Page 126 of Moon Claimed

I leaned my head on his shoulder. “Anytime.”

20

I tried to shrug off the itch crawling over my skin. The waning crescent moon—so Google had informed me—was a sliver in the sky. My long-sleeve top and jeans were irritating to the extreme as the slow strangulation of light created a dark hunger that wanted to consume me.

We’ll need to shift after the game,my wolf said.

Agreed.

“The cabin seems to be working for you,” Pascal said.

I glanced at the marshal. “I feel much better.”

With our daily runs, we’d never felt stronger. We could snap through fallen tree limbs with a chomp of our razor-sharp teeth. Everything wasmorein wolf form, but even with two legs, I was unimaginably powerful. And so aware of my surroundings. Our raised position over Clay allowed us to see the detailed markings of a chickadee five hundred metres away. It was nothing short of incredible.

I’d looked to our morning runs as something Ihadto do. How wrong I’d been.

Each time, I learned something more about my wolf and marvelled at some new connection to the land that my senses provided.

“If any of the head team remained unconvinced of your choice, I believe they’ve changed their mind.”

Not Valerie. She put on an excellent show, but she couldn’t fool my new nose.

“I’m glad to hear it,” I said as the first cannon boomed. “It was an irregular request.”

Pascal smiled at her tablet. “Perhaps irregular is what this tribe has needed for a long time.”

I could not figure this woman out. “You think?”

“I do.”

“Not as irregular as Murphy though?” I pretended to adjust my binoculars, relying on my nose for her reaction.

It didn’t disappoint.

Shock.

Fear.

So much fear it rankled my predatory instincts.

“I wonder if Murphy told Herc he’d shifted to a Luther.” I lowered the binoculars.

Pascal was as flustered as I’d ever seen. This could be a stupid course of action considering my allies grew thinner each day.

Perhaps I was sick of lies.

“I don’t know what happened that day, Pascal,” I said. “I don’tneedto know unless you’d like to tell me. What I wouldlike to know is why you lied to your head steward. Herc is gone. Your loyalty is to me.”

She closed her eyes. “What we did that day doesn’t go away because Herc died.”

And there it was.

“How did he do it?”

“Cut the rope. Made me swear to secrecy.”

I couldn’t imagine anyone forcing this woman to do something. She was marshal for a reason. Pascal upheld the rules above all. So what did Herc have over her?