Page 11 of To the Moon
"We turned into wolves."
"No shit." He gave me wicked side eye before continuing to rub his neck. "How did you know?"
"I've been up here before." I shrugged, but the movement barely registered in my flight suit. I removed my helmet, too, and tucked it between my thigh and the seat.
"You turned into a wolf then, too?"
I nodded.
"My grandma used to say we descended from wolves. I was born with lanugo all over my body. She said that was the sign of the wolf." He slumped in his seat. "She died shortly after my mom gave up on us. When I didn't wolf out during puberty,Teen Wolfstyle, I figured she was just like every other adult in my life who had lied to me."
He looked as heartbroken as the scent rolling off him. I didn't know how I could smell his emotions, but I could. His sorrow stung my nostrils like wet concrete.
"She was right," he whispered, looking at his hands as though he'd never really seen them before, the callouses and palm lines, the ridges and valleys of his knuckles. He curled his long fingers into loose fists andbrought them down on his thighs. "How often do you shift?"
"So far, I've only done it outside the effects of the Lagrange points."
"We have to come to space each time?" He glanced over his shoulder at the airlock. "Can we do it again?"
"We need to get back to the space station so we can fix the shuttle." There was no way I was following my dad's flight plan back to the cruise ship now. I wanted to chart my own way home, one that didn't drop us right in his lap.
Gunnar stood up and peeled off his flight suit again.
"It's too small in here," I said. "You'll break something." There was barely three feet from the front console to the airlock door, and only two feet of space between our bucket seats.
"Not if I'm careful," he said. He pulled off everything but his cartoon-cat-covered boxers and kneeled on the floor with his palms on the tile. He closed his eyes and the shift came over him again, replacing his human body with his wolf's. He cocked his head to one side and his tongue lolled out.
"See? I told you I could do it."
We were back inside the Lagrange points, too. "Showoff," I said. "Shift back so I can try."
He leaned forward and rested his warm chin on my thigh. I couldn't resist a few ear scratches. His fur was far softer than it looked, especially around the ears.
"Come on," I pleaded. "I want to try it, too, and again when we're back on earth."
Satisfied with the head scratches, Gunnar leaned back on his haunches. In one fluid motion, he wentfrom a wolf sitting on the floor to a human on his knees.
Then, it was my turn. As I stripped out of my clothes, my wolf waited in calm anticipation. I reached for him, hoping he would heed my call. In a rush, the change swept over me. One moment, I was me, and the next, I was overwhelmed by my wolf senses, especially the feel of the cold tile beneath my paw pads. I lifted one to my mouth to lick it warm, and Gunnar laughed.
"It's cold."Without thinking, I hopped up onto my seat, wedging my tail against it at an awkward angle. I yipped and hopped back down, careful to avoid the console and the delicate instruments along the wall. Gunnar had the right idea, sitting on the floor.
I'd learned all I needed to know. I could find my wolf inside the Lagrange points, same as Gunnar. Now, we would see if we could shift again when we returned to our blue planet.
CHAPTER 6
GUNNAR
Sebastian wasa wizard at the shuttle's helm. He charted a course back to the space station while I transmitted a quick radio broadcast to let them know we were coming. By the time they responded, we were already halfway there. Whatever mess we'd plunged into, we were stuck together now.
Once Sebastian had leaned back in his seat, confident of our flight plan, I drew his attention to the blue link on my monitor. "I found this shortly after takeoff."
"What is it?"
I clicked on it, and the camera feed filled my screen, showing the empty room and incomplete experiments beyond the airlock. "They wanted video evidence."
Sebastian started to sputter about his dad and Dr. Bunting, but he calmed when I placed a hand on his shoulder. "I've disabled the transmission, but I can't turn the camera off from here. They'll have to wait until we land for the physical feed."
"They won't be able to see much," Sebastian said,glancing at the airlock door. "The window's too small, and the angle's all wrong."
