NIKOLAI

The singing of bush crickets ricocheted from one ear to the other, and it was not painless.

Their enthusiastic singing was eerie in the dark cluster of the moonlit woods. Fucking hell, what was I doing out here? How long had I let my wolf run? I wasn't sure.

“Athena’s cunt lips,” I cursed loudly when the sound of my back cracking as I moved echoed in the treeline and I sighed heavily, tasting the dried blood in my mouth and wiping it clean before stretching to my feet.

I squinted at the swats of sunlight-yellow that stabbed through my hair from the spaces in the trees and looked...