Luna's amber eyes stayed on Adam from across the river.
"What are you waiting for?"
Adam should have transformed.
The decision had been made before she'd asked. He could feel the wolf gathering beneath his skin, Lumen tightening through his body, the familiar pressure of bones preparing to change. Then the pressure stopped.
Not weakened.
Stopped.
Adam waited for the transformation to begin again.
Nothing happened.
He blinked.
Okay.
That was new.
The wolf had simply decided not to.
Adam looked across the river.
Luna's werewolf form occupied nearly the entire space around her. Snow-white fur caught the moonlight along the enormous shoulders and thick legs, each limb carrying enough mass to make the nearby trees look thin. Her paws sank into the snow beneath her weight while her long tail rested behind her, and her massive head sat above it all with amber eyes fixed directly on him.
The moon sharpened everything.
He could see individual strands of fur around her muzzle.
The rise and fall of her chest.
The faint steam leaving her nose.
He could hear the river beneath the ice.
And somewhere underneath all of it, the wolf... Or rather both Adam and the wolf within looked at Luna and made a very simple assessment.
Beautiful.
Adam's mouth tilted upward.
Luna narrowed her eyes.
"What?"
Adam cleared his throat.
His body moved before his thoughts caught up.
He grabbed the bottom of his wet tank top and pulled it over his head.
The vest landed in the snow beside him.
Adam stood there with damp skin shining beneath the moonlight, water still running from his hair and shoulders. years of training had changed him. His chest had filled out, his stomach had hardened into defined lines, and his arms carried the practical strength of someone who had spent far too many days learning how much force his body could produce.
He looked across the river like standing half-dressed in the freezing night had been the obvious next step.
Luna's ears lifted.
Her tail stopped moving.
"What."
Adam smiled.
"If you want to see me transform tonight, you gotta do something first."
The words came out clean.
No hesitation.
No nervous laugh.
No explanation.
Adam heard himself say them.
I did not just say that.
Luna's ears angled forward.
"Oh yeah?" Her amber eyes stayed on him. "And what's that?"
Adam's mouth moved.
"Let me ride you."
Silence.
Adam's brain arrived approximately half a second late.
Fuck! What am I saying? I gotta apologize.
Nothing came out.
Why can't I apologize?
He remained standing there.
The wolf... The part of him Luna said not to fight was clearly hogging the driver's seat and clearly didn't seem concerned.
It waited.
Calmly.
Luna stared at him.
Then she laughed.
The sound rolled across the river deeper than it had before, carrying through the trees with the resonance of something much larger than a human body. It was the same genuine laugh she'd given him at the river, warm and involuntary, except now it came from a creature capable of making the ground feel smaller beneath its paws.
"What the hell are you on?" She looked directly at his face.
She was waiting for the joke.
Adam didn't give her one.
The laughter faded.
Her ears shifted.
Her tail moved once.
A tiny motion.
Then stopped.
Adam noticed. He knew this was probably the end for him.
She's going to eat me.
Luna's eyes flicked over him once before returning to his face.
If I turned around and just bolted, maybe I'll have a shot of survival.
Adam should have said he was kidding.
He didn't.
The wolf was still waiting.
Luna lowered her head as she transformed into her dire wolf form in less than a second.
"Whatever." she huffed as she stepped closer to the riverbank. "If you're waiting for a formal invitation, I've got places to be."
Adam stared.
She said whatever.
He felt something inside his chest loosen.
She said whatever!
His feet moved.
She's letting me?
He got closer, stopping beside her shoulder and tilted his head back.
Her body stretched above him in layers of dense white fur and muscle, the heat beneath it visible in the faint steam rising from her coat. He placed one hand against her side.
The fur compressed beneath his palm.
It was softer than he'd expected.
Dense, too, thick enough that his fingers disappeared into it before reaching the warmth underneath.
Luna went still.
Adam slowly moved his hand along her side.
Her muscles tightened beneath the fur.
She didn't move away.
Instead, her weight shifted a fraction toward his hand.
Adam noticed.
Her tail moved once behind her.
Then again.
Slower.
Luna turned her head enough to look at him.
"This wasn't part of the deal."
Adam kept his hand where it was. "Didn't say it was."
She stared at him.
He could see the irritation she was trying to manufacture.
It wasn't quite working.
Adam's mouth twitched.
Luna's ears rotated backward.
She gave him a look.
"Do you want to ride me or not?"
Adam chuckled.
The sound surprised him almost as much as everything else he'd done tonight.
"Don't pretend you didn't like it."
There it is again.
He watched himself say it.
Why am I like this right now?
The normal part of him was still somewhere behind the wheel, hands hovering uselessly over controls that no longer seemed connected.
Luna stared at him.
Then she looked away.
"Who said I didn't?"
Adam stopped.
The wolf inside him practically smiled as he climbed onto her back.
Luna shook herself from head to tail, sending a wave through her enormous frame as the snow scattered from her fur.
"Hold on tight."
She paused.
Then, quieter:
"...and don't be stupid."
Adam almost laughed.
Then she launched forward.
The first seconds were chaos.
The forest exploded around him.
Luna accelerated so quickly Adam's stomach seemed to remain several feet behind the rest of him. Trees rushed toward them and vanished. Snow sprayed from her paws in white bursts. Cold air hammered against his face.
Adam's arms locked around her.
He held tighter.
Not too tight.
She had told him not to.
His eyes squeezed shut.
This was a terrible idea.
Luna leapt over a fallen tree.
Adam's stomach dropped.
His grip tightened.
The wolf didn't panic.
It adjusted.
Adam opened his eyes.
The forest stopped looking like a wall of things about to hit him.
He started reading her.
A shift in her shoulder came before the turn.
A change in the rhythm of her stride came before an obstacle.
When she leaned, Adam leaned with her.
When she dropped her center of gravity, his body followed.
He stopped trying to predict the forest.
He started predicting Luna.
The difference was immediate.
A turn came.
Adam shifted his weight before Luna committed to it.
Her body followed the movement.
The turn became smooth.
Adam's eyes widened.
Oh. I understand it now.
She wasn't carrying him.
They were moving together.
Luna's stride had a rhythm all its own. Four powerful impacts against the ground, each one different from the last depending on whether she was accelerating, turning, or preparing to jump. Adam learned the pattern through his hands and legs rather than through thought.
His body adapted.
Luna noticed.
He knew because her head shifted slightly.
The corner of her amber eye caught him.
Then she accelerated.
Adam laughed.
The sound came out before he could stop it.
"Woo-hoo!"
He immediately laughed again.
He couldn't help it.
The forest became streaks of black and white beneath the moon. Snow kicked upward behind them, sparkling for an instant before disappearing into darkness. The trees opened just enough for Adam to see the sky above the canopy, and he realized how many stars were actually there when the city line wasn't throwing light into the night.
He had never seen the sky this clearly.
The stars stretched across the gaps between branches in dense clusters, far brighter than anything visible from the school grounds.
Adam looked up for half a second.
Then Luna turned her head.
She was running at full speed.
She still checked on him.
Their eyes met.
One second.
Then she looked forward again.
Adam grinned. "I'm good!"
Luna's voice came through the wind.
"I've got something to show you."
She turned left.
Adam leaned with her.
The movement happened naturally now.
No resistance.
No hesitation.
His weight settled into the turn, his hands adjusting automatically against the thick fur beneath them.
Luna felt the difference.
Adam could tell.
She accelerated again.
The trees began thinning.
At first, Adam thought it was another break in the forest.
Then the ground leveled.
The canopy opened.
Moonlight flooded the snow.
Luna ran into a wide clearing where the ground stretched uninterrupted beneath the enormous night sky.
Adam lifted his head.
The snow ahead was untouched.
The moon sat directly above them.
For two seconds, it was beautiful.
Then Adam saw the edge.
The clearing didn't end in another line of trees.
It just ended; the ground simply disappeared.
Adam's stomach dropped.
"Luna!"
She heard him.
Her head snapped forward.
Adam saw the cliff.
The distance between them and the edge suddenly became the only measurement in the world.
His hands locked into her fur.
Luna's stride changed immediately.
Her front paws struck harder.
Her rear legs drove into the snow.
Her body dropped.
She was trying to convert speed into stopping distance.
Snow exploded beneath her paws.
The ground tore open behind each impact as her claws dug for traction. Furrows carved through the snow while her enormous body fought its own momentum.
Adam's arms tightened.
"Stop!"
Luna dug harder.
The edge was closer.
Too close.
Her paws hit again.
The ground cracked beneath them.
She threw her weight backward, every muscle pulling against the speed she'd built through the forest.
Adam could feel her trying.
He could feel the force running through her body beneath his hands.
The cliff kept coming.
Closer.
And closer.
Adam shut his eyes.
His grip tightened until his fingers disappeared into white fur.
There was nothing left to do except hold on.