Page 58 of In the Light of the Moon

But that moment never came. The last dinner we’d had, while Sylvie was in the bathroom, her grandmother asked me when I was going to tell her. When I didn’t have an answer, only nervous sputters, halfway fearful that she’d force me to shift right then and there, she just sighed and stated that Sylvie wouldn’t mind. That she just deserved to know.

Which was what Juno kept saying, bugging the shit out of me. Really, they sometimes seemed both a witch and shifter. Their ability to retain infuriating calm through every situation was more supernatural than their wolf form could ever be to me.

“I wasn’t referring to her grandmother,” Juno’s voice turned low, guarded, and they cut their eyes to their left. I did the same to my right, only to lock eyes with the weak one. The pup that’d saw fit to challenge me in front of my mate. His eyes immediately dropped in submission, and while I did feel a surge of satisfaction, it was swiftly followed by more guilt, more fear.

The Antler Point Pack had been keeping eyes on me ever since I declined their demand that I join. To them, it was either submit to Graham or be forbidden to run on their land. Including that of my home.

To hear Juno tell it, I’d actually spat at their feet.

I didn’t regret rejecting them, but it was its own kind of insult to smell them on my land. To sneak my own shifting and have to go out of town to spend more than a few hours in my other form.

“This can’t go on, friend,” Juno drawled once the pup was out of earshot.

“I know. I know that I need to tell her.”

“Well, that, yes. But I was referring to them,” they waved a hand toward the direction the Other Wolf went. “I donothavea good feeling about this pack or their leader. From the moment I met them, I sensed something sinister. They aren’t all family, notpack. It almost feels like a cult. And it isn’t right how they’ve treated you, especially.” Instead of going about rejecting the pack in the manner I had, Juno had elected to take a different approach. Before we met, when they moved to Antler Pointe for work, they politely declined Graham’s offer, stating that they wished to keep their ties to their family pack, and they still held the scent to back them up. They’d agreed not to run on Antler Pointe land, and that was that.

It was an excuse that I would never be able to use. My own scent gave the distinctNo Packindication. One that left me more vulnerable to parasites like Graham. And I’d given it to Sylvie.

But I just shrugged at Juno’s words. My friend rested their head in their palm, and I wasn’t too proud to admit that I envied them. Not just for the lack of trouble Graham and his subordinates gave them but for their multitude of siblings and pair of loving parents and a whole pack that they still ran with more often than not. When I’d visited and been granted permission to run with them in the past, it made my own lack of ties painfully obvious. Though they invited me to become pack every time, I hadn’t been able to bring myself to accept.

It was too painful after what happened with my former one.

And I wasnotgoing to challenge Graham for Leader, which was the only way I’d bring my line back to the pack that my ancestors started. I’d escaped death last time I’d challenged, but I was sure Graham wouldn’t be so generous if I lost. And I wouldn’t leave Sylvie.

At least when Chief Thompson was Leader, he’d let my father live and run on our land as Unpacked in peace. It was a decision made by my great-great-grandmother when a new pack leader deviated from the values my family had tried to instill since its inception. If Graham weren’t leader, and I hadn’tbeen burned so badly a few years prior, I might have heard out Chief Thompson or literally anyone else about joining. But when Graham came to my house, not two days after I moved in and started working on renovating, and demanded I join or agree to not run on what he claimed as their land, maybe I did spit at his feet. After being pursued and attacked each time I tried to enjoy my land in wolf form, I had to resort to running elsewhere. Where I could at least be Wolf in peace.

“And how do you suppose I fix this situation, Juno? I am one, and they are at least twenty at this point.” I was strong but not that strong.

“I’m not sure. But you know that I will back you one hundred percent. And if everything goes to shit, you are always welcome with mine.” Their smile was mushed against the heel of their hand, and I grunted and nodded along with their reassurance.

Welcome and belonging were two very separate things.

“And your mate as well. Any pups you may have in the future, too.” My brows tightened at the endearing words. I managed to hold their eyes, so similar in color to Sylvie’s but vastly different. Juno gave a deep incline of their head, managing it somehow with their face still in hand, and I returned the gesture, emotion clogging my throat. Yes, this wasn’t just about me anymore.

I had to keep reminding myself that, by human standards, this relationship was in its early days. Pups were a conversation for further down the line, but I wasn’t human. And Sylvie barely was. In fact, she seemed further from it with each passing day.

Not a turned shifter, but something else. When I was around her and her grandmother, there was still a difference there that wasn’t just the tart witch smell. It made me want to scent her all over, bow at her feet, rip the world to shreds, and tear myself apart, all at the same time.

My head snapped up, catching a thread of that very scent, now. And then, the melodic trill of her voice. My muscleshummed, and I searched the street around us in the direction my body turned to without thought.Mate, mate, mate,my Wolf rejoiced, and then I saw her.

Her black hair bouncing, as if it was almost weightless, the flushed warmth of her brown skin. The loneliness and despair I’d been feeling evaporated in an instant.

“Good lord, your tail is wagging,” Juno snickered, but I ignored them. Because her eyes just met mine, and she was grinning.

I would tell her. And I would make our land safe for us, somehow. And if I couldn’t do that, we would go somewhere that was. I would never let them harm her the way they had me.

Sylvie’s friend had been gesturing wildly but dropped their arms like their strings had been cut. Sylvie, though, rushed forward and rounded the little fence that enclosed the patio seating. I stood and met her kiss, cradling her face and feeling her warmth under mine. She initiated our noses brushing, and it made my heart gallop.

“What a lucky coincidence,” she giggled, and I kissed her again, swallowing the joy she was granting me.

“Indeed,” I said.

A throat clearing made Sylvie stiffen and shift, so I settled to wrapping an arm around her waist.

“I’m sorry, that was rude of me,” she laughed self-consciously, and my lips pursed in confusion. What was rude about being excited to see each other? “Oh! Hey, Dr. Vanders.” Sylvie gave them a pleasant smile in greeting. Before Juno could say anything, though, Sylvie’s scent popped with curiosity, and I saw her head was tilted and nose wrinkled.

Juno gave me a loaded glance before standing, “Hi, Sylvie, it’s good to see you.” Then, much more stiffly, they greeted Sylvie’s friend who had stopped a few paces away from our table, “And you, Josie.”

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