First Bite (The Dark Wolf Series) (10 page)

He actually had the temerity to challenge her? Meredith couldn’t be more delighted. Her exquisitely shaped lips parted in a model-perfect smile—

Just before they curled back to reveal the fangs of a monstrous silver wolf.

His eyes were closed, yet Travis was far from asleep. Neva hadn’t noticed his ears, erect and angled to catch the faintest of sounds, his nostrils flared wide and facing the slight breeze in order to detect any scent of their pursuer. It appeared the stranger had given up hours ago, but Travis was vigilant just the same. Neva, on the other hand, had zonked out mere seconds after sprawling beneath a sumac bush. She deserved the rest, too—although she’d kept up with him, he knew it had been hard on her. He’d set a fast pace and headed directly downwind, keeping their scent away from the unknown Changeling they’d detected in the distance. There was nothing Travis could do about the truck, however. The stranger would have had ample time to study it with his nose and learn plenty about them. Any shape-shifter worth his salt would discern that a female was making her first Change, and Travis’s inner wolf snarled at the thought of anyone knowing anything about Neva. It pissed off his human side, too (and for reasons he didn’t want to examine too closely). Could her pack have found her already?

Or was Travis himself the target?
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you
. Eventually he dismissed the idea that it could have been someone from his old pack. Not only had it been decades since he’d seen any of them, Travis didn’t
recognize the scent at all. And he seriously doubted that anyone who didn’t know him personally would be following him. No, either the Changeling was after Neva, or it was a random stranger just checking them out.

Travis was personally rooting for the random-stranger theory, because the wolf would have memorized
both
their scents and tracked them like a bloodhound. Sure, Travis and Neva had played and run through the lake shallows for a considerable distance before returning to dry land. The stranger would have had to circle the lake, casting back and forth to find the place they’d left the water. But he would find it. And follow. Their trail would be as plain as a four-lane highway to Changeling senses.

Yet the wolf had apparently given up the chase. If the Changeling had truly been after either one of them, he would even now be breathing down their necks—or attempting to tear out their throats. Except that no sane wolf would tackle a shape-shifter of Travis’s size and experience alone.

Which means there’s a chance he’s fallen back to wait for reinforcements.

Travis opened his eyes and heaved himself to his feet. He hated to do it, but he nosed Neva awake anyway.
Come on. We have to get moving.

Neva wanted more sleep—about a week’s worth—but if there was any chance they were still being followed, it was a luxury she couldn’t afford. Meredith’s wolves were certain to be hunting for her.
Or for my body.
For the first time, she realized that their crazed leader probably didn’t expect her to survive a first Change by herself. A new question surfaced almost immediately: If she died, would Meredith have cared at all? Would she have been the teeniest, tiniest bit sorry? Neva shoved that question away, tried to deep-six that whole line of thinking, and only succeeded in diverting it somewhat.

There was no guarantee Neva would have survived even if she’d stayed. No one in the pack received any coaching or comfort during their initial shift. Pain and shock combined to overcome some of the newbies, more so if they fought it. Resistance was, indeed, futile. There was only death or enslavement to Meredith’s warped magic.

Neva had managed to create a third option: escape. She was still amazed she’d pulled it off, but she hadn’t had any faith in her ability to elude Meredith for long. Her whole plan had been to die before she could be forced into standard pack initiation: the slaughter of a human being. Every member had to prove their absolute obedience and loyalty to Meredith through murder. At least that’s what she said—Neva suspected that Meredith somehow used the deaths to power some of her horrible spells.
And every pack member would hasten to comply. Neva knew she would have, too, had she stayed. Not because she wanted to, not because she feared whatever punishment would be meted out if she didn’t (although that was certain to be ugly and painful). No, it was because the magic Meredith commanded usurped the will of every member of her pack. Once they made that first Change, they were hers.

If that’s true, why am I not running back to her?

Why indeed?
Travis’s words popped into her head. He was about twenty yards ahead of her as they raced along a small river valley where the foliage was dense. She thought she detected a note of amusement in his “voice”—he probably got a kick out of annoying her.

Have you been listening all along?
she demanded.

Have you made any effort to keep your thoughts to yourself?

She ignored that.
Look, when can I Change back to human? I’ve had enough of running around on four feet. Tell me how.

When we get to a town.

We’ve bypassed three towns, a truck stop, and a fruit stand already. You’re not my boss. It should be my decision when I Change, and I want to Change
now.
For all I know, you could be trying to keep me like this so you have somebody to hang out with.

Despite their ground-eating gallop, Travis stopped so suddenly that she had to swerve to avoid crashing into him. She tripped over her own feet and tumbled down a brushy slope, where she lay with the wind half knocked out of her. Stiff-legged, he stalked after her, and from her prone vantage point, she appreciated anew that not only was he a helluva lot bigger than she was as a human, he was also damn huge as a wolf. His tawny-gold ruff stood out, and the ridge of fur along his spine rose as well. His muzzle was wrinkling with suppressed fury, although he was keeping his sharp teeth covered for the moment.

It was
his
fault that she fell, and
he
was pissed? It was all she could do not to growl at him.
How sweet of you to come and see if I’m all right.

He ignored the remark.
Number one, I don’t need anyone to hang with. Number two, if I did, I wouldn’t choose a green wolf because it’s a helluva lot harder to keep a low profile. And number three, this
I-don’t-trust-you
shit is getting old.

You think I should trust you? You’re a werewolf!

It’s not a character defect.

For a split second, the anger in his gaze gave way to something else. Sadness? Pain? Before Neva could decide which, however, Travis’s usual glare returned full force.

You wanna walk on two legs? Fine. Let’s do it.

Now they were getting somewhere. Neva stood up and followed Travis’s terse instructions:
Picture yourself as a human. Close your eyes so you can concentrate—you have to hold the image until you feel your human body. Call it to you. Not like that. Okay, that’s better. Now
let go.

There was a strange sensation over every square inch of her, as if she’d suddenly drawn in all the essence, the energy, even the air from all around her. Soaked it in like a dry sponge pulls in water. And her hearing, her sense of smell—all of her senses, in fact—were abruptly dulled as if she really
was
underwater. She opened her eyes in a panic, but realized she was in her human skin—and her senses were naturally blunted as a result. Neva heaved a sigh of relief and turned to say something to the tawny wolf, who was sitting and staring at her with his head cocked to one side. He didn’t look angry anymore. In fact, his lips were drawn back in a wide lupine grin. Obviously he was pleased that she’d managed to—

Omigod, I’m NAKED!
Neva tried to cover herself with her hands and finally dove behind a tree. “Where the hell are my clothes, you bastard!”

Probably back by the truck. That’s okay, you look fine without them. Better, in fact.

She looked around the tree trunk and bared her teeth at him. “What didn’t you tell me? What did you leave out? You’re fully dressed when you shift back into human form. I’ve seen it. So why aren’t my clothes here?”

Probably because you’re new at it. Most Changelings have to learn to bring their clothes along during the transition. It takes practice, that’s all.

Great. So how do I get my clothes back? Where the hell do they go while I’m a wolf?

You can’t now, and nobody knows.
Travis turned and trotted back up the slope.

Whaddya mean,
nobody knows?

Exactly what I said. Changelings have been trying to solve that one for eons. Current thought says they go to a different dimension or something. Whatever.
The big tawny wolf did a passable imitation of a shrug.
We’ve hung around here long enough. It’s time to get going.

Neva realized with a start that she had no idea where
here
was. She made her way awkwardly up the bank, slowed down by the uneven stones.
Wait, I can’t travel like this. I don’t even have shoes!

You wanted to be human
now,
remember? And you seem to suspect me of goddess knows what every time you don’t get your way. So deal with it. If you don’t like being human, Change back.

She cursed him out soundly as she stumbled along. The easy, ground-eating pace of her wolf had now given way to painful, awkward plodding. The game trail they were following had seemed like a smooth, green tunnel before, a perfect little highway through the brush. Now she stood a lot taller on two feet than on four, so what had once been an overgrown ceiling of
shady foliage was now a hellish wall of scratchy branches and itchy leaves. And
bugs
, dammit. She couldn’t even see through the bushes to know where she was stepping. The ground felt rough under her feet now, the soil hard-packed and crisscrossed with tree roots.
I don’t know how to shift back, you jerk!

Then figure it out.

And just like that he was out of sight.

Meredith licked the blood from her lips, then resumed her human form in a shower of blue sparks. She spared a glance at the folds of her Grecian-inspired gown and was satisfied that it remained pristine. The feather-white fabric glowed flawlessly in the moonlight.

It would have been more fun to kill the upstart wolf, but she was already short on initiates. As it was, Riley would be a long time healing and was useless in the meantime—except for the example she’d just made of him. “Take him back and throw him in the pit,” she ordered and turned her back to look at the other new wolves. She didn’t need to watch to know that she’d be obeyed instantly.

The gray mixture beneath her feet crackled with energy. Tiny veins of red lightning shot through the ash, charged further by the spilling of living blood within the circle. She felt tingly all over, but not half as good as she would a few moments from now. Meredith drew the pendant from between her breasts and held it aloft. Immediately the black opal flashed in the moonlight and began to pulse with crimson fire like the beating heart of a dragon. The energy in the circle built, and the six new wolves stood motionless, their gaze fixated on the opal in her hand and their eyes reflecting its light. Meredith laughed as she felt their living energy join with the magic, her magic, in the circle.