Stranger Skies (The Borderlands Saga #1)

9. Wolf Moon

Shocked or surprised were words that were too light to describe what Thalaea felt as her wolf friend — Laeanai — changed into a human man before her...well, before her nose. Her feelings went far beyond surprise. She didn't even know what she was feeling, because she was so far beyond surprised there wasn't a word for it.

"You're a man." It was a silly thing to say, and she knew it, but she could think of nothing else.

He chuckled. "No. I'm a wolf that becomes a man on the new moon."

Her hand was still on his back. It felt as if it were glued there; as if letting go would change reality again. Laeanai did not shift position, nor ask her to remove it, so she stopped trying to will her fingers away from his skin. He was solid and real, at least. For now.

"Are you still trying to figure that out?" he asked, humour rippling his tone. His voice was a soothing baritone.

"Yes," she said, more of a gasp than a word. I knew the wolves here were different, but....

"So you are from somewhere else," he said, and she jumped. Had she projected in Wolf again? "I smelled it on you. The scent of another world, of other wolves."

"I am. I was a wolf once. Now I am trapped as a woman." Gods, it felt good to say that out loud. The lump in her throat eased a little; tears pricked her eyes. She breathed out in relief.

"You are still a wolf," Laeanai replied, and she felt a very human hand rest on her leg, warming her limb through her thick pants. "You smell of wolf, though you wear human clothes made of sheep's wool, and you speak Wolf. And your face was that of a wolf, as were your teeth. The wounds you gave that hunter were wounds from a wolf."

Thalaea felt like laughing and crying at the same time. "Yes, but I cannot control it. You say you can change at the new moon, from wolf to man — can you change at any other time?"

There was a pause, and when Laeanai spoke he sounded uncomfortable. "No. I cannot."

"Well then. I cannot make my face a wolf's again, let alone my entire body. You're better off than I am."

She could smell his irritation before he spoke and his words sounded more like growls. "I would be dead were it not for your human form. Perhaps it is not as useless as you think."

He removed his hand from her leg, then, and moved away. Her hand fell from his back, and her fingers curled up, bereft of his warmth.

There was a minute of silence, Thalaea feeling chastened. She'd spent too long feeling sorry for herself. Laeanai was right. Her human form was useful and she had to be grateful for the good it could do.

"Forgive me," she whispered. "I have felt lost for too long."

Laeanai's warmth preceded him, like a cloud of comfort. He inched closer until they were sitting next to each other, thighs touching. He seemed to generate heat, whereas she was always cold.

"You've found a pack now. Regardless what my mother says; you are welcome here. She's just wary of those who seem human but she knows you are wolf. Even if she won't admit it."

Thalaea's hope that he couldn't smell the salt on her eyes from her tears of gratitude was futile. She wiped her eyes discreetly and sniffed. "From what I've seen of this planet's humans, she has every right to be."

A small part of her cried out at her words — was she so quick to betray her loves? Brinna and Enendoa had never wronged wolves, yet here Thalaea was lumping all the humans of Min in the same basket as Kaz.