“We’ll have to make camp here for the night. You have a stream to bathe in if you’d like, and—”
“No!” She snapped, tearing into the sizzling porky fat with her human teeth, wishing she could rip into it like a wolf. Already she felt the strength of the moon’s call, tempting her to turn wolf, to run wild and unfettered by this form. “I need shelter tonight.”
His brows dipped. “I shall watch you as I did the night before.”
“No.” This time when she said it she heard the shiver of a growl move through her chest. She wished to the goddess that she had bread or some other form of carbs with this meal.
The bread wasn’t just to satisfy her cravings, but it also helped to lessen the effects of the blooming a little. A female in heat without her mate should avoid meat at all costs. The taste of the meat only fueled her wolf. But there had been nothing else available and she’d been starving. If she hadn’t eaten the pig, she would have attacked anything else living when she shifted.
And she couldn’t take that risk.
She’d looked for a while for anything other than meat and had even gone so far as to forage for mushrooms. As terrible as they tasted uncooked, she’d have gone for anything edible at this point, but her hunger was too great.
“Your eyes,” he whispered.
Taking a deep breath, she urged herself to calm and closed her eyes. “I know. They glow when I begin to bloom. It’s what I was trying to tell you. I have to be sheltered tonight. There is a full moon and without my mate to ground me I cannot control myself.”
He cocked his head. “There is no town for miles. Perhaps I could shift and take you with me—we could probably arrive there before nightfall.”
Swallowing hard, she rubbed at the throb building at the base of her skull. “There is a cabin built by my people for situations as these. It is not but a mile up the trail. We can get there in time.”
Shoving three final chunks of pork belly into her mouth, Lilith called her fire. The sun was minutes from setting. It didn’t matter to her if anyone saw her do it, either; the only thing that mattered was getting to that shack and locking the door.
The transformation from woman to wolf barely fazed her. The shifting of the bones, the reshaping of her limbs… A typically painful process was the least of her worries. She didn’t stop to look back at Giles with an imploring look to follow like she’d done every time before.
Digging her claws into the dirt she shoved off, running faster than she ever had before. Even the fear she’d felt when being chased by the pack of alphas was nothing to the knowledge of the chaos she’d inflict if she didn’t get to shelter.
Trees zoomed by, and in her periphery she caught the glimpse of a moving black shadow with glowing red eyes.
Tongue lolling out the corner of her mouth, she scented the air with it. Tasting the crisp scent of pungent pine needles, the decay of leaves on the forest floor, and musky odor of rodent burrowed in tunnels beneath her paws.
Lilith ripped up the turf in her wake. Her human side barely able to comprehend that she had seven minutes, maybe less, before the sun was gone and her final tether of rationality slipped away.
In the distance she spotted the brown pointed roof of the shack. The wood was weathered and old, stained a grayish pallor from exposure to the sun. It wasn’t large—it could comfortably hold two humans inside, or one she wolf in bloom.
Grass sprayed through the air like tiny missiles as she dug her claws in harder so that she could better shove off. Her muscles flexed and bunched and her breathing had grown labored.
The sky was a pinkish blue streaked with shades of orange.
A tingling rush of the wild began to pump through her veins as she finally reached the entrance. The hinged wooden door looked barely useable.
It took every ounce of will she owned to shift to her female form one last time before she’d black out and remember nothing other than the call.
Grasping onto the edge of the dilapidated doorway, she yanked the brass keys hanging from a large rusted nail on the wall and quickly unlocked the heavy black padlock.
“No matter what you hear, knight, do not open the door. No matter what.” The weakening rays of the sun burned like fire on her sensitized skin.
He’d shifted back himself and was looking at her with a mix of wariness and confusion. “This does not look safe or well maintained.”
Shaking her head, she ripped the door open and stepped one foot inside then turned to gaze back at him. This was not at all what she’d wanted, to be caught out in the woods during her bloom.
Lilith would have much rather hidden below ground, caged in by forged iron—it was the safest way. But beggars could hardly afford to be picky.
“It’ll hold. It’s been sealed with pack magic. The outward appearance is merely a mirage to keep squatters away.”