Wolfsong (Green Creek 1)

I didn’t know what caused the change. But one day, she came with her eyes flashing, her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, and she managed to sweep my legs out from underneath me. I was dazed, looking up at the clouds through the trees and she just laughed.

God, I loved that woman. More than anything.

Which is why I was so scared at disappointing her. With something so stupid as sex.

“Is there… you know.” She looked up at me. “Anyone special?”

I shook my head. “Not since Jessie.”

“Not a lot of pickings around here.”

“Uh.”

“You’ll meet someone,” she said, suddenly fierce. “You’ll see. A girl or a boy and they’ll worship the ground you walk on because you deserve to be treasured. And I’ll be there to say I told you so because you’ve earned it. If anyone in this world has earned it, it’s you.”

CARTER WENT to college. I found a rare weekend to go visit him. Kelly and Joe wanted to go, but they had homework and Elizabeth put her foot down.

Carter was okay with that.

He had a dorm room to himself.

He introduced me to a few people, but I forgot their names almost immediately because it’d been weeks since I’d seen my friend. He must have felt the same because he made the people leave and we lay on the floor, his head on my legs, and he said, “You smell like home.”

We stayed there until the sun went down.

He took me to some club and got us in. I didn’t know how. He said it was probably because we were bigger than everyone else.

The music was loud. The lights were flashing. I didn’t know how he could stand it, given that all his senses were heightened. I could smell booze and sweat and the cloying sticky perfume of a woman who came out of nowhere and rubbed herself against me before she disappeared back into the crowd.

Carter just laughed.

He said, “Here,” and handed me a glass of something.

I drank it. It was fruity and it burned.

He did too, but alcohol did nothing to wolves, unless they drank enough to kill a normal human. He’d told me once that he just liked the taste. He wondered what it’d be like to be drunk. I wondered what it’d be like to feel the pull of the moon.

I saw the glint of orange in his eyes.

It was hot in the club. Sticky and moist.

One moment I was laughing as two women came and sandwiched him on the dance floor, and the next there were pretty green eyes in front of me. Pale skin. A wicked smile with a hint of teeth.

He said, “What’s your name?”

And I said, “Ox.”

“Ox. That’s unique.”

I grinned because I felt good. “I guess. Who’re you.” My limbs were loose. The bass crawled along my skin.

He said, “Eric,” and, “You want to dance?”

“I’m not very good. I’m too big.”

That wicked smile curved even farther. “That right?”

He pulled me by the hand and led me through the crowd. Carter caught my eye and asked a question that only I could hear and I shrugged and turned away.