Charmed Wolf by Aimee Easterling (best ereader for pdf TXT) 📕

the second. He wasn’t eying the floral bounty the way he usually would have. Instead, he’d sunk in on himself, his shoulders bowed and his chin on his chest.

Behind me, the rumble of a motorcycle stilled bird song. We wouldn’t have much time before Lupe and Ryder arrived. I needed to get Kale out of danger fast.

“Kale,” I murmured when I was still twenty feet out and Rune was an equal distance behind him. I didn’t expect a response, actually, given the fact Kale lacked wolf ears. I just needed to say his name, the relief of finding him whole coming out of me on the exhale.

But Kale did hear me and he wasn’t relieved by my presence. His head shot up, face tight with annoyance. “Go away.”

“Kale. Sweetie.” I took another step forward. “I’m really sorry about last night. I...”

My apology was cut off by two sounds. The revving of a motorcycle engine, twice as loud as previously and directly behind me. Then, from the opposite direction, the roar of wind so intense it sounded like a tornado about to touch down.

At the same time, something in my gut twinged. I swayed. Weakness flooded me.

“Tara!”

Rune’s voice broke whatever un-Alpha-like fear had gripped my muscles. He was sprinting toward Kale, wind already whipping his shirt into billows. Unsticking my feet with an effort, I raced forward, aiming for the exact same spot.

But Kale wasn’t there when we met in the middle. Instead, he’d been swept up by something invisible. Something he now rode, legs curled around wind as if it was a horse, the child’s torso tilted eerily forward.

He didn’t want our assistance. Instead, he appeared to be urging the invisible being on.

That urging was working. Kale was ten feet away by the time I realized what was happening. Ten feet then fifteen feet....

Twenty. Wind whipped against my face when I tried to follow. There was no way we’d catch up in human form.

I was lupine by the time my forepaws hit the ground. Clothes sloughed off me except for the shirt that tangled around my throat as I sprinted forward. I would have gone down if Rune’s hands hadn’t severed the fabric as easily as if it was a floral lei draped around my neck.

He didn’t shift though. Instead, he sprinted two-legged.

But two legs were no match for the speed of a wolf.

Rune falling behind was disappointing, but I had to focus forward. On the treeline the wind was rushing toward. On the way our enemy was starting to pull Kale higher off the ground....

The wind now turned into the tornado its sound originally resembled. Curving around the edge of the clearing, it spiraled upward. If I veered left immediately, I might be able to intercept during its next pass...but by that time Kale would be too high to capture. Out of my reach.

I barked, or tried to. The warning choked back down my throat until I huffed out every ounce of air I had in me. The second try, though, was loud enough to overcome the wind, and Kale knew the sound of this warning. Knew it from the days I’d let him attend pack hunts. It was a warning. A stop immediately.

Back then, Kale had obeyed without hesitation. Now, if he heard, he wasn’t interested. Instead, the child laughed, or so it seemed from his rounded cheeks and squinting eyes.

The wind appeared to be laughing also. It shimmered around the edges, whipping up fallen leaves and cracking tree limbs as it whirled past them. Each time, it travelled just a little higher....

I was losing Kale. And with Rune so distant his scent was lost to the roar of the wind, I had to admit I was in this alone.

Okay, yes, there was one other option. The motorcycle, its growl audible enough to suggest it had reached the clearing. Maybe the vehicle would be faster than I was on wolf feet....

But I couldn’t trust Lupe to put Kale’s best interests before her duties. So I stopped. Dug my claws into the soil. Called for the Guardian with all of my might.

Nothing answered. Our fae ally was done with me, for today at least. Which likely meant the unicorn was also.

Only, when I squeezed my eyes shut and begged for his assistance, hot air whuffled against the back of my neck.

“Oh hell no,” Rune growled from behind me as I opened my lupine eyes.

RUNE MUST HAVE SPRINTED flat out to catch up, which was sweet. But I didn’t have time to deal with his unicorn aversion. Not when Kale was already ten feet off the ground.

So I leapt onto the unicorn’s back, shifting midair and ending up flat on my human stomach. “We have to catch Kale,” I huffed with what little breath I had left.

I was risking being bucked off for failing to compliment my steed’s appearance. Wasn’t following our usual protocol of flattery paid in advance.

But, to my relief, the unicorn’s haunches bunched beneath me. Then we were running flat out.

Or rather, the unicorn was running and I was falling. I lunged for a hank of mane, barely managing to regain my balance. Fought to keep my eyes open as we picked up speed.

I couldn’t let myself lose sight of Kale. He was a child under my protection. And, more than that, he and his mother were among my few true friends....

Now it was the time for me to return that friendship. I grabbed the unicorn’s mane as he sped up faster than I’d been able to run either as wolf or human. Then I worked my way to standing, balanced atop my magical steed’s back.

Sooner than seemed possible, we were abreast with our quarry. Kale’s knees were at my eye level. He cocked his head and peered down at me, his lips curling back as if he were a snarling wolf.

So, yeah, not entirely friendly at the moment. But we’d get back there. We had to.

Would get back there as long as I didn’t