THE WOLF WHO STEPPED out of the shadows was huge but grizzled around the muzzle. Or maybe I’d imagined his size while making an incorrect assumption about the link between him coming and the others fleeing. Because, as the newcomer neared, he seemed to grow smaller. His body pressed low to the ground, the way I used to instinctively slink around the corners of Court in lupine form before I realized that overt submission just made the fae more likely to use me for target practice.
He hadn’t chased off the other wolves. He was afraid of them.
And they hadn’t gone far. The wolves who’d been herding me a moment earlier now stood in a line at the trees’ edge, eyes fixated not on me but on the elderly shifter. Their muscles were tense, as if they were one second away from a lunge.
This poor g
