Jace
I needed to run.
That was the truth of it, stripped of any practical justification. Yes, we needed meat. Yes, the boar sign along the upper bank was fresh and worth following. But the real reason I walked into that forest was because my wolf had been climbing the walls of my skin since Kaida Hawkins grabbed my neck and fell into my chest, and if I didn’t put some distance and some exertion between myself and that girl I was going to do something I would regret.
I shifted as soon as the trees closed around me.
The relief was immediate. Four paws on the ground, the world opening up into scent and sound and the clean animal focus of the hunt. No thoughts about the way her hands had felt on my neck. No thoughts about the soft weight of her pressed against my chest, the small sound she
