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Chapter 1

THE WAXING MOON WAS CALLING TO HER AGAIN LYING on the softevening, Carol Wood tried to sleep But she felt the grohite sphere begging her to shed her hurace of the wolf, strong and agile, with purpose in every stride in the crisp, cold Colorado night air

She did not wish to be one of the a part-tied her to embrace this new side of herself The ainst the olf’s curse Because it was a curse to her, just the way her premonitions and psychic touch often were

She’d grown up with her revved senses and had realized she couldn’t do anything about that aspect of her life, once she’d learned it wasn’t normal to have the abilities she did But now to be—she squeezed her eyes tighter and rolled onto her back—a olf… No ed, she knew she’d have to deal with it before long

With all her heart, she prayed to keep her newly acquired bizarre condition—shape-shifting—at bay Her body tingled with heat and her mind with apprehension Even in the darkness of her half-asleepcontrol of her physical for prickle while she clutched the comforter underneath her chin

The heat, like the sun shining on a bright and war the unwanted craving to shift She ing into the white eyelet Theday by day, just like the damnable desire to shape-shift No, not desire Compulsion

Then, as if her psychic side finally gained soht kicked in The room and the need to shift dissolved into blackness, and the wolf in her vision appeared again like a lucid dream

As big as it ith s, the wolf had to be a e of the spring-green forest Cloaked in rich bluish-silver fur with a lighter mask, and with his ears perked like an alpha aze His amber eyes focused on hers: the anted her Beckoned her to come to him But not as a human

As a wolf

Even in her visions, the scene was one of cajoling, begging her to recognize her destiny, to give in to her wolf’s half At least that’s the way she viewed him

Carol refused the wolf’s alluring gaze and the moon’s sensuous serenade

But the h its seductive pull, yanking her abruptly from the vision

The heat invading her body intensified now, like a fever that couldn’t be squelched Never had the shift overtaken a vision in progress The urge was growing Yet she knew she still had soarous had an inborn ability to prevent hu the conversion Like thee, the shift happened in a flash And since she hadn’t just automatically shifted, she must have some control

Still, her ed off the coown on the soft uest rooarment before the transformation took over in case she couldn’t stop it She envisioned the horrifying iown as a wolf Trapped, snarling, and growling, she’d try to free herself until she woke so in a cocoon of silk—furry legs kicking and sharp, wicked canines snapping

She gritted her teeth and pressed the pal the ive up control and shape-shift! Not when she couldn’t rule her paranormal abilities Not when she would now have to relinquish control over her physical form as well

But e her forever Forever! Doomed to live life as a ith the conscience of a hule moment as a wolf could perht a new vision was telling her, yet she couldn’t know for certain That’s why fear consuree every time the damnable shift threatened to overtake her

Cursing her fate, she ground her teeth and clenched her hands into fists, her fingernails biting into the pal that would halt the raging need to shift