Free Healer (Shifter Island Book 5) by Carol Davis Page B

rocks and stood there gazing out at the sea with the salt-heavy wind rippling through its fur. The sun was behind it, casting heat down onto its back and shoulders and directing its shadow toward the water. Every few minutes the wind would gust hard enough that the wolf carefully moved a foot and found a more stable position.
    It could stand there for days, Jed knew. Just staring out at the ocean.
    He had had his time of Separation many years ago, when he was young: a month during which he lived apart from the rest of the pack, when he was supposed to ponder his position among the other wolves and decide what goals he wanted to achieve. How he could best serve his brothers and sisters. He’d decided to follow in his uncle’s footsteps and become a builder, a carpenter—and a friend to all, someone who would be the first to come running if one of his packmates needed help.
    This was entirely different.
    Again, he had to decide what his goals were, but not with regard to the pack. This time, it was his heart that was at stake.
    The wolf knew what it wanted: a mate to care for and protect. Not just coupling, although it was delighted each time Jed tumbled around in his bed with a happy, willing female.
    It wanted a family. Young ones.
    They’d come up here with no food or water. They hadn’t been directed to any place in particular, but both Jed and the wolf knew that this was a good place to think, that there was little here but the rocks and the sea, and that no one was likely to interrupt them. Here, alone with the wind and the sun, with the salt spray leaping around them, they could open themselves up to the gods and hope to be given an answer.
    After a while the wolf lay down on a mostly flat rock and closed its eyes.
    It remembered, in very simple terms, what it had felt like to couple with Deborah: how that coming together had been more than simple mating. She had thrilled at Jed’s touch, at how strong and capable he was, and she surely understood that he would be a fine partner.
    Her scent, rich and ripe, had said so.
    Slowly, the wolf lifted its head and sniffed at the air, searching for a clue to where she might be right now, but it could detect nothing but salt, a recently dead fish, and a bit of pine.
    And ghosts.
    This island had been home to thousands of wolves over the years, some of whom had spent time lying on these very rocks. There was power here, the majesty of the earth and the sea.
    Brothers , the wolf thought.
    It could sense them nearby: wolves by the dozens, going back to the very first ones who had come to the island in simple boats before there was any city over there on the mainland. They’d come out here to be free, to escape the judgment and fear of humans, and over time the pack had grown three- and four- and five-fold.
    At one point, there had been nearly two hundred wolves on this island… but that was too many. There wasn’t enough food, no matter how carefully they planted and hunted and saved.
    A few had starved, and were deeply mourned.
    Others had departed, for the good of those who remained. It seemed to both Jed and the wolf that they were still here in spirit, that although they had climbed into the boats and returned to the mainland, their hearts were here.
    Would always be here.
    Speak to us, brothers and sisters, the wolf said in a series of howls and yips. Share your wisdom.
    Tell us the will of the gods.
    Their voices came through on the wind, in the way it sang through the trees and whistled through the gaps in the rock. They spoke of their triumphs and tragedies, how they had made this island their own and yet had surrendered to the greater will of nature. How they had lived and loved and died, sometimes at the end of a long and productive stretch of years, and sometimes far too soon.
    Among them, Jed heard the voices of Micah’s parents, lost to the sea when Micah was still very young.
    Of his own father, felled by sickness.
    The wolf seemed deeply happy to hear from