Red Wolf by Rachel Vincent

Author:Rachel Vincent
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperTeen
Published: 2021-05-10T00:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

“Adele! Good morning!” Grainger called, jogging down the muddy alley between the bakery and the cottage next door. “I was hoping to catch you on my way to the sawmill.”

“Good morning,” I said as he stepped into the small yard at the back of our cottage.

“Morning, Grainger!” Sofia swung the empty milk pail at her side, and in her free hand, she clutched the horse Max had carved for her. A few weeks ago, she’d woken to find it standing on the table at her place, showing off a brand-new mane made of snow-white fur.

Whitewulf fur, snipped from the bundle Gran had sent back with us.

Sofia had hardly let go of the horse since.

“Is everything okay?” Grainger frowned, studying my face. “You look a little pale, and you’ve seemed tired lately. In fact, yesterday you almost fell asleep in your lunch.”

“Monsieur Colbert, your concern is unnecessary—but very sweet.” I smiled up at him. The truth was that I felt like I’d hardly seen him all month, though I’d made a point to have lunch with him nearly every day. Between my training and Max’s increased attention, the structure of my days had changed, and I would not let my relationship with Grainger suffer because of the new demands on my time. “Everything’s fine,” I assured him. “I’ve just been very busy.”

“She’s making clothes for Tom!” Sofia piped up. “I’m helping!”

“Elena and I volunteered to see that the boy has what he needs,” I explained. “The basics, anyway.”

But the real cause of my pale and somewhat haggard countenance was the fact that I’d spent the first half of every night for the past month in the dark wood hunting beasts and perfecting my aim with the crossbow.

Mama was a thorough instructor, teaching me about dozens of different dark-wood monsters while she drilled me on the fundamentals of fighting in both my redwulf and human forms. But as fascinating as all the beasts and their histories were, the most remarkable creature in the dark wood was, without a doubt, my own mother. She’d always been determined and independent—she’d run the bakery and raised two daughters all on her own since my father’s death—but in the forest she seemed to truly come alive. And she was fearsome! Fast and strong, with shocking reflexes and a phenomenal coordination that made me wonder if I would ever attain such skills.

Yet, a couple of weeks ago, she’d claimed that she was tired and asked Max to start accompanying me.

I believed she was tired; I certainly was. But I also believed that was a convenient excuse to send me into the dark wood with Max, so he could prove how very useful a part of my life he could be. Even though she would never have sent me off alone in the middle of the night with any other boy.

Subtlety was not my mother’s strong suit. Yet her gamble was a clever one. I’d improved significantly with the crossbow, and Max and I had fallen into a

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