Prince of Shadows by Susan Krinard

His yelp of surprise was utterly human. Alex grabbed Tracy and wrapped her jacket around the shivering girl. “Hang in there, sweetheart. I’ll be right back.” Without another thought Alex flung herself down, slid onto the ice and propelled herself the way Tracy had come.

Shadow’s head bobbed above the water. His claws scrabbled at the edge of the hole. He heaved up and fell back again. Alex flung her arm out. The ice crackled. Her hand clutched at air, muscles straining.

Sodden fur brushed the tips of her fingers. She reached a fraction of an inch farther and closed them on his pelt, then around the solidity of a foreleg.

Shadow helped her. She pulled, and he took advantage of the leverage she gave him. Desperation gifted her with more strength than she had ever possessed. His upper body slid up beside her own; ice cracked again. She buried both hands in the thick ruff of his shoulder and heaved one last time.

Panting, eyes slitted. Shadow lay beside her.

“We can’t wait, Shadow,” she whispered. “The ice may give any time. You’ve got to follow me.”

He looked directly into her eyes with perfect understanding. His body heaved, and he rested his wet muzzle against the back of her hand. His tongue touched her skin.

Alex scooted around on the ice until she faced Shadow and began to shimmy backward, tugging him as he’d tugged the girl.

Somehow the ice held. By the time they reached the bank, she was exhausted, and Shadow was shivering under the weight of his waterlogged pelt.

Tracy watched, wide-eyed. “The w-wolf,” she said through chattering teeth.

“It’s okay.” Alex pulled the girl close, warming her as best she could. “Your family will be here soon. I sent Liz and Deanna to get them. It’s all right.”

Tracy pressed her face to Alex’s shoulder. Alex closed her eyes in silent thanksgiving and then looked for Shadow.

He was gone.

There was nothing to do but wait, and the waiting was torment. Then a whine of a motor pulsed in the heavy stillness—a snowmobile, coming ever closer. It sounded to Alex like a heavenly chorus. In another few moments the vehicle burst out of the woods, Julie driving and Brenda perched precariously behind her on the snowmobile’s seat.

Alex stood, cradling Tracy in her arms. Brenda jumped down almost before the snowmobile stopped, her face stricken; she grabbed Tracy in a bear-hug.

“You’ll be all right now, honey,” Alex said, touching Tracy’s icy cheek. “There’s something I have to do, and then we’ll be right after you.”

She caught a glimpse of Julie’s mouth open on a question as Tracy’s family closed around her, and then Alex was away, following the prints of a running wolf.

He hadn’t gone far. She found him on his knees, naked, hunched over against sickness and the cold. Abandoned clothing lay scattered around him.

“Kieran,” she whispered. She dashed for the shirt he’d left tangled on the ground and snatched it up. The buttons were torn away and it was stiff with cold. She fell to her knees beside him and wrapped the shirt around his shoulders with clumsy hands.

He shuddered. His breath fanned her cheek in hot puffs. “Tracy,” he rasped.

“She’s okay. You saved her.” Alex pulled the torn edges of the shirt across his chest, trying to make them meet. “You did it, Kieran. You made yourself shift. And you saved her.”

“I… had no choice.”

She gulped, fighting down a wave of dizziness that was far more profound than mere relief. “How did it happen?”

He closed his eyes. “I got to the pond and saw… Tracy struggling. I tried to go to her. But then I could feel—” He shuddered again. “I don’t remember anything after that.”

“You don’t remember?”

“It all goes dark.” He looked at her, an edge of fear in his eyes. “I didn’t know I’d changed until I came out of it again, here. I had no control.”

“But you did,” Alex protested. “Even if you weren’t consciously aware of the transformation, you changed when you needed to, when it was necessary. You were afraid for a child.” She slapped her hand on the snow. “Emotion, Kieran. Emotion makes you change.”