THE CAMPUS ALPHA’S WOLFLESS MATE
A real laugh, bright and sudden and completely astonished at itself, like she had not known she could do it and finding out was the most delightful surprise she had encountered in four months of surprises.
The light blazed.
Not for long. Just a pulse, one brilliant second of the soft silver luminescence brightening into something vivid and then settling back immediately, like a candle flaring in a draft. There and then, it returned to its usual state. But unmistakable. The light that knows responding to joy the way it responded to everything, honestly and completely, without any capacity for pretending to feel something other than what was actually felt.