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RUN WITH

THE MOON

© 2006 Lucy Monroe text

© 2006 ZJS images

Run With the Moon © 2006 Lucy Monroe - 1

Scottish Highlands Sinclair Hunting Ground
Early Middle Ages

The she-wolf lifted her head toward the moon and yipped with delight.

Run With the Moon © 2006 Lucy Monroe - 2

Freedom coursed through her in wave after wave of pleasure. It was the first time in her life she had been allowed to run alone during a full moon. She could barely believe her laird or her brother had given their approval for her to do so, but at least one had, if not the other.

And she was so glad. She was not yet ready to mate, but if she had stayed with her pack for this run, she would have done so. She was in heat, she was of age...some said well past it...and her beast's nature would have demanded a physical mating.

The unattached males of her pack would have fought one another for the right to join with her and her wolf would have submitted to the ancient ritual. But the human woman inside the wolf's body didn't want any of the males of her pack. Not even its leader. Which had been her real problem. It was not merely that she was frightened of mating the first time as a wolf, but that none of her pack appealed to her as a potential husband or temporary lover.

Even in order to get control of her change.

She thought it was better to run with the moon as a wolf than to couple with a man who held no appeal to her.

Far too shy to share such an opinion with her brother, she had fretted on her own until she'd had no choice but to talk to someone. And now she was here, glad she had

Run With the Moon © 2006 Lucy Monroe - 3

overcome the natural reticence of her nature...because she had freedom and it felt wonderful.

She had no desire to be away longer than one night....she loved her clan and her pack. But for tonight when the moon dictated her change and her beast's nature dictated she was physically ready for something she was not mentally prepared for, this small taste of freedom was sweeter than anything she had known. The joy of avoiding fate dictated by her beast welled inside and she laughed, the sound coming out as happy barks.

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She was running along the shore of the water that separated her clan's island home from this one, dipping into the lapping waves and running back to the beach in a game she used to play as a child, when an enticing scent came to her on the wind. She stopped and sniffed. She'd never smelled anything like this before. It captivated her.

Her body quivered with new feelings she didn't recognize.

She wanted to run and she wanted to stay right where she was. She wanted to howl at the moon in joy...and trepidation.

For long seconds, she did nothing, just scented the wind. The intriguing fragrance came from behind her left flank along with other scents that were unfamiliar. She turned slowly, her keen eyesight making out trees of the Run With the Moon © 2006 Lucy Monroe - 5

forest that ended shortly before the beach. She heard movement...very faint, but there all the same. Her hackles rose as fear skittered along her spine. She was not alone.

She strained to distinguish between dark shapes illuminated by the moon. And then she saw them right at the tree line....four large male wolves. Not mere wolves though, her senses told her. They were like her. They were of the Chrechte. Werewolves.

She had been given permission to run alone and directions where to run...but what her pack must not have realized was that these lands were used as hunting ground for another pack...for another clan. Her human mind screamed in denial while her beast lifted its head and howled aloud in ancient challenge, unmistakable to any werewolf.

"Catch me if you can," it said. "Come to me and make me yours."

And the bliss in her freedom transformed into another heady emotion even more powerful in her current form...the joy in perhaps finding her mate.

Lifting her tail in pure provocation, she swished it from side to side before she turned and ran. The group of males followed, their big paws thumping the shoreline as they chased her. If she stayed on the beach, they would Run With the Moon © 2006 Lucy Monroe - 6

be on her in minutes. As fast as she was, a were who was used to hunting would be faster. But she was no untrained femwolf, easily caught. She
was
fast and she might be one of the shyest of her clan's women, but she was also smart.

She would make them prove their worthiness before she would let them fight for her. She veered into the forest, using trees and shrubs as obstacles in their paths.

She was smaller and lighter, she could run trails the huge werewolves could not. She was careful to do so, forcing them to take circuitous routes to follow her, slowing them down while testing both their strength and determination.

That special scent followed her as if she was always downwind of it, though that could not be so. She'd never smelled it before and yet it was intimately familiar. It spurred her on to run faster, farther...to take bigger risks to prove her own worth as a femwolf. As one to be sought. She wanted that scent...
needed it
...but only if the wolf who carried it could prove his worth.

Would he keep up with her? Would he fight the other wolves for the chance to mate her? Would he win?

Her human heart rebelled at any other outcome and renewed fear mixed with the other emotions coursing through her sleek canine body. Feelings that clouded her ability to reason. Panicked, though she wasn't sure why, Run With the Moon © 2006 Lucy Monroe - 7

she ran faster. Her human mind knew the reaction made no sense, not if she craved the scent, but her wolf said she should run from that which frightened her. Both were feeling too many new emotions to think clearly on anything.

Her legs carried her over the uneven ground at blurring speed, the trees she passed beneath nothing more than vague shapes in the moonlit night. The forest was unfamiliar and part of her knew that running without direction was dangerous. Still, she ran. She didn't know where she was going, or even if she was running in the direction she'd been told to stay away from. She simply ran and ran and ran.

The wolves following howled. One howl sounded above the others and it felt like a command for her to stop, but she did not heed it. The unknown before her was no more terrifying than the unknown following behind her.

She was panting, but her body did not slow. She narrowly avoided hitting a tree and yelped, faltering in her smooth stride for a mere second.

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Suddenly, a powerful body hit her side and she went rolling, yelping as she went head over tail, landing in a dazed heap on her side.

The big wolf that had tumbled her barked and growled at her in unmistakable censure. Susannah was a shy woman and even shyer wolf, but she was a femwolf running in heat for the first time and instincts older than time had her scrambling to her feet and snarling.

Don't yell at me!

He snarled back, snapping at her flank, as if directing her away from the direction she'd been running. It was only as he did so that she smelled an unmistakable odor Run With the Moon © 2006 Lucy Monroe - 9

that she would have scented much earlier if she had not been engaged in mindless flight.

Humans
.

Her ears flattened and her tail tucked as her heart beat so fast and loud she could barely hear the other sounds of the night. But it was unmistakably a hunting party's camp. And if the wolf's behavior meant anything, the party was not his clan. Or if they were, they weren't of the privileged few that knew weres lived among them.

He nudged her with his big snout, but even knowing they were in danger, she could not submit. Not yet.

This time his feral snarl was low and full of menace.

She shivered, but held her ground.

Without warning, he rolled her again, this time pouncing so his huge wolf's body held her down. Two big paws pressed against her shoulder, claws extended. Not yet hurting her, but the warning was there. He snarled again.

She yelped and turned her head away, but not exactly showing throat.

He licked her snout, just like he had the right.

She barked at him.
Don't kiss me. I'm not yours
.

He growled and then licked down her neck.
A kiss
when he could have torn her throat out
. She shivered Run With the Moon © 2006 Lucy Monroe - 10

again, this time from the strange reaction deep in her womb rather than any fear.

His mouth closed over her throat, his teeth coming together, grabbing her ruff like an adult would a pup. The menacing teeth were gentle, but she was supremely aware of how vulnerable she was to his power...to his strength...to the lethal impact of his bite.