Page 92 of Pack Kasen: Part 2

“What’s the butterfly place?”

“One thing that makes this place home,” she says. “He’s been desperate to show you before Aren did.”

“Why?”

Her smile dims a little. “Aren showed the place to him when we came home. He thinks it will convince you to stay.”

I blink at her, surprised. “I thought this place was always home.”

She shakes her head. “For a while, it wasn’t. Have fun.”

“You trust me?” I call after her when she turns to go back into the bunkhouse.

“With Leo?” She peers over her shoulder, meeting my gaze. “I do. But try not to stay out too late. He still has to wash and eat something before he stuffs himself full of sweets at Emilio and Joy’s party later.”

I mentally wince. The Leo currently running in circles around me is the pre-sugar version. I seriously do not want to know what he’s like full of sugar. “Okay.”

She goes back inside the bunkhouse and I move to get up when Leo bumps his nose against my leg.

I look at him. “What is it?”

He gives me a playful growl.

It takes me a second to work out what he means. “You want me to be a wolf?”

He nods, his tail wagging playfully.

“I have work to do, Leo,” I remind him as my wolf whines at me.

He runs around me again, jumping on my back, his claws scraping and scratching as if he’s trying to hold on.

Laughing, I pull him off. “You’re not going to quit, are you?”

He shakes his head.

I didn’t come here to play. I came here to get Aren’s help to hunt a killer.

But..

“Is the butterfly place far?” I ask.

He shakes his head again.

And for once, I give in to the desire to play. “Okay. Give me a second.”

I briefly hesitate about stripping in front of a boy, but I needn’t have worried. He’s too busy sniffing grass, nearly falling into the creek, and chasing his tail to pay me any attention.

So I quickly strip and shift.

The moment I’m a wolf, he bolts into the forest, leaving the toy lion that’s almost as big as he is beside the water.

I follow, and although I’m faster than he is, I let him lead the way to the butterfly place he wants to show me.

He leads the way to a meadow, and he burrows into a bush.

I follow, more curious by the second.

And the boy I thought could never keep still for longer than five minutes settles down and I do the same.

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