Eli’s scent surrounded me as I pulled the black T-shirt he’d loaned me to wear over my head. I loved the way he smelled. There was something woodsy yet masculine about his scent. Was it his soap? I closed my eyes and breathed in. The churning of anxiety that had been rolling through my stomach subsided.

I loosened my hair from its hair tie only to pull it up into a high bun again on top of my head. My eyes scanned over myself in Eli’s bathroom mirror. Was I ready for this? Could I handle myself out there tonight, or would I become a liability if things got tough? My teeth sank into my bottom lip.

Eli was depending on me to stand strong. I had no choice other than to handle my own. We had to rescue Violet.

A soft knock sounded at the bathroom door.

“You ready?” Eli asked. His voice was low and sweet. I knew he wasn’t trying to rush me.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m as ready as I will ever be.”

I reached for the doorknob and swung the door open. Eli was close. Too close. He’d been leaning against the doorframe when he knocked. He took a step back and folded his arms across his chest.

“You don’t have to come.” The area between his brows puckered. I wasn’t sure if it was because he preferred I didn’t or if it was because of something else. “I can handle this on my own.”

“Great. Good to know you can do it without me,” I grumbled as I passed him and started down the narrow hallway.

“That’s not what I meant,” Eli said. He was hot on my heels. “All I’m saying is you don’t have to come if you don’t want to. I can go alone. I’m okay with that.”

I glanced over my shoulder and flashed him a nasty look. “Are you trying to tell me I don’t have to go if I’m too scared?”

“Well…yeah.” His green eyes softened.

Oh, he was heading into dangerous territory.

“I’m not scared,” I snapped and then beelined for his kitchen to grab a plastic cup from his cabinet. It crinkled in my hand as I gripped too tight while filling it with tap water. My nerves had shifted to rage. How dare he try to leave me behind. “Besides, Violet has a better chance if two of us come to her rescue instead of one.”

“I agree.”

“Good. Let’s get on the road then.” I took another swig of water and managed to catch sight of the smirk shifting across his face. Warmth bloomed through my lower stomach. “What?” I asked as I set my cup on the counter and held his gaze.

“Nothing.” He swiped his keys off the counter and started to the front door. He paused once he’d opened it and glanced back at me with that same shit-eating grin plastered on his face. “After you.”

I stepped toward him. Sticky warm air blasted across my skin. The sun had gone down hours ago, but it hadn’t taken its heat with it.

“Do you have enough gas in your truck?” I asked once I reached the bottom step.

“Yeah.” Eli shut the door to his trailer behind him, without locking it, and started down the steps.

No one ever locked their trailers here. Break-ins were rare in Mirror Lake Trailer Park. Those of us who lived here were respectful of others. We were a tight community. Those who didn’t live within the park wouldn’t dare rob one of us for a fear of what might happen to them, considering the rumors about us always floating around.

I started around Eli’s truck, making my way to the passenger side. Eli climbed behind the steering wheel and wasted no time cranking the engine. It roared to life without trouble.

“All right, let’s head to Wilmont Avenue,” Eli said as he shifted into reverse and backed out of his driveway.

I stared out the passenger window, trying to calm the frantic racing of my heart. It felt as though it might explode. I reached out and turned up the volume on the radio, hoping to drown out the sound of my heart’s erratic rhythm and my incessant thoughts. An oldies song I recognized drifted through the stuffy cab. It was one my mom used to sing.

An image of her standing in our kitchen, washing dishes by hand while moving her hips to the beat, flickered through my head. She knew all the words and wasn’t half bad at singing either. The memory had my heart settling into a steady beat and the corners of my lips twisting into the ghost of a smile.

God, I missed her sometimes.

I leaned my head against the seat and listened to the lyrics of the song while gazing at the star-speckled sky through the passenger window. The stars blurred together as Eli continued toward Wilmont Avenue.

Roughly thirty minutes passed before we came to the street we were looking for. During that time, I somehow had found a mellow state of Zen. Once Eli turned onto Wilmont Avenue all of my Zen disappeared. My mouth grew dry, and my hands became clammy. We were minutes away from stepping onto enemy grounds.

Anything could happen.

I wiped my palms across my shorts and leaned forward in my seat, searching for the house number Eli had mentioned earlier.

“Is that it right there?” Eli asked. He leaned over the steering wheel, his eyes squinting like an old man’s.

“Can you not see that far?”

“I can. I’m just double checking.” He came to a slow creep. “Tell me if it’s the right number,” he said as he passed me the scrap of paper he’d wrote Drew’s address on.

“If you can’t see that far, I’m scared to be riding in this vehicle with you,” I said as I glanced at the scrap of paper. The numbers on the mailbox were a perfect match. “Yup, that’s the place.”

A shiver slipped up my spine. We were in the middle of nowhere. Nothing surrounded us except miles of woods in every direction.

This would be a great place for werewolves to run, or for someone to hide them.

“I’m going to find somewhere to pull over and park that’s out of the way. Then we’ll walk to Drew’s,” Eli insisted as he passed his driveway.

I didn’t object. It seemed like a solid plan. In movies, that’s what people did when they were trying to be inconspicuous. They didn’t pull up to the house and hop out ready to kick ass; they played it safe.

I was totally okay with playing it safe, given the situation.

“Right there might be good.” I pointed to a dirt road with a semicircle off to the side. It looked like a great place to do doughnuts. From the circle tracks across its surface, it seemed as though somebody had practiced some recently.

“Perfect,” Eli said as he cut a right onto the dirt road. “Good eye.”

“Thank you.”

Eli killed the engine of his truck and switched the headlights off. I heard him exhale a long breath before he reached for the handle on his door. “Let’s do this.” He popped the driver side door open and slipped out. “Go ahead and strip.”

I swung my gaze around to meet his. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” he said as the wiry hint of a smile curled at the corners of his lips. “I said to go ahead and strip. Did you think we’d be walking up to Drew’s house without shifting first?”

My cheeks heated. “Oh. Right. That might not be the smartest thing.”

In wolf form, we would have better vision and hearing, plus more speed. We would also be able to pick up Violet and Glenn’s scent.

A thought occurred to me as I reached for the handle of the passenger door.

“Why did you have me wear black? What I was wearing before would’ve been fine if we were going to shift once we got here anyway.”

“Maybe I wanted my scent on you.” Eli’s words pulled the breath from my lungs and forced my gaze to him again.

Was he serious? My throat grew dry as his lips hooked into a half grin barely visible. I licked my lips and climbed out of his truck, pretending I hadn’t heard him.

I reached for the edges of the t-shirt he’d loaned me and lifted it over my head. The heat of his gaze skimmed along the bare skin of my abdomen as soon as I shed the shirt. Butterflies burst into flight through my lower stomach, and I found myself fighting against the desire to cover myself. I liked my body—that wasn’t the issue. The issue was the way Eli’s gaze felt across my skin. It made me tremble in reaction. My bones melted and tiny flickers of lust sparked through my system.

All of which was inappropriate given the nature of our current situation.

I swallowed hard, ignoring every sensation his stare had awoken within my body and unbuttoned my shorts. Eli’s gaze remained on me as I shimmied out of them. When I reached around to unhook my bra, I risked a glance at him. He watched me with a hungry gaze that sent lust sweeping through me. When his tongue moistened his lips as he continued to stare, I thought he might make a move toward me. Part of me wanted him to. It begged for it. The sexual tension rippling off him in waves was mind-numbing, but I refused to give in.

“This isn’t a striptease show for you,” I said with more attitude than I felt.

He cleared his throat. “Sorry.”

His gaze drifted to the bench seat of his truck as his fingers fumbled with the brass button on his jeans. The sound of his zipper echoed through the cab. It had my heart pounding a thousand times harder than it should. I forced myself to look away, to look anywhere besides him. The dark section of woods in front of his truck became interesting as my fingers fumbled with the hook on my bra. Once I managed to get it undone, I tossed it onto my pile of clothes and removed my panties. My silver jewelry came next.

I didn’t wait for Eli to say anything about shifting. Instead, I gave in to the change the only way I knew how—by closing my eyes, lifting my head to the sky, and taking slow breaths while thinking of my beautiful wolf. I could picture her in my mind. Her big hazel eyes. Her soft, fluffy fur. Her tiny stature but fierce spirit.

She was my exact match.

I called out to her with my mind, willing her to come to me when she was ready. Unlike the movies portrayed this moment, there was no painful shifting of bones or grotesque popping noises. There was no sensation of muscles and joints fusing together.

The change was pure magic.

The air around me warmed, the old wolf magic coming to the surface. It blew across my skin, ruffling my hair and sending it flying from my bun. A smile spread across my face as I lifted my arms high above my head. Strands of hair tickled my nose, but I ignored them. Instead, I waited for my wolf to come to me. When a chill slipped along my spine and goose bumps sprouted across my bare skin, I knew the goddess of the moon was near. Her magic danced through the air, calling to the wolf inside me. My wolf howled in response to her. It was a beautiful noise.

Lightness and loving warmth ignited through my veins as the change intensified. The sensations spread throughout me until an overall sense of weightlessness became all I could feel.

I was air. I was light as a feather. I was free.

Pure love flooded my mind as the cold touch of the moon goddess disappeared from my spine to be replaced by an embrace from my wolf. Warmth and the sensation of being grounded and one with the earth trickled through my extremities.

We were one, my wolf and I.

The sounds of the night serenaded me to the present, and I made my way around Eli’s truck, searching for him. His presence was strong. It pulsed within my veins, calling to me in an unexplainable way. Comfort washed over me once I spotted him. My wolf felt a special connection with Eli, too. She understood he was from her pack and his ranking, but he was also something more. Whatever it was, it rested just beneath the surface of everything within me.

Eli stepped closer in his wolf form, his familiar green eyes locked with mine. His snout nuzzled my neck and a rush of warmth swept through me from the gesture. The intimacy he was showing caught me off guard. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to react, so I let my wolf do what she wanted. She pressed against him, returning the nuzzle. Seeming satisfied, Eli stepped back and started toward the road. I followed him, heading straight for Drew’s house.