Chapter 61. Claiming What Does Not Belong to You

The first few hours in wolf form were usually the wildest. We would run at full speed, howl at nothing in the sky, chase anything that moved, and generally act like wild dogs with our first taste of freedom in weeks. I was no better, of course, being as obnoxiously frisky as the others. Eventually, however, the run through the woods changed to games.

I skipped through the woods, my lungs full of night air and the smell of the trees. I could smell skunk and armadillo, squirrel and snake, and some kind of musky dead thing in the distance that made me want to go check it out, but curiosity took second place to the thrill of the hunt, and I dashed through the woods merrily. When my paws landed on a ridge, something warm snaked around one of my legs, and then the world tilted. The next thing I knew, pain was throbbing in my hind leg, and I was hanging upside down, upside down from a tree. I was caught in a trap of some kind. I screamed, but there was no