Author: admin

If she does, she doesn’t show it. She hops right over and presses her quivering pink nose through the wire. I pluck a piece of timothy hay from her feeder and offer it to her. She takes it, munching, her fluffy cheeks wobbling. “I’ll bring you some fresh greens later,” I promise. I grow parsley…

Miss Nola nods sharply. The worried creases at the corner of her eyes deepen. She always holds herself so rigid, like she’s hard as nails, but it’s a shell, brittle as an egg. “Did she tell you that he took off?” Miss Nola nods again. “She said they were hard on you.” I lift a…

ALEC “You best get in there,” Aunt Shona hollers from the porch as I pass on my way to my crib. She’s palming a vape in her hand, but there’s no hiding the smoke. It stinks like burnt apples. “I need a shower.” I keep walking. “Your uncle ain’t lettin’ no one bunk down ’til…

Isla finally lifts her foot off the damn shorts and dashes to a safe distance like I’m it, and this is tag. “She’s sniffing someone’s sweaty shirt.” There is a chorus of female disgust, but I can’t put the shirt down. If I do, I’ll throw up in front of everyone. I want to stand,…

Darragh’s face darkens. He doesn’t like the idea of living close to people, but I know he’d do it, for Cait and me. “Wait until you see the gates installed?” He reaches across our baby and winds a curl around his finger before he tucks it behind my ear. I snuggle into the feather pillow….

Alec’s muscular thighs are tensing, and he’s loosened his grip on the back of my head to stroke my hair. He’s close. I relax my throat. He likes me to swallow, and I don’t want to spit in front of him, so I do. “That’s so good, Flora. So good.” He grunts, his hips jerk,…

Agnes’ rheumy eyes round. She gets it now. A slash of red appears across her weathered cheeks. “Well, I think Flora is a perfectly good name,” she mutters, and I’m about to forgive her when she looks back at the eggs, and her brow furrows. “There’s only three left,” she says. My stomach turns. Her…

I rest my palm on his solar plexus where our bond connects, and it flows over my hand. Strong. Certain. No matter how much we mess up, it doesn’t stop. The reality of the bond has never comforted me before the way it does now. I sniff and scrub my eyes, blinking at Darragh. He’s…

And another time, years before, the night of the full moon when Ma didn’t come back to fetch me from the knoll where the unmated females watched us little ones. I sat in the dew-wet grass, forgotten, while a male gasped out the story to Deirdre Sullivan. “Her wolf just leapt,” he’d said, still stunned,…

He stands stock still. The water is halfway up his legs. It skims her chin. He lowers himself to his belly. She narrows her eyes. He sinks further under until the water comes just below his nostrils. She gives herself another vigorous shake and sets off toward me, her paws slipping. She goes under twice…