Page 113 of Wolf's Endgame

I remembered Barbara’s trick with the cookies, but neither of these incidents made sense together. “I’m still not following.”

The shaman looked at me as if I were dense. “Rabbits can be seen as guides. These guides can assist individuals in navigating their spiritual paths and accessing their inner psyche, their inner wisdom.” He looked at me expectantly. “Rabbits, Cannon! In certain druid and even shamanic traditions, a rabbit can be associated with intuition and transformation.”

It took me a moment, and then I was sure I was the one who was looking at the shaman as if he were dense. “The rabbit… No?”

He was nodding as he made a potion. “The rabbit has her spirit.” Crushing petals into a thick gloopy mixture, he was still nodding. “The Goddess sent you to find a vessel; the druid performed the rite.”

“Kezia’s spirit is in the rabbit?” I asked him again dubiously.

Thrusting the drink out to me, he nodded. “Yes, drink this.”

I must be as crazy as him, but I drank the potion in one go.

“Find it, bring her home.”

“The rabbit?”

The shaman swatted me with the rolling pin. “Get my Kezia and bring her to me and her body. I should be able to put her back.”

I left his cottage and shifted immediately. I stood indecisive for a moment and then realized it had been one month since she was gone from me. Looking up at the darkening sky, I knew it was the full moon and I was a creature of Luna, and if the Goddess wanted me to hunt rabbits, well…I was hunting rabbits.

I sent a vague holding command to Royce, and then I did my best to retrace my steps all those weeks ago when Kezia and I had chased down a massive white, red-eyed rabbit.

I was a good hunter, one of the best in my pack, and as I searched high and low for an elusive white rabbit that may be holding the spirit of my mate, I found my patience wearing thin.

Hours later, I sat on a bluff overlooking a town I’d been to only once before. Cautiously, I approached, my wolf too big to be natural, and the option of running through the woods naked wasn’t an option. Picking my way through the dense underbrush, slinking low, I found myself at the back of some log cabins.

Night had fallen long ago, and I was grateful it allowed me to blend more into the darkness.

The door opened and the old woman stood uncertainly in the doorway, a blanket in one hand and a shotgun in the other.

“You coming out?” She dropped the blanket. “Door’s open.” She went back inside.

Luna, grant me your grace.

Wrapping the blanket around my waist, I went inside. She’d been watching me from the window and grinned.

“Well, you’re a fine looking thing,” she said with admiration.

My day had been crazy, and now a woman old enough to be my grandmother had just openly objectified me. “Lottie? Right?”

“Yup.” She smacked her lips together, still openly appreciating my bare chest.

“This is going to sound strange?—”

“The rabbit’s out back.”

She walked past me, back out the back door, and led me to the smallest of the cabins. “Zia stayed here the first time around,” she told me easily as she unlocked the door. “Thought this would be the best place for it.”

Inside, she closed the door firmly. “Never seen anything like it.”

“A rabbit?” I asked cautiously, searching the dim cabin.

“Oh, it’s not just any rabbit,” she told me and flicked the light on.

“Holy Luna…”

It was as big as I remembered, only its coat had changed, now streaked with black. Its eyes were no longer bright red, but deep burgundy. It watched me with an intensity that would have been unnerving if I hadn’t experienced it before.

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