Rejected Wolf's Secret Baby (Midlife Wolves in Crisis) by J.L. Wilder

Author:J.L. Wilder [Wilder, J.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2022-10-07T04:00:00+00:00

29

ALICIA

Brandon steps away from me. “Are you hungry?” he asks.

“I could eat,” I say, wondering what he has in mind.

“How long has it been since you’ve hunted? Properly hunted, I mean?”

I laugh. “I don’t hunt when I’m human.”

“Well, I don’t know. Some humans do that.”

I’ve imagined it plenty of times—hunting with weapons, the way humans do. Everything about it feels wrong to me. If I wanted to hunt, why would I leave my best, most effective weapons at home, exchange them for something man-made and less reliable? My wolf body was made for hunting. It’s evolved that way over centuries. There’s no better way to run down prey than as a wolf.

“It’s been a while,” I tell Brandon.

“Well, do you think you can keep up with me?”

“You really think you’re good, don’t you?”

He shrugs. “I am good.”

He’s not being boastful. It’s just an accurate description of the facts. Brandon has always been one of the best hunters in our pack, even when we were young. On campfire nights, he could be counted upon to bring back a whole pack of squirrels when the others were only good for one or two.

So no, actually, I’m not sure I can keep up with him. Especially since I’m so out of practice.

“I was going to hunt today,” I say, “but I wasn’t planning on having company.”

“You’ll be all right,” he says. “We’ll start slow, okay?”

“I can keep up with you running. I’m probably faster than you are in a foot race.”

He laughs. “You think so?”

“Have you forgotten the year I outran everyone our age in the Campfire Games?”

“Yeah, I remember that. We were ten, right?”

“Something like that.”

He grins. “I’m a little bigger now,” he says. “I’m not sure you’d be able to outrun me if we tried that today.”

“You’re on,” I say.

Brandon raises his eyebrows. “Are you sure about that?” he asks. “I don’t want to push you too hard on your first time out.”

“I can handle myself,” I say evenly.

“All right. To the highway and back?”

The highway’s about five miles from where we’re standing right now, so a ten-mile run overall. It’s doable—I can run that distance as a human. Whether I can run it as fast as Brandon can remains to be seen, but I’m going to make him work for it.

He shifts back into his wolf form, and I take a moment to admire him. It’s been years since I’ve really looked at him like this. He’s right: he is bigger than I remember him being. I can see the lines of his muscles winding around his limbs. His shoulders are broad and his hips are slim, but he’s unmistakably Brandon. I can see all the same scars he has on his body in human form. Anyone who’s ever seen him naked would know.

He paws the ground, clearly anxious to get started.

“Hold your horses,” I laugh, and he snorts at me.

It occurs to me that it would be nice if we could just be wolves together all the time. If

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