Exclusive Extra: Psy-Changeling Short Story
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Author’s Note: This short story fits in after Shards of Hope in the Psy-Changeling series and can be read on its own even if you’ve never read the series.
For those of you who prefer to avoid all spoilers, save this to read until after you’ve read Kiss of Snow.
The Song of the Wolf
by Nalini Singh
Hawke was in a surly mood.
He prowled under the starlight-kissed forest, the pads of his feet crushing the dried leaves and pine needles below, the wild landscape silent around him. His wolf was the apex predator in this entire region and all other creatures knew not to attract his attention—especially given the current grim state of his mood.
He could’ve sulked just as easily in human form, but the wolf had needed release, too, and so man and wolf sulked together in his lupine form.
The night was beautiful above the Sierra Nevada mountains, the stars like diamonds against the inky blackness, but Hawke saw none of it; he was too damn aggravated. It was as if all the juveniles in the den had suddenly lost their minds.
Every alpha worth his salt expected the kids to pull some tricks—that was part of what made them wolf juveniles. Hawke wasn’t the kind of alpha to stifle his young by expecting perfect behavior. What he did expect was for the young idiots to be intelligent enough to space out their mischief, so that their alpha wouldn’t totally lose his shit with them, but no, this particular group had decided to go crazy on him all at once. Which was why they were now assigned to cleaning the den toilets for an open-ended period.
The wolf was momentarily amused by the memory of the looks on their faces when Hawke had made the decree; it had belatedly sunk into those teenaged heads that now was not the time to be antagonizing their alpha. Anyone with even a single functioning brain cell could see that Hawke was in a bad, bad mood. Could you blame him? His mate had been away from the den for two damn weeks already. And she was scheduled to be away for another two weeks at least.
Yes, he’d spoken to her over the comm, but it wasn’t the same as having her here, where he could touch her, where he could scent her, could hold her.
He growled at some small creature that dared rustle about in the bushes and the creature went quickly silent. The immediate obedience satisfied the wolf’s ragged temper.
Man and wolf, both, they were in a helluva mood.
The only good thing about the entire scenario was that he’d managed to hold himself together when it mattered. He was an alpha—his pack relied on him to think with a clear head. And he was capable of doing that despite Sienna being so far from him, as long as no one provoked him. Even Drew, who had very little care for his skin, had stopped teasing Hawke about missing Sienna a week into Sienna’s trip. The other man knew what it was like to miss his mate, and he knew exactly when the teasing was no longer something Hawke could take in good humor.
The wolf looked around, checking the perimeter remained safe. Just because he was in an ill-tempered frame of mind didn’t mean he’d lower his guard and allow danger to enter his territory and harm his pack.
Continuing on after confirming that everything was as it should be, he lifted his nose into the cold night air and drew in a long breath. Wolf and man, they both knew that they had to get this tension under control; Sienna might be his mate, but she was also a young soldier in the pack and she deserved every opportunity to further her skills.
She didn’t need those skills to garner respect from the pack; she already had that from every single SnowDancer. After the furious way she’d defended the pack, prepared to do so to the death, there wasn’t a SnowDancer alive who looked at her as anything but a worthy mate for their alpha. However, there were skills she didn’t have simply because she’d never had the chance to learn them.
And Sienna hated not knowing things.
Which was why she was currently in Kenji’s den. After that, she’d be moving into Jem’s den. Each of the two lieutenants would teach her something new, something in which they had a specialization. It was the same opportunity SnowDancer offered all its young soldiers, though not every one of those soldiers took the pack up on it. Not every wolf wanted to go from den to den; some were far more suited to the stability of a single den, and learning from a single teacher.
Sienna, however, was quicksilver fire and brilliant light; she absorbed information like a sponge. Hawke had no intention of clipping her wings or caging her just because he needed her so much.
But that didn’t mean he couldn’t sulk and scowl.
And he was doing it at night in the depths of the forests around the den, wasn’t he? It wasn’t as if he was growling at everyone in the pack. By the time he got back after this patrol, he’d have his temper under some kind of control. And if anybody did rub the raw edge of his mood the wrong way, even knowing that he was an alpha wolf who’d been apart from his mate for two long weeks, well, they deserved what they got.
The only ones he’d excuse were the cubs, who ran up innocently to him and asked him when “Sinna” would be back. For them, he had endless patience, the wolf understanding that those small hearts had no intention to hurt, and could have no idea of what it did to him to talk to them about his mate when she was so distant from him.
And now, he was going so nuts that he could scent a faint hint of her on the breeze. Wolf opening its mouth in a grin that wasn’t a grin at all, he decided to follow that scent. If a packmate was messing with him by putting Sienna’s things in the forest, he’d hunt down the imbecile and teach them a lesson he or she would never forget.
The scent got increasingly strong as he ran toward what must be the origin—Hawke was unsurprised that he’d immediately angled himself in the correct direction. He could track Sienna through snow and wind and rain and hail and anything else the world threw at them.
Paws flying over the debris on the forest floor, he tried not to growl, despite his anger. He was going to sneak up on the asshole who was attempting to play a nasty trick on him and bite hard enough to leave marks that wouldn’t heal for days. Then he’d—
The wolf froze, the silver-gold of its fur rippling in the cool night breeze. Because in the clearing in front of him was a picnic blanket on which a woman lay braced on one elbow, her eyes turned toward him, as if she’d known he was coming. Those eyes were starlight, her hair appearing a silken black under the silvery light of the moon. But he knew it wasn’t black at all but a deep ruby red. Lush and brilliant and strong.
Seeing him, she smiled. “I knew you wouldn’t take long to find me,” she said. “I have to catch the morning flight back.” She sat up. “Kenji only let me off for half a day—and Drew’s going to cover your duties for that time, including this patrol.”
Hawke’s wolf was beside her before he felt himself move. When he growled at her for what she’d done to him, she laughed and ran her fingers through his fur, rubbing the side of her face against his. “Indigo called me.” Her voice was a caress. “She said you were in the worst mood she’d ever seen you in.” Another rub of her cheek against his, his strong and wild and possessive mate rubbing her scent into his skin as if he didn’t already carry it embedded so deep within that nothing could ever erase it.
“I didn’t need the call,” she whispered. “I’ve been on edge myself. I almost threw fire at Kenji’s head today when he was being perfectly reasonable. Good thing I didn’t or Jem would’ve ripped me limb from limb.”
Folding down into a sitting position as she spoke, the wolf placed its head in her lap. She stroked him, soothing the animal, soothing them both. And she told him how much she’d missed him, petting him with her words as well as her hands. “As your mate, I need to do these placements,” she said. “I need to learn and become part of every den in our territory.”
Of course she’d think of that. Sienna was too smart not to see how much the wolves not based at the Sierra Nevada den needed to spend time near and with the extraordinary woman who was the mate of their alpha.
“But it’s so hard being away from you,” she added. “It feels like I’ve left part of myself behind.”
The wolf heard the ache in her voice, but he also heard the determination. It might torment her to be apart from him, but she’d do it because it was necessary. His mate was as much an alpha as Hawke—she was just growing into her skin.
Content, the wolf closed its eyes, soaking her in and building a store of memories and sensations that would carry him through the two weeks to come.
Later, when he shifted into his human form, she stroked the man too, and he stroked her in turn. She met him kiss for voracious kiss, touch for touch, and hunger for hunger.
The moonlight glimmered over their skin afterward, their bodies lying aligned, their eyes looking into each other’s. The wolf rising to brush against the inside of his skin, Hawke threw back his head and howled, the sound one of untrammeled joy.
A hundred howls answered his, his people speaking to him in the song of the wolf, as, beside him, lay the woman who was the song of his heart.
© Copyright 2017 by Nalini Singh
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