Free Quest (Shifter Island Book 4) by Carol Davis Page B

about Russell, strong and athletic in spite of his age. She’d seen him lift and carry things she would have thought were far too heavy for one man to move, and climb over things with an agility like a wild animal’s. Helene, too, was stronger than a 70-year-old woman had any right to be.
    “There’s a place not far from here,” she said against Luca’s chest. “It’s very secluded. Do you know where I mean? Up the county road, past the fairgrounds. It’s like half an hour away. There’s an old barn with some woods behind it. Nobody’s lived there for decades.”
    “I think I know it,” he said hesitantly.
    Slowly, she tipped her head back and looked up into those golden eyes. “Will you go there with me?”
    “Of course. If you like.”
    “Now?”
    “What about dinner?”
    “I’ll tell Julie I’ll see her tomorrow.”
    He tangled his fingers deep into her hair, then bent over to bury his nose in there too. The warmth of his breath tickled her scalp, making her smile involuntarily. He was inhaling her scent, she understood. The wolf was inhaling her scent, reassuring itself that she was still there. That she still wanted to be there.
    “Luca?”
    “Mm,” he murmured.
    “Will you shift for me? Will you… will you show me the wolf?”
    All at once, he stood very still. He stopped breathing, too; she couldn’t feel his chest move, couldn’t feel his breath in her hair. Then he took a step back and looked deep into her eyes. She was afraid he might be angry, taken by surprise like this, but he didn’t seem to be. If anything, he looked relieved. Astonished, but relieved.
    “You… know, then,” he murmured.
    So, she was right. It was true. This man she’d found standing at the counter in a sandwich shop on a sunny afternoon four years ago… was a wolf.
    Her wolf.
    “Will you?” she asked.
    It took him a long while to answer.
    Then, finally, he murmured, “Yes.”

Eleven
     
    The barn was just as she remembered it: tilting badly to one side, chunks of the roof missing, its once-red paint now rusty where there was any paint left at all. All around it, the weeds had grown at least knee-high. There’d been a house nearby at some point, Allison supposed, but it was long gone. Burned to the ground, maybe. Who had once lived here, she had no idea.
    Kids came out here sometimes to drink and smoke and cause trouble, but there was no one here now.
    “It’s a sad place,” Luca said a minute after she’d shut off the engine of her little rented car.
    He got out of the car slowly, unfolding himself like a baby giraffe. Although the car had a reasonable amount of head room, it had seemed to crowd him, as if she’d locked him inside a cage. Once he was out, he seemed more relaxed, and by the time she’d reached his side he seemed loose and reasonably calm.
    He spent a while looking around, absorbing his surroundings. She didn’t interrupt him; she felt bad for having cooped him up inside the car for almost half an hour, and thought she should let him unwind however he thought best.
    “Fire,” he said finally.
    “Fire?”
    “Hmm.” He pointed. “The hearth is there. You can see it through the weeds. And some bricks from the chimney.”
    For a moment she wanted to ask him if anyone had been hurt, or killed. Then she chided herself. He doesn’t read minds. He’s not… He wouldn’t know that stuff any more than you do. He’s just…
    “How did you know?” he asked. “About the wolf.”
    “It’s true, then?”
    He grunted softly. “I wanted to tell you. During my Involvement, when we were together. I spent many nights wondering how I could tell you. How I should approach it. It’s not something you can introduce easily.”
    “And then we… left each other.”
    “How did you know? Did someone—”
    She could see understanding take shape in his eyes. He knew something had changed during her trip to the ladies’ room, during that time she’d spent with Julie. They’d been in there for