Wolf Rain (Psy-Changeling Trinity #3)(98)

The wolf opened its eyes and huffed, then got up and ran a little way into the forest before coming back. After which it folded itself back down into a seated position and placed its head on its paws.

Memory glanced at the moon-kissed forest into which the wolf had run and back at him. She’d never played games, never had a playmate, but she’d watched so many documentaries. What did wolves like to do? Her eyes widened. “Oh. A chasing game!” Pulse kicking, she rose to her feet. “I’m not very fast.”

The wolf began to snore. I’m giving you a big head start.

She sensed that intent as clearly as if he’d spoken. The wolf’s emotions were far more primal than Alexei’s, but it was still him . . . and she could understand him in this form, too. That was a gift she’d never expected.

His eyes opened, a question in them.

“No peeking.” She pretended to scowl.

He parted his jaws in a wolfish reply before closing his eyes again.

Trying to move as quietly as possible, she walked into the forest. She took care, unsure of her footing—but the moon lit up the world. It showed her an area with towering pines, carpeted by thick pine needles.

No cracked rocks, nothing to trip her up if she was careful.

Alexei had stopped where she could play with him without hurting herself.

Pulse a drum, she began to run. When she spotted the silver ribbon of a small stream, she took off her shoes and socks and waded upstream for five minutes before getting out. It was worth the frozen toes to give Alexei a small challenge at least. After using her socks to dry her feet, she balled them up and stuck them in a back pocket. Her sneakers fit well even over bare feet.

Ready, she began to run again.

A wolf’s howl split the night sky five minutes later, raising every hair on her body, and she knew Alexei was on the hunt. Her breath hitched. Then froze in her lungs as howl after howl answered his. The wolf song echoed around the mountains, bouncing off the slopes and falling into the valleys. Memory’s eyes burned at the unearthly beauty of the wild chorus, but she forced herself to keep moving.

Alexei was on her trail.

Even as she tried to keep ahead of him, she wondered what would happen if she ran across a wolf other than Alexei. Distracted by the sudden thought, she nearly tripped on a root snaking across her path. Catching herself in the nick of time, she managed to keep her footing. Exhaling, she looked up in readiness to move again . . . and found herself eye-to-eye with a huge black wolf, his eyes vivid gold.

Her throat went dry, her muscles rigid.

The wolf angled its head in a quizzical way . . . and took a sniff at her before dropping its jaw in what she thought was a friendly way. She dared “sniff” back at him with her empathic senses and caught the edge of feral amusement. Changeling.

And he found her funny? That was fine with her. Giant black wolves with razor-sharp teeth probably didn’t eat people who made them laugh.

Turning without attacking her, the wolf padded away. But just when she thought she was safe, the wolf stopped to throw her a look over its shoulder. Come on, that look said.

It was insane to follow a strange wolf into the dark. But this was a crazy moonlit night where she was playing a chasing game with a golden wolf—she decided to take her life into her hands and follow the amused black wolf. But something kept niggling at her . . . She took another sniff. Frowned.

The emotional feel of him was tantalizingly familiar. She just had to translate wolf emotions into human and . . . “Riaz?” she gasped with a smile.

Glancing back, the wolf gave a look of approval before carrying on through the trees.

Memory followed in silence.

Less than two minutes later, she came around a tree and nearly ran into a small Asian woman with blunt-cut bangs and jet-black hair down to her shoulders.

Memory’s eyes widened, but before she could apologize, the woman—who wore black jeans, boots, and what might’ve been a dark blue sweater that hugged her body—scowled down at the black wolf.

“What the hell, Riaz? What are you doing with Alexei’s empath?”

Alexei’s empath.

The words settled on Memory’s skin, sank deep. “Alexei and I are playing a chasing game,” she said, feeling as if she were in the middle of a fantastical movie where a dangerous wild creature led her to a woman who looked at her with the eyes of a friendly assassin.

“Game, huh?” The maybe-assassin exchanged looks with Riaz’s wolf. “Our Lexie has a huge advantage.” She looked Memory up and down. “You have a couple of pieces of clothing you can spare?”

Mystified, Memory pulled out her damp socks.

The wolf and the woman looked at one another again before the wolf shook his head. Taking the hint, Memory put the socks back into her pocket.

“Have you sweated?” The woman put her hands on her hips, and though there wasn’t a visible weapon on her, Memory kept thinking of her as armed.

A lightbulb went on in Memory’s brain. “Turn around,” she said to Riaz.

He yawned, but did so while she stripped off her orange sweater, then took off her tee. Handing that to the woman, she pulled her sweater back on. “Sacrifice it.” She nodded to the tee. “This is war.”

A wicked grin. “I like you, E. Now, let’s make this game a little harder for Lexie.” A blade suddenly glinted in her hand. Using it to rip the T-shirt in two, she gave one piece to Riaz, held the other herself.