Page 6 of Planet Wolf

Doctor rolled onto his stomach, considering me for a moment. Then, with the pad of his thumb, he wiped away my tears. Hunter held me tighter while Leader scooted closer to all of us. After a long moment, he sat up and placed a comforting hand on my leg. I sucked in my tears and forced myself to stop blubbering. I wasn’t going to make the situation harder on everyone by becoming hysterical. Things would go wrong soon enough. Well,morewrong. They always did. In the great grand course of things, I was having an incredibly nice moment, when it came down to it. Camping with three very good-looking men? I snorted, snuggling closer before I explored the thought further.

I hardly allowed myself to think about how good looking they were, but the men each carried a striking handsomeness. All three of them were dark haired, dark eyed, and dreamy—basically, they were out of my league as I’d never been very popular on Earth in the dating circles. Even being from my family hadn’t really helped me, despite our history. Most of the people I encountered knew my mother’s story—how she went off on an adventure and came back crazy and pregnant with me. She insisted she was hearing things, and then I’d been sick, which hadn’t helped anything.

In a family of statuesque, tall blondes, I was small, dark haired, olive skinned, and different. Which was fine, since not one of them ever made me feel out of place or anything but gorgeous. Still, I knew I didn’t fit in, which was the part that mattered. I knew I wasn’t like them, and it made it hard sometimes to resist wanting to run away to someplace where I fit better.

Maybe if I hadn’t been so sick, I would’ve left sooner.

Why am I thinking about it now?Doctor rolled over again and went back to hugging me. The fire gave us some light, enough for me to see Hunter closing his eyes. He was going to sleep, and there was trust in that. Never were we more vulnerable than when we were out cold. Their ability to rest either meant that I offered them no threat whatsoever—the most likely possibility—or he just trusted me specifically already.

I liked that second one.

Behind me, Doctor’s breathing changed. It seemed he was going to knock off, too. My gaze met Leader’s. He watched me, his eyes glittering in the darkness, his earlier smiles gone. After a second, he winked at me. He was staying up. I finally understood. He was the lookout.

Maybe the idea of him watching over us was reassuring, or maybe it was finally the body heat that did me in, but my lids drifted closed. It had been a strange, hard day—definitely the time to put the end to it.

* * *

I wokeup stiff and cold. Lifting my head took some effort. I recognized the stiffness, knew it meant it was going to be one ofthosedays. The painful ones. I was absolutely not in a position to grab a heating pad, work from bed, and not worry about it.

Or pretend not to, since chronic pain had the annoying tendency to be chronic.

Forcing myself to sit up, I looked around. Doctor messed with the fire nearby, but the others were missing. He turned as if he felt my gaze and a smile lit his face. I grinned back before I could overthink it. Something about Doctor made it hard not to smile back at him. There was something naturally joyful about him.

He rose, moved to my side, and placed a hand on top of my head.

Then he frowned. Oh no, he’d clued into my pain somehow, I just knew it. How did he know? They were Wolf shifters. Were there things they could just smell?

Doctor shook his head then said something I couldn’t understand. His frustration came across loud and clear, no language needed, and I couldn’t help but sympathize as I’d love to ask him some questions, too.

Because I wanted to seem tough, I pulled myself upright. To his credit, the doctor didn’t try to help me. He let me do it alone. Maybe he understood I was the kind of person who needed to do things for myself, or maybe he just wasn’t very helpful. Despite my frustrations, I had to admit I figured it was the former.

Leader appeared from a break in the forest. His chest gleamed shirtless, which meant that he’d shifted and changed while I’d been asleep. He said something, and Doctor responded, but neither of them smiled. They were serious.Soserious.

“Where is Hunter?” I asked as I looked around. “Your friend who holds hands and brings dinner?”

They didn’t understand me, and a second later, it didn’t matter anyway. Above our heads, very large birds began making a huge commotion. I gasped. Truly, they were the biggest birds I’d ever seen, the size of shuttle crafts. I backed up and would have fallen over, but Doctor grabbed me.

Yes… he was helpful.

And then we were running. Doctor dragged me back toward the woods, out of the clearing and into the safety of the trees. Okay, so the birds were dangerous? I was getting that. So why wasn’t Leader running?

Oh, of course. Because he was going to shift. One second, he was the man who had been our lookout and the next he was a big, gray Wolf. Another Wolf charged into the clearing; it had to be Hunter, but in the form of a black Wolf. I hadn’t noted any of the colors of their fur or anything much distinguishing the day before.

Hadn’t been able to process it at all.

Too much.

But this is real. It is happening.

I jolted and Doctor held me closer. His eyes looked canine somehow, as if they weren’t quite human anymore. “Are you going to shift, too?”

Leader charged one of the birds, his narrow chest and strong legs propelling him into motion. He leapt in the air, taking the first one down as Hunter did the same as if synchronized. I caught my breath. Even as the winged creatures attacked them, they took them down one after the other like it was nothing. I knew those huge claws on the birds—talons, I was pretty sure they were called—meant they were brutal and dangerous. Minutes passed, and the flock disappeared, vanishing back to the sky as quickly as they’d appeared.

The Wolves jumped down and shifted the second they hit the ground. With grins on their faces, they patted each other on the back and laughed. I somehow managed not to look down from their faces to the nakedness elsewhere on their bodies. Doctor took my hand and walked with me toward them.

He grinned, and I couldn’t help but think it reminded me of the way my cousins recounted sporting events at home. Sure, the sports there involved balls and in this case six dead birds, but these men were also Wolves.

What stories I would have to tell when I got home.