THE SILVER WOLF

The heat tore through my body like a wildfire, and for one terrible second I thought I was dying all over again.

My bones began to shift and stretch with a deep, aching pull, and my skin prickled as thick silver fur burst through it from head to toe. I heard my own scream turn into a howl halfway out of my throat. The ground rushed up to meet me, and when the pain finally faded, I was standing on four powerful legs with the whole forest suddenly sharper and clearer than I had ever seen it.

I could smell everything. I could smell the wet leaves, the fear coming off the three hunters, and even the faint trace of smoke from the torches miles behind us. My heart was no longer a frightened flutter in my chest. It was a slow, steady drum, and every beat felt like a promise.

I am Seren, the voice said inside my head, calm and warm and very old. I have waited twenty one years for this morning. Now stand up straight, little one, and let me show you what we are.

The gray wolf with the torn ear had stopped in mid leap and landed awkwardly in front of me. His eyes were wide, and the other two hunters were backing away with their tails tucked low. They were staring at my fur, which glowed with a soft, steady light like moonlight on fresh snow.

"Moonborn," the gray hunter said in the mind link that all wolves share, and his voice shook. "It cannot be. The Elder said she was wolfless."

The Elder lied, I answered, and I was shocked at how deep and certain my own voice sounded.

He recovered faster than I expected. With a snarl he threw himself at me, and I did not think about what to do, because Seren simply took over my legs. We spun to the side so fast that his teeth snapped on empty air, and I felt my own jaws close hard around his shoulder. He yelped and twisted away, and the second hunter jumped on my back.

It was nothing like fighting in my dreams. It was fast and loud and brutal, and I felt claws rake across my ribs and teeth graze my neck. But every time a blow landed, a ripple of silver light passed over my fur and the pain faded before it could settle. Seren fought with the calm of a wolf who had been training for this day in the dark for years. When the third hunter finally lunged, we caught him in the air and threw him against a tree trunk with a crack that echoed through the woods.

Then everything went quiet.

The three hunters lay on the ground, bruised and gasping, and the gray one tried to push himself up on shaking legs. I stood over him with my teeth bared, breathing hard, and I could have ended him in a single bite.

Do not, Seren said gently. They are only dogs on a leash. The hand that holds the leash is the one we want.

I looked down at the gray wolf for a long moment. Then I lowered my head until my nose was almost touching his.

Go back to Veda, I told him. Tell her that the healer's daughter has a wolf, and that I am coming for her.

He did not need to be told twice. All three of them scrambled up and fled into the trees, and I listened to their paws fade into the distance until the forest was quiet again.

I let out a long, shaking breath. Then I felt the shift ripple back through me, and I fell onto my hands and knees in the leaves as a girl again, drenched in sweat and shivering. My dress hung in tatters, but I was alive and whole, and I started to laugh. It was a strange and wild sound, half crying and half joy, and it echoed through the trees until I had to press my hand over my mouth.

All my life I had been told that something was wrong with me. I had been pitied and whispered about, and I had believed it. And now there was a voice inside me, stronger than my own fear, saying that nothing had ever been wrong at all.

I am here, Seren said softly. I will never leave you again.

I wiped my face with the back of my hand and got to my feet. The seal your mother made has cracked, she went on, but it has not broken. There is still a layer of moon silver around me, and I can only come out when you are in great danger or great need. Until it is gone, we must be careful.

"Then we find out how to break it," I said out loud, and my voice was hoarse but steady. "And we find out what Veda is hiding. But first we need somewhere safe."

I had only one place in mind. The Ironwood Pack lay a day's journey north of Silverfang, on the far side of the mountain ridge. It was the rival of my old pack, and Silverfang's guards would never dare cross its border without an invitation. It was also the only place my mother had ever told me to run to, in a dream I had almost forgotten. I did not know why I remembered it now.

I walked all day.

I stayed off the roads and followed the river until it turned into a cold mountain stream. I ate wild berries and drank from my cupped hands, and I never stopped moving. By the time the sun began to set behind the ridge, my feet were raw and my legs were trembling, and I had finally reached a line of tall, black pines marked with iron nails driven into their trunks.

The Ironwood border.

I stepped across it, and the forest answered at once. A deep growl rolled through the trees from every direction. Shadows moved between the trunks, and a dozen huge wolves in dark brown and charcoal fur closed in around me in a slow, silent ring.

I raised my empty hands. "I am not here to fight," I said. "I am Liora Hale, the healer's daughter from Silverfang, and I am asking for your Alpha's protection."

None of them answered. A moment later the ring parted, and a tall man in a long leather coat walked out from between the pines. He was perhaps thirty years old, with short ash colored hair, sharp green eyes, and a face that looked as if it had learned to hide every thought it had ever had. A silver scar ran down the left side of his jaw.

He stopped in front of me and studied me from head to toe without any hurry.

"Liora Hale," he repeated slowly. "Daughter of Elise."

My heart skipped. "You knew my mother?"

"I am Alpha Cassian Reed of the Ironwood Pack." His voice was low and level. "And your mother wrote to me twenty years ago and made me promise something. She said that one day her daughter would cross my border in a torn dress with silver in her eyes, and that when she did, I must give her shelter and tell her the truth."

I stared at him, unable to speak.

Cassian reached inside his coat and drew out a small folded square of yellowed paper, worn soft with age, and held it out to me. The edge was ragged, and I knew in the instant before I touched it exactly what it would match.

"She also asked me to keep this," he said quietly. "It is the last page of her diary."