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Hounds of Hell,was I about tocry?

Iturned awayfrom Stephen and quickly wiped away a tear. I nevercried.

No.

Icould never be highborn,but I wasn’t going to just be nothing. Christophe said that everyone had a destiny, maybe I just had to claim mine. I had to make something of myself—I didn't know what, but I wasn’t just going to scrape by for my family, and I certainly wasn’t ever going to go back tostealing.

Ifoundmyself wanting to work slower, or to pretend like I’d found something that needed repair, but it was no use. It was obvious that today would be my last day at the Luna manor, and my last day withChristophe.

Evening hitwhen I was outside, crouched down on my hands and knees in front of the access panel that Jennifer and I had entered from. I retracted the electronic snake tool from the vent, rolling it back up. Stephen stood over the monitor, and shut it off. I replaced the vent cover and screwed it backon.

“Looks like everything is in order,”Stephen said. “And just on time. I’ll go fetch master Christophe for you, if you’d like to wait by thefront.”

“Thanks,”I said,glumly.

Ifollowedhim around to the front of the house. He went inside, and I waited out by the huge double front doors and watched the sun set over the forest. I tried to brush the dirt off my clothes, but nothing really helped the fact that they were old and frumpy. I suddenly regretted that we were going somewhere fancy. I didn’t have a clue how to be fancy. I was going to stick out like a sorepaw.

Speaking of sore paws,my right hand had started to throb again, even though it was mostly healed up. I massaged it lightly, hoping that nothing was wrong with it. The front door opened, and Christophe stepped outside. He’d dressed down slightly and no longer wore his usual full suit, just a button up with a cardigan. A special bag was slung around his neck, one that could be worn comfortably as human orwolf.

“Hope I didn’t keepyou waiting,” hesaid.

Only half the day,I thought. “Nope. Are we going to be shifting?” I asked, gesturing to hisbag.

“Yes,”he said. “Actually… We aren’t going to be going to a restaurant. I hope you don'tmind.”

“Ah,I see. Probably can’t bring someone like me around to places like that,right?”

“No,that’s not it at all. You wanted to go somewhere exclusive, so I wanted to take you to the most exclusive spot, with the most exclusivefood.”

“Where is that?”

“Well,follow me, and you’llsee.”

His body trembled slightly,and then transformed. Black fur spread across his skin, and his shape expanded and grew into the powerful form of an alpha wolf. He dropped to all fours as his face stretched into a long muzzle, his ears shifted to the top of his head, and a tail erupted out from above hislegs.

“Well?”he said, his voice deep and rumbling, like the engine of a sports car. “I’m going to leave you behind.” He turned and started to run towards theforest.

Isprinted after him,my body shifting as I went. I dropped to all fours mid-stride, and quickly caught up to his flank as my wolf transformationcompleted.

“You’re still so slow,”I said, and without thinking, affectionately nipped at his hind leg. I cringed inside, realizing the boundary that I’d just jumped, but Christophe only looked over his shoulder at me, his eyesflashing.

We plunged into the forest,racing around fallen logs and trees. I had a sudden flashback to the night we first met—if you could really call it a meeting. More like atackling.

Christophe was moving fairly slowlyand carefully, choosing to maneuver around obstacles rather than leap over them. Then the trees opened up into a trail cutting through the forest, and we crossed onto it, going deeper and deeper. I knew the direction we were going was not going to take us into Wolfheart, so I wondered what Christophe hadplanned.

After fifteen minutes of running,we slowed down to a trot. The sun was still setting, but with the cover of the trees, the forest was dark. Then, ahead, I spotted something that shouldn’t have been there. Lights. Strings of fairy lights strung up into the branches of a grove of appletrees.

The trail continued straightup to this decorated spot in the forest, illuminated like a garden with hundreds of tiny hanging lights. In the center was a large, flat rock, and on it was a fully set table and two chairs. Christophe trotted over to it and shifted back to human form. He placed the bag down on to the table and unzipped it, and the smell of roasted meatemerged.

“What is this place?”I asked, shiftingtoo.

“The most exclusiveplace in the world,” he said. “Featuring food cooked by the most exclusive chef in the world—me.”

Ilaughed. “Seriously?”I climbed up on the rock and peered into the bag. Inside were two containers of steak andlobster.

“Yes,”he said. “Come on,sit.”

Isat down,feeling somewhatoverwhelmed.