Page 93 of Pack Kasen: Part 2

Ten minutes pass in complete silence. Other than our breath stirring the leaves of the bush we’re hiding behind, we don’t move.

I hadn’t believed Leo could keep so still or for so long. I should tell Gregor or take a picture, because I doubt he’d believe me without one.

Leo’s ears prick the way mine are, and I hold my breath as I watch. In the field on the other side of the line of trees just ahead of us, a deer runs past. Thankfully, it’s not the gigantic deer that nearly trampled Leo a few days ago. This one is smaller, nimbler, and missing the antlers that could have speared him and me both.

Its ears are decidedly curved.

Female.

A fawn.

Butterflies dance into the sky, like insubstantial brown bits of nothing floating in the wind at first. As they open their wings, they hover and dart and swoop.

They are so beautiful. A clashing jumble of rainbow colors.

My wolf is growling in my head, demanding to know why we aren’t chasing and biting.

I hush her as I absorb a sight so magical, I could never find it in the city. This isn’t the botanical garden I once went to for peace and tranquility. I’m not elbow to elbow with other people in the city, trying to take pictures of everything that moves.

It’s just me and Leo, with a cloud of beautiful butterflies inches from our noses.

As the last of the butterflies find a new hiding place, Leo’s patience runs out and he scrambles up.

Leo chases me, trying to bite my tail, and I chase him back, gently and subtly steering him back toward the house so his mom doesn’t worry.

My wolf surprises me with her patience and her willingness to play with a pup.

This is one of the few times I’ve let myself shift here, and I know she loves the wide open space and the freedom to just run and run.

I’d have thought she’d be off like a shot, running until it was midnight, but she’s as eager to return Leo back to his mom as I am.

When we return to our clothes, he either can’t or doesn’t want to change back to a boy.

I shift first, pull on my clothes andjuststop Leo from jumping in the creek. “Hey! What is your obsession with jumping in there?”

“He’s always loved water,” his mom calls out to me, a smile in her voice. “Did he show you the butterflies?”

I set him back on his feet, wait for him to wander away from the creek instead of toward it, then turn to smile at Dania. “He did. It was amazing.”

“Water and butterflies. Those are about the only things he will ever sit still long enough to appreciate,” she says with so much love in her eyes as she looks at him that I have the strangest, most painful ache in my belly.

She loves him so much. And I don’t think there’s anything she wouldn’t do for him.

What would my life have been like with a mother who loved me like that?

“Come on, Leo,” she calls out.

A lick on the back of my hand makes me laugh, and Leo tears off, nearly knocking Dania over in his eagerness to greet her. Clearly, he’s not interested in being a boy just yet.

I gather up his clothes and walk over to the bunkhouse, handing them to his mom.

“Thanks. I’ll see you at the party later, okay?”

I nod, but I’m not sure that I will be there.

I’m here for one reason—get help to track a killer.

That’s it.

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