Free Blood's Shadow: The Lycanthropy Files, Book 3 by Cecilia Dominic Page A

trouble for telling me as much as you have.”
    “A very old promise, lad.” He drew a yellowed envelope out of his jacket breast pocket. From it, he extracted a letter, its creases darkened and worn like it would fall into pieces at any moment. He held it gingerly and looked at me. “It’s from your father.”
    “To me?” I asked.
    “No, about you.” He unfolded the letter and squinted at it, although I suspected he’d memorized it by now. “‘Lachlan, I hope this greeting finds you well and indeed, better than I am. Our suspicions were correct, and I fear I am in mortal danger. Remember your promise to me, the one you made before I left. Regards, McCord.’”
    “What does it mean?” I couldn’t help but ask. I struggled to push away the memory of the images of my father’s demise, my mother’s tear-streaked face and the fear in her eyes.
    David re-folded the letter and put it back in its envelope. “He was behind enemy lines, and it’s a miracle that letter made it out at all. It’s deliberately vague, of course.” He looked down at the envelope, his expression one I’d never seen on his face before, of grief and sadness. “Although I didn’t want to, I had to keep my distance from you and your mother because you were in grave danger.”
    “From who?”
    He looked around. “Are you sure this place is secure?”
    “I believe so. I’m just renting, so I haven’t been able to do much to it.”
    “Then let’s go for a run and discuss it somewhere we won’t be overheard.”
    I didn’t feel David would attack me, but still, since allowing someone to see you change is one of the most intimate things a werewolf can do, David and I split up into different bedrooms to transform into our wolf selves.
    If I’m coming into my full powers, why isn’t this easier? I thought as I lay on the floor to catch my breath after changing. Or is this the human half showing through? They always resist change.
    My mind tried to chew on everything David had told me to this point, but I quieted it—there would be enough time for thinking later. We left through a hinged diamond-pane window I’d rigged so I could open it from the inside with my paws. I could get back in from the outside by using my nose to punch in a code on a keypad with extra large keys hidden in the shrubbery.
    “Ingenious,” David told me telepathically. “Definitely better than a doggie door. Did you know that’s how the vaccine lycanthropes manage?” He snorted. “They have no sense of dignity.”
    I didn’t respond. Lonna told me that was how they did it in the States. “At some point, you just have to get over yourself,” she’d said. “Practicality trumps pride.”
    David led me through the field behind my complex and into a wooded area. The wind whispered through the summer leaves, and woodland creatures skittered out of our way. As a wolf, David was barrel-chested with a little gray showing on his muzzle. In his human form, he outweighed me by a few stone, and the difference wasn’t so drastic in canine form, but it was all muscle. It reminded me he’d be a formidable opponent, and I was thankful he was on my side. I also wanted to know what my father’s letter meant and grew impatient as he led me through twists and turns, on paths and off them, until we were deep in the woods. He stopped beside a pool in a small grove, and the image I’d gotten from my brief sniff of Selene came to mind.
    I’ll consider that problem later.
    “This will do,” David said and stretched out on a flat rock that was shaded, but I could smell the heat radiating off it in waves of mineral and dry dirt, so I surmised it had been in the sun for most of the day.
    I found a soft grassy spot and stretched out. The ground released tangy green smells with notes of damp earth, and I had to fight my wolf side to not close my eyes and take a nap. My human side wanted more information.
    David looked like he had the same struggle—his eyelids kept