Page 78 of A Wolfe in the Woods

But the voice didn’t finish its sentence. It fractured and broke mid-word like a glitch. The tone shifted, as if it was a recording slowing down, the pitch dropping into something almost inhuman.

“Plleeaassse…”

My stomach dropped. Because that had not been a cry for help.

That had been somethingpretending.

Jonathan stepped in front of me, eyes glowing faintly now in the dusk. “We need to get out of here as soon as possible. Do you trust me?”

“Yes,” I replied, sucking in a shallow breath, my word falling immediately from my lips.

Before I could finish the word, Jonathan moved…andshifted.

It was sudden and jarring, like something tearing loose from beneath his skin and exploding outward. His spine cracked with a horrible wet sound, his limbs extending and reshaping before I could even step back.

His T-shirt shredded against his back, muscles bulging, tendons twisting. Black fur erupted across his shoulders. Clawed feet shredded his boots. Unlike wolf shifters, Lycans could remain upright,orthey could navigate on all fours, which made them equally dangerous.

When he turned to face me, the eyes that met mine were an electric, piercing blue. Glowing and distinctly inhuman…but familiar. Achingly so.

A Lycan. Towering and monstrous, with gleaming black fur. But somehow, it was still terrifyingly him.

I couldn’t move. Jonathan lumbered forward and scooped me up before I could blink, careful not to shred my skin with his claws.

Then he was running.Fast. The world was a blur—leaves, wind, branches whipping past. The forest roared in my ears as my heart pounded, panic and adrenaline in my mind and chest.

I clung to him, silent, shocked, trying to make sense of what the hell was happening. But there was nothing to make sense of. Only the sound of something behind us.

Still calling.

CHAPTER 21

BLANCHETTE

We broke through the last of the trees, the darkening sky splitting wide before us.

Jonathan skidded to a halt at the cliff’s edge, claws gouging stone, muscles coiled and tense as we stopped. The movement was so abrupt and feral my breath snagged.

I gasped, clutching his fur as the world opened around us and I realized where he’d brought us.

Cryer’s Point. The same place where he’d brought me to watch the stars.

Below, the valley stretched like a painting. The moon hung low, large and pale, casting long shadows across the Everwick lights in the distance. Wind lashed my hair across my face, smelling of juniper, stone, and something older. The silence feltalive.

Meanwhile, Jonathan loomed, still in his monstrous form—broad, shadowed, otherworldly—fur rippling in the wind. The night air was humid, my heartbeat was pounding in my throat…and his glowing eyes never left mine.

I should’ve been afraid of him. That was the logical thing, wasn’t it? A natural human fear when staring into the eyes of a much more powerful creature? Because even though I’d grown up around all kinds of magical and supernatural folk, there had always been an undercurrent of fear when it had come to Lycans.

But this was Jonathan…

And he’d just saved me from whatever had been back in those woods.

So, no…I wasn’t afraid of him. I was only afraid of what was still out there, the thing we’d heard in the woods…and at the same time, I feared the dangerous heat that had started to bloom under my skin.

Jonathan Wolfe hadsavedme. Protected me. It was primal. I was surprised how that knowledge curled under my skin. It pulled at something deep inside that I couldn’t understand. Something unexpected.

My hands were trembling. When I tried to climb down from his arms my knees buckled, and he caught me easily, claws brushing my hip, steadying me, keeping me there. The touch jolted me—hot, strong, possessive.

Then his body shuddered. Bones folding inward, muscles shifting and reshaping, fur evaporating off like smoke. The monster unraveled, but it wasn’t pristine. It was slow, wet, and dark…like the night giving up its shape to form a man. His breath turned to a growl as he fought it down, until skin replaced fur and claws transmuted to hands. Naked hands…