well, our collective attention. “I’m going shift now, too. Amal will be here
soon, and we’ll need to hurry as fast as possible. Normally, I would want you
to have days running in the woods to get used to your new form, but we can’t
afford that luxury. Our clock is ticking.”
Dread weighed down on me. What would we find at the tower?
Alessandro il Mago or a corpse? The Soul Knife or the sorcerer?
Nothing good, my instincts told me.
Jaxson pulled the shirt free from his shoulders and dropped it onto the
ground next to my satchel. Then he unlatched his belt and met my gaze. We
averted our eyes, and he turned his back to us.
You were staring at him! That was so embarrassing! I thought, brimming
with annoyance.
No. That was all you.
Was it?
Damn. This was going to take some getting used to.
Jaxson slipped out of his trousers in the corner of my vision, and the
wolf’s voice practically purred in my mind. Look at those buns. He’s going to
be an amazing wolf.
My heart froze as trepidation began to trickle through my veins. What
would meeting Jaxson’s wolf even be like? When I’d met it before at the fair,
it had been a thing out of nightmares.
Jaxson met my eyes as his flashed gold. “Don’t be afraid, pretty wolf.
Just don’t run.”
Those were not the words I needed to hear.
With a low growl, he shifted.
His arms and legs bent and twisted, and silver-gray fur erupted across his
moonlit back. His handsome face transformed into the muzzle of a beast, and
sharp teeth sprang up, glinting white in the moonlight. He was enormous—
two or three times my size, if not more, and rippling with muscle and power.
Then the beast that was Jaxson turned its glowing honey-gold eyes on me.