Read night shade :: part 6 of chapter 1

I cought him across the jaw with a single blow. He dropped to the ground and didn't move again. I bent down and gathered the boy in my arms, slinging his backpack over my shoulder. The scent of green meadows and dew-kissed the tree limbs flowed around me, flooding reminder of my brush with treachery. Twilight shadows streched farther up the mountain, but I'd have him at the base by dusk.

A lone, battered pickup was parked near the rippling waterway that marked the boundary of the sacred site. Black signs with bright orange lettering were pasted along the creek bank:

NO Trespassing.Private Property.

The Ford Ranger was unlocked. I flung open the door, almost pulling it from the rust-bitten vehicle. I draped the boy's limp form across the driver's seat. His head slumped forward and I caught the stark outline of a tattoo on the back of his neck. A dark, bizarrly inked cross.

A trespasser and trend hound. Thank God I found something not to like about him.

I hurled his pack onto the passenger seat and slammed the door. The truck's steel frame groaned. Still trembling with frustration, I shifted into my wolf from and darted back into the forest. His scent clung to me, burring my sense of purpose. I sniffed the air and cringed, a new scent bringing my treachery into stark relief.