Free The Shadow Wolf by Bonnie Vanak

out a few things along the way.”
    Laced through his casual tone was an undercurrent of something. She didn’t like secrets, either keeping them or having someone keep them from her.
    â€œWhat things? What’s wrong?”
    He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “Just something I need to check. We’ll stop there for lunch, for you to replenish your energy.” He gave her a pointed look. “Unless you want to replenish it a different way.”
    Crimson ignited her cheeks. Draicon required energy to perform magick, and usually siphoned it either from eating rare meat or engaging in vigorous sex.
    â€œA hamburger will do me just fine,” she replied.
    â€œToo bad,” he murmured.
    Jillian piped up from the backseat. “Why do you wear that cowboy hat, Gabriel?”
    â€œKeeps my brains stuffed inside my head, little one.” He grinned at her in the mirror as Jillian made a face. “Naw, I wear it because it keeps me centered on what’s really important. Home, family, who I am. A Cajun at heart.”
    Megan studied his T-shirt logo. “The Blazin Cajun. I’ve heard of that restaurant chain, even though I’ve only been in the States once when I was little, long before Shadows became imprisoned on the island. My cousin Sissy told me it was her favorite. She loved their magma sauce. Have you ever had their food?”
    â€œSometimes.” He glanced at her. “When I cook it myself. I own the chain.”
    Her eyes went wide. “All ten restaurants?”
    He nodded.
    They weren’t on the road more than fifteen minutes when Gabriel glanced at the dashboard and muttered something in Cajun French. She leaned over and her heart sank. The gas gauge was nearly on E.
    â€œJay forgot to fill the tank. We have to stop.”
    Megan looked out the window, trying not to worry. She’d had a pointed talk with the twins about the importance of keeping Gabriel’s secret. As long as they stayed in the van, they should be…
    â€œMegan, I have to go,” Jennifer piped up.
    â€œI told you to go before you left the house,” Megan repeated.
    â€œI didn’t have to go then,” her cousin said with the aggravating logic of a seven-year-old.
    â€œIt’s okay, little one,” Gabriel soothed. “There’s a gas station up ahead. Let Megan take you inside, you and your sister.”
    Jillian protested she didn’t have to go. Gabriel shot her a look in the mirror. “I’m not stopping again.”
    The bathroom was dingy, but clean. When the girls finished and washed their hands, Megan stared at the fly-specked mirror. Lost in thought, she studied her reflection. The purple shadows on her face were gone, pink flushed her cheeks and a sparkle replaced the dull wariness in her eyes.
    Had Gabriel done that?
    Megan examined a streak of blond showing through the blackness of her hair. The hair dye was leeching out her identity. Bracing her hands on either side of the sink, she gazed at her reflection. Who was she? Shadow? Draicon? She was Halfling, a combination of both. It was important she blend into this world if she were to survive.
    Draicon shifted into wolves easily. It had been so long. Megan longed to try.
    Jenny and Jillian grew restless and shuffled around. She motioned to them. “Go back to the van. I’ll meet you there.”
    In the bathroom with the door locked, she concentrated. Megan fisted her hands, willing the wildness to surface. It was crazy, risking it like this, but the impulse could not be curbed.
    â€œPlease, oh, please. Just once,” she whispered. It had been ten years since she’d become wolf.
    Iridescent sparks of blue and red, not the normal spectral trail that Draicon emitted, filled the air. Megan felt her body shimmer and ache.
    The Change was happening.
    Fur grew on the back of her hands. She grit her teeth, remembered the animal inside her and willed it out.
    Her hands