Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Shiloh’s expression went pensive. “I was scared. Agnes was too, but she tried to fight.”
“Don’t feel bad for being scared. That thing was mean. You didn’t run or cry. You stood up to it. You should be proud of yourself. I bet if you really wanted, you could have stomped on it. Broken a couple toes at least,” I suggested.
Matti snickered.
“You think so?” little Shiloh asked.
“Definitely.”
Maybe I shouldn’t put that idea into his head.
He was quiet until after we’d jumped over a fallen log—him gracefully, me not so much—and then waited for crazy Agnes to take three tries to get over it too after she’d tried biting Matti again when he tried to help her. That time though, Matti had quietly growled at her and continued doing it until she’d stopped. I forgot there was a huge brown wolf under that ’stache.
Then Shiloh asked, freckled nose wrinkling, “But why was that mean lady scared of you?”
How was I supposed to explain that to a child, especially one who was holding my hand when I’d had full-grown adults who left campgrounds when I arrived? Plus, Shiloh wasn’t a predator.
I guess I wasn’t one either.
“I don’t turn into anything like you all do, but I have magic that it doesn’t understand. You liked the way I smell, but it didn’t,” I told him as casually as possible, not wanting to alarm him or give him a reason to ask more questions I wouldn’t know how to answer.
“But—” he started to say just as we approached the visible signs of a road ahead. Matti gestured us to the left with his head, and I followed. He had to help all of us, minus the white puppy who dug a hole and belly crawled under the fence, and once we were clear, I spotted the travel trailer exactly where we’d left it.
“You’re taking us home?” Shiloh asked with another squeeze of my palm.
“Yup,” I told him. “We were going there anyway.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m hoping your pack will let me and my pup live there.”
“You have a pup?”
“Yeah. His name is Duncan, and he’s over there with my friend, Sienna. She’s a wolf like them.”
Sienna wouldn’t care if I told her secret—not that it really was one anyway, since the little boy could probably sense the similarities between her and his pup friends.
Shiloh’s eyes widened in interest as Matti got to the spot where Sienna and Duncan had been waiting. He leaned in and kissed her, rubbing the top of my donut’s head while he did. Duncan leaned toward the boy, Pascal, and I was pretty sure they were smelling each other before my puppy gave the boy a lick. Sienna laughed and grinned before they made their way to the truck and opened the rear passenger door, loading Duncan inside first, then the child.
I squeezed my new friend’s hand again as the white werewolf reached the truck and she barked at my best friends.
“Don’t be scared,” I told Shiloh. “None of us are going to hurt you, and I promise we’re just taking you home. You’re safe.”
He gave me that spirit-soaring, dreamy smile. “I know,” he assured me as more sharp barks filled the air. Agnes the werewolf pup was on the ground, her small face tilted up to the truck where Duncan was. She was wagging her tail and snapping her teeth at him. Sienna took a step between them.
“Stop, pup,” she demanded, clearly aiming the command at the crazy one—but not that crazy because the puppy knocked it off and sat on her hind legs. That tone of voice usually had the same effect on Duncan, who hadn’t made a peep to begin with. He was picky about what he was willing to get in trouble over.
Sienna smiled sweetly, and Matti and I both gave her an impressed face. I whistled at her, and she looked up, ready to say something when her mouth dropped as we made it to the truck. “Are you a satyr?” she gasped at Shiloh with sheer joy.
A satyr. That’s what he was.
Shiloh leaned against my thigh. “Yes,” he whispered, suddenly shy. Or maybe it was because she was a new predator he didn’t know?
She squealed. “You’re so cute!”
My new friend glanced up at me, his freckled cheeks pink. “You are very cute,” I promised him. Then I focused on Duncan, who was too busy staring at Agnes to even notice I was back. “I missed you too, Dunky-Dunk,” I called out with a laugh.
Bright red eyes moved toward me a split second before that fluffy tail swept from side to side. That warmth that felt like a hug in my chest flared in sudden greeting.
“Yes.”
I blinked, trying my best to get used to this ability that had popped up when his appearance had changed. He wasn’t using it very often yet, but when he did? It was like a Christmas present. When I’d told Matti and Sienna about it, after we’d discussed the ranch, they had both looked at me like I was nuts. But I hadn’t been totally surprised when he’d done it the first time; I’d had a feeling he would someday be able to communicate with me like that.