Moonlight: The Big Bad Wolf (Black Swan 4) by Victoria Danann Read Free Book Online

called?"
    BlueClaw grinned. "I thought you might be out tonight." The gleam in Stalkson's eye was more than reflected firelight. There was teasing there as well. "I know. You think my wolf howl sucks."
    Stalkson shrugged and smiled at his old friend. "What's troubling you?"
    "Like most old men, I can't sleep. And, I suspect, like most old men I was thinking about love."
    Stalkson couldn't have been more surprised if the old man had said he was thinking about becoming an investment banker. "You think the minds of old men are preoccupied with love? What about it?"
    "I think that, when people near the end of their lives, we begin to review. Thoughts turn to what we did experience and what we didn't experience. Reliving our stories... Well, that's healthy. Dwelling on what might have happened and didn't? If we think about it too long, demons of disappointment turn those thoughts into regrets. Once that happens, it can be hard to think about anything else."
    Stalkson arched an eyebrow. "Demons?"
    "It's a metaphor. Are you paying attention?"
    "You know you're going out of your way to be vague."
    BlueClaw laughed softly. "So it seems."
    "For once, why don't you just come at it straight and say what's on your mind?"
    "You are such an alpha!" Stalkson had no reaction to that whatsoever. "Okay. I'll try."
    "Go for it."
    "I liked my wife. We lived together for nearly forty years before she passed over. We had a nice life, a nice partnership, a nice mutual understanding." When BlueClaw paused, Stalkson encouraged him to continue with a crisp nod. "The key word there is nice."
    "Well... that's nice."
    "Funny."
    "I thought so. Look, I'm not being dismissive, exactly, I just don't see the problem. Do you regret having a nice relationship with your wife?"
    "No. What I regret is that I didn't find that woman."
    Stalkson looked confused. "What woman?"
    "You know. That woman. The one who stirs the kind of passion that would make you run into the fire for her."
    The fire drew Stalkson's gaze. "Why would you want a relationship with a woman who would ask you to run into fire? And what a waste of time it would be to consider such a silly proposition."
    BlueClaw stared at him. "I don't think I ever realized before just how literal you are."
    "Okay."
    "I would have liked to have experienced love that was so powerful it was all-consuming. It's the one thing I'll be sorry to have missed. I think I would trade everything else to have had that."
    The werewolf stared at the old ShuShu for a few seconds then threw his head back and laughed hard and deep. It was good. It was purging. He couldn't remember the last time he had laughed like that.
    "BlueClaw. You're a powerful man. Everyone in your tribe envies you, wants to be you, and you... what? Wish you had thrown all that away for an idea that's very likely a myth?"
    BlueClaw just smiled and sighed. "It gives me peace to know I told you."
    Stalkson snorted and stood to leave. "Peace, huh? Next time you call me you'd better have something real to say."
    "Well, what do I know? I'm just an old man."
    "Yeah? You keep saying that, but you talk more like an old woman."
    BlueClaw smiled wider. "Word to the wise."
    "Right now I'm thinking you wouldn't know wise if it bit you in the ass."
    Stalkson collapsed into his wolf form with an economy of energy and motion. He looked at the gray-haired figure sitting on the ground, shook his head, and sneezed once before he turned and trotted away.
    After a few minutes he was again standing near the drop off to the lake below. His massive wolf chest heaved a big sigh and he resumed trotting along the ridge. Every heart in the tribe, from youngest to oldest, looked to him for answers. He was supposed to lead the way, supposed to know the way to lead. The position of alpha didn't come with a shroud of sagacity. It meant strength and will and fearlessness, not wisdom. He was failing the people who depended on him. He saw it in the eyes of every young blood, that unmistakable