Chapter 180


    I run, rediscovering ces I’d explored as a child, but this time on all fours in wolf form, picking up


    things I’d never noticed before, measuring how different things are now that so many years have gone


    by.


    For a while, I think I’m actually alone, but then eventually I catch the slightest scent of another wolf-a


    wolf who is staying downwind of me so I can’t catch their scent properly-and every now and then, I pick


    up a sound or a sense of movement off through the trees.


    So James didn’t listen and followed me after all.


    I’m a little annoyed, but I can’t be too angry with him since I know he’s under orders from Aaron, and I


    hat e to think what my mate would do to James if something did happen to me.


    For a while I pick up the pace, ducking and darting and crossing back and forth across a stream, trying


    to see if I can lose him, but apparently he’s an expert at hunting, and easily keeps on my trail, even


    when I think I’ve outsmarted him.


    Eventually I get sic k of that, and then realize I’ve wandered far from the main house, into dense


    woond. It’ste at night now, and I think we should probably head back. I didn’t n to stay the night


    Ccontent ? exclusive by N?/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.


    on Roberts packnds, and I want to go back to my own bed at the Rathborn mansion.


    Even though I don’t know where I really belong-everywhere and nowhere-the bedroom where I spent


    years growing through my teens into adulthood feels familiar where nothing else does.


    I’m keeping up a steady pace through the woods, but I slow as Ie to a clearing, something pricking


    at my senses.


    It takes me a few moments to realize what my senses are trying to tell me, and when I figure it out, it’s


    almost toote.


    Theye slinking out of the trees, and I abruptly find myself outnumbered by eightrge wolves,


    surrounding me, circling me, closing in, leaving me nowhere to run.


    I bristle, and my wolf is lifting her lip, ttening her ears, growling in warning.


    I am Luna, and they are on my packnds.


    But for all the bravado of my wolf, the human part of me is shrinking back in fear.


    I’m far from the main house, and I don’t know if James is still nearby. Even if he is, that’s still four-to-


    one odds.


    I know I’m in serious trouble.


    The wolves are jostling closer, threatening to attack, but at thest second, my wolf throws her head up


    and lets out a long, forlorn howl that echoes into the empty night.