Chapter 50. Miss Stone

Tessa’s POV

“Again,” Knox says.

It’s 6:15 on Tuesday morning, and the reserve is gray and wet and empty, and my brother is sitting on a stump in a parka with a thermos of coffee, watching me try to turn back into a person.

I’m on four legs in the frost. I’ve been on four legs for twenty minutes. My fur is soaked. My paws are numb. And no matter how hard I think about my hands, my hands refuse to exist.

You’re trying too hard, says the voice in the middle of me. My wolf. She sounds amused. Stop pushing. Let go.

I don’t know how to let go.

You did on Saturday.

On Saturday I was screaming.

“You’re doing the thing,” Knox calls. “The thing where you think so hard your ears go flat. I can see your ears, Kates.”

I snarl at him. It comes out as a high, offended yip.

He laughs so hard he spills his coffee.

***

It takes me forty minutes to shift back. When I finally do, I’m on my knees i