Luna of the Last Wolf Pack

Emma“I’ve got it, Mom,” I say, grabbing the heavy bag of ice from her for about the fifth time today. She never listens when I tell her she should take it easy.“I’m not the old lady you think I am,” she argues, but she lets me pick up the bag anyway. I work with her in her smoothie shop, or at least she calls it that. Yes, we sell smoothies, but we actually have a lot more ice cream, and we even sell sandwiches and wraps. When you’re in a town as small as Emerald Valley, you have to multitask everything. “Marilyn, you know Emma doesn’t think you’re old at all,” Kara chimes in, coming to my rescue as a best friend should. “But Em, don’t forget we’re camping this weekend, so don’t break your back now. Can’t you guys hire some burly young stud to do the heavy lifting?”I laugh. “Like we could afford another salary,” I mumble. “We’re doing fine,” Mom insists.I smile at her and pour the ice into the machine while she walks off to help a customer. We are doing okay, but it is a little

EmmaThe shop has been busy all day, and I’m so glad to finally make it to closing time. Well, it isn’t quite there yet because we have a lot of people still sitting in the booths chatting, but they are slowly starting to head out to the point where I can start wiping down tables. My mom always tells me to mind my own business and try not to listen when other people are talking privately, but I can’t help overhearing sometimes. Mom says I have some kind of supersonic hearing. She says it as a joke, I know, but I’ve noticed that she doesn’t exactly look like she’s joking when she says it. Sometimes I just don’t understand that woman, but she’s my mom, and I love her, quirks and all.One group has been sitting there for about an hour. Normally, I don’t mind. Our shop is one place in town where the college-age crowd likes to hang out, so it’s nice for me because I have a lot of friends around when I’m working. It makes the day go faster. But tonight, I’m just a little tired and want to

DevonWe round a corner and finally feel a change in the air. “Hold,” I tell my warriors in our pack mind-link, and that’s all they need to hear to stop dead in their tracks in formation behind me. Instantly, they all pick up on it as well–the distinctive scent of a wolf shifter. We know it’s Stephen, but we aren’t sure whether he’s alone. The forest is filled with traces of scent, the essence of all the creatures nearby. We take our time sorting it out, discussing in the pack mind whether any other scents seem unfamiliar to us. We’re always on guard for vampires, whose scents, strangely, aren’t very distinctive from ordinary humans. I suppose it’s because they once were human and have been changed, while wolf shifters, our kind, are born as we are.It’s strange to live among humans, not only because they don’t know about us but because we are so different, yet so similar, if that made any sense. I suppose that at one point in our history, humans somewhere encountered wolf shifters

EmmaI’m so glad it’s finally the weekend. I like working in the shop with Mom, but I also need some time away now and then. It’s so hard to stare at all the beautiful scenery around Emerald Valley without having the time to get out and experience it for myself. “You pack like you’re going to the French Riviera,” I tell Kara as she piles a few of her sexiest lacy bras and underwear into her duffel bag–and believe me, her sexiest is beyond skimpy. “We’ll be in the woods, girl, camping in tents surrounded by trees and the lake. Besides, this is a girls’ night in the woods thing, remember?”She looks at me with a grin. “You never know who you’re gonna run into out there,” she says. “We might meet some cute forest rangers or something. I’m just being prepared. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do when camping? Be prepared?”I shake my head. “You’re going to freeze out there,” I insist.“Not with the right company, I won’t,” she replies, but she digs back into the drawer and adds a few p

DevonI push away from my desk and rub my eyes. I’m distracted again and can’t seem to focus on my research.And I know why.Tasha is back, which means that the redhead, Emma, is back from the camping trip, too. I’d seen her on my latest run, and she seemed to notice me in the woods as she drove by me. When our eyes met, it was mesmerizing.But now that she’s back in town, her presence is upsetting my focus.I had planned to call everyone for a meeting anyway, so I guess I might as well get something accomplished and get everyone in the pack together. I’m sure not getting anything done in the tech room anymore. We usually meet outside town, deep into the forest, so that no one will think it was weird for a bunch of apparent strangers to be gathering at my house. In the forest, we’re in control. We can pick up the slightest scent that doesn’t belong and scatter in an instant, and no one will ever see a bunch of wolves standing together in a circle. We always stay in our wolf forms fo