Your Mate is Out There

Aviva

Ryan turns away as I strip out of my dress in a pocket of trees toward the very back of the village. I hang it on a tree branch before shifting into my wolf form, feeling naked despite my thick fur. I’m used to having my knife belt and bow slung across my back even in wolf form, but now I’m in my skin, and I’m not giving Ryan the same courtesy as he strips off his clothes. I do turn my head to avoid watching him take off his boxers, however. I’m not that desperate.

He clutches the camera in his mouth, protected by a little leather bag, and leads me through a network of wolf trails that weave through a rather dense forest that hugs the back of the village.

We follow the creek at one point, which weaves through the forest. It’s the only sound other than the rustling of the leaves overhead.

It’s beautiful here, I have to admit. The forest is thick as we start gaining in elevation toward the very back of the valley where the mountains Silverhide is nestled between finally join. A