ELLIE
Something is moving through the fur along my shoulder.
Slow. Down and back up again, following the same line each time.
My eyes fly open.
A hand.
I follow the arm up.
Adrian is sitting against the birch beside me.
He's back.
The clearing is gray. Light is coming in flat through the trunks, and the bark on the ground has gone silver with dew.
My breath is white in front of my face.
The tree line is empty. I listen for Roan and his men. Nothing. They went at some point, and I slept through it.
I shift.
It comes faster this time.
The cold gets to me the second I’m bare.
Adrian is standing when I look up. He doesn't say anything.
I don't either. I stand in the wrecked bark and look at him.
"Your wolf is beautiful." His voice comes out wrecked. Whatever the night did
