Taken In by the Pack: Second Chances by Alana Hart, Jazzmyn Wolfe

and a dozen other emotions besides, all in a turmoil inside me.
     
    Bryson, eyes wide, looked to the older woman again, his expression remarkably boy-like for a young man purportedly in charge of this varied group of people. I was vaguely aware of her frown and shrug, and the little forward motion she made with her hand, as if to say ‘go ahead’. He nodded slightly in response, and looked back at me, a sort of peacefulness stealing over his features as his mind visibly settled on his course.
     
    The fear took ascendancy over the turmoil, then, and I stumbled backwards, though I was quickly stopped by the ring of people. They were gentle, no one grabbed me or anything like that, but they didn’t let me escape past them, either.
     
    Bryson took a few slow, deep breaths, and I could have sworn his eyes flashed a vibrant, glowing greenish-gold before he closed them. The air around him seemed to tremble, as if he had suddenly increased temperature so much that he was giving off visible heatwaves.
     
    My mind could find no words for what came next. He seemed to… to melt , but not in a liquid way. More than anything, it reminded me of old stop-action clay animation. It was both fascinating, and gut-wrenchingly disturbing. The shimmery heat-wave like quality of the air around him obscured most of what I am sure were disturbing details, but it was still all I could do not to gag and retch seeing what I could see.
     
    He lowered to the ground, and the shape of him changed, and when the air finally cleared, sure enough: instead of familiar young man with the broad chest and chin-length brown hair with honey highlights, was a huge cream-and-honey colored wolf, looking up at me expectantly with entirely too-familiar amber brown eyes.
     
    My vision went slowly black from the edges in, and those eyes were the last thing I saw, before the blackness swallowed them up as well.
     
     
     

 
     
    Chapter Seven
     
     
     
    I returned to consciousness slowly. My mind, probably in an attempt to protect myself, did not immediately recall what had happened, or even where I was. Whatever I was laying on was hard and lumpy, and my head was at an awkward angle. But there was a solid, warm, soft presence pressed up against me. I nestled into the warmth, until something tickled my nose, nearly making me sneeze.
     
    As if the jarring from the aborted explosion dislodged a physical block in my mind, details came flooding back.
     
    My eyes flew open, and I realized that the soft warmth pressed up against me was the honey-cream wolf that had taken Bryson’s place. A corner of my mind whispered that it was Bryson, but most of me was not ready to process that yet.
     
    I was on the ground; no wonder it felt hard and lumpy. The grass was thick here, but it still didn’t make much of a mattress. Someone had thoughtfully made a sort of pillow out of a folded jacket for me, but it wasn’t much, and apparently I’d been out long enough that I was getting a crick in my neck.
     
    For a long moment, I just lay there, my face still mostly hidden in the thick wolf fur, too confused and frightened to move. Apparently trying to pretend I was still out did not fool the huge animal next to me, however; his head curled around, and he began to lick my face gently. Although I had been around plenty of dogs in my life and knew full well it was an affectionate gesture, that crazed, panicky corner of my mind was absolutely certain it was a prelude to the wolf eating me.
     
    My breath quickened, and I started to try to scramble away from the creature, but I was too disoriented to accomplish much. I think I hurt myself — and probably the wolf, too — more than I managed to actually move.
     
    I looked around wildly, and I could already feel myself starting to hyperventilate again. The group — the pack , I reminded myself — was still roughly circled around the two of us, but more relaxed now, or had been until I started to panic again. A few were