Page 134 of Halfblood Deceived

“We?” Aylana asked, intrigued.

Aella hesitated. Diana knew about her friendship with the wolf, of course, but no one else did. Still, she trusted Aylana and Sebastian. They had saved her life after all, and they’d been friendly with her the couple of times they’d visited Diana.

“I was having a walk with my wolf, like most nights.” Aylana and Sebastian blinked at her. “Um, I mean, he’s not my wolf. He’s a wolf who keeps me company and talks to me.” They looked even more surprised. Aella scratched her itchy neck. Why on earth am I blushing? She wondered. “I mean, he doesn’t speak, I do, and he listens, but I’m sure he understands everything I say. And he doesn’t have to speak because his eyes are very expressive and very green, too.” I wish the earth would swallow me whole.

“Is he a werewolf?” Aylana asked, brow tightening with worry.

“No, he’s just a wolf,” Aella said.

“The same war horse-sized wolf who saved her from being killed by Chloe and Cassidy,” Diana told them.

Aella wrinkled her nose.

“You’ve been seeing him most nights?” Aylana asked. “I tried to find him, but he seemed to vanish from the face of the Earth after saving you.”

Sebastian gave Aylana a worried look. “You’ve been trying to find a wolf twice your size?”

Aylana rolled her eyes at him. “His size hardly matters. I have magic, remember?”

Aella lifted her hands. “The wolf is not dangerous,” she insisted, her voice slightly hysterical to her own ears. “He knocked Chloe and Cassidy off their feet before they could kill me. He takes care of me.” Aella gave a pointed look at Diana. That was as much as she was willing to share with Aylana and Sebastian. They needn’t know about how the wolf had also saved her from jumping off that cliff.

Diana dipped her chin minutely in acquiescence.

A blast of wind hit Aella.

She slid her hands inside her pocket.

Aylana and Sebastian’s eyes grew wide, and their noses moved as they sniffed. Something like recognition flared in the look they shared.

“What?” Aella asked.

Sebastian’s expression smoothed into his usual congenial smile. “You smell like the wolf.”

She did, and she loved it. “Er…”

“Is he really as big as a horse?” Aylana asked, her tone too casual.

Aella nodded, unable to shake off the feeling that they knew something she didn’t. “Bigger, actually.”

“That’s not normal, is it?” Diana asked.

“Not unless we’re talking about Fenrir’s lost son,” Sebastian agreed. The amused, strangely knowing tilt of his lips further confused Aella.

“Fenrir was much larger and not prone to heroics, if memory serves,” Aylana commented, her expression suspicious. “You said he has green eyes?”

Aella nodded, her stomach doing a very strange somersault along with her pulse. “Yes, bright green.”

Something teased the edges of her mind, a connection that waited to be made. Her mind’s eye became invaded by intense green eyes, tight-lipped smiles, and canine-flashing ones too. The wolf had been reluctant to show her his teeth at first, not to scare her. But now that they knew each other better, he smiled wider. Aella’s wobbly attempts at humor seemed to genuinely amuse him.

She’d taken to envisioning the wolf’s face whenever she had to deal with a leering patron. Her mind sometimes provided her with a sense-memory of his comforting, warm scent when she was at the edge of a panic attack or her PTSD reared its ugly head.

“Earth to Aella,” Sebastian chanted.

Aella jolted, blinking to bring the present into focus.

Diana was giving her a very weird look indeed, something between worry and amusement. Sebastian looked mischievously entertained. Aylana was trying and failing to suppress a smile.

Aella’s face became uncomfortably hot.

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