“Yeah, never really thought of myself as bloodthirsty before, but here we are.” He chuckled.

“Me neither.”

“Seriously? I always thought you’d be a killer.”

“What? What the fuck, Jules? I’m a pacifist. You know that.”

He hooted at that. “You might have been once, but it sure didn’t feel like that when you were throttling me the other night.”

I still felt awful and embarrassed about that. I made my way out of the water and sat on the bank, mumbling, “Sorry. I didn’t mean it.”

“You were on fire last night as well. You were flying. I couldn’t keep up with you.”

I was surprised to hear it. I’d felt him lagging when I went in for the kill, but I thought he was hanging back to corner the deer. I thought it was part of a plan.

“Don’t go getting a big head about it, though. I bet I can still pin you.”

He came out of the water and ran for me. He took me down before I had time to brace myself. We rolled around on the grass. His wet skin was a shock against mine. He was laughing and so was I. I was laughing right until he had me on my back. The second the base of my skull made contact with the earth, something wild and dark moved in me. The force of it propelled me up. I rolled over with such force that Jules emitted a soft grunt as he hit the ground. Just like that, I had him on his back, and I was holding him down by the wrists.

“Jesus, big boy.” His voice sounded shaken and breathy, but he had a strange smile on his face.

I jumped off him as fast as I could. I was so aroused that for the first time in my life I wasn’t sure I could trust myself.

“I’m going to run back to the cabin to dry off,” I called over my shoulder as I headed into the forest, shifting midstride, desperate to get away from him and from that version of myself.

By the time Jules got back to the cabin, I was already in bed—in human form—and was gearing up for a nap of epic proportions. I closed my eyes when I heard him approach and pretended to be asleep. I was feeling flustered. I wasn’t happy with myself. I was struggling with a bit of wolf/human dysphoria and felt like I needed some time to gather my thoughts.

“Sully,” he whispered as he got into bed with me, “remind me to tell you about your hair. There’s something I need to show you.”

Most of the time Jules made complete sense to me, and the rest of the time he made none. His fixation with my hair was turning into one of those things that made no sense at all.