harmony with the wolf in me, and I’d do it here, with the help of my mate.
Daniel picked me up and carried me to his cabin. I was smiling the whole way.
When Gargoyles Fly
Lori Devoti
One
She touched him. Her fingers were warm, soft, undeniably human. Mord Gabion blinked, and his eyelids made slow painful movements. They creaked like stone scratching stone, like a gargoyle coming to life while its body was still frozen in its sleep - which it was.
He shouldn’t be awake, shouldn’t be aware of those supple fingers, or the scent of ginger and spice drifting towards him. Shouldn’t be aware of anything, ever again — but he was.
Her fingers ran down the planes of his chest, traced the line of bone that formed the top of his wings, which were folded in sleep, but itching with the need to open, to take his body soaring through the night sky.
“Such detail,” she murmured.
His eyes shifted in their sockets. He wanted to see her, needed to see her, but his body wasn’t quite ready. It was still locked in its rocky state.