Leigha listed off some of the types of ranks, and the hybrid tried to wrap her mind around all of it. For a second, she looked down at her forepaws—paws that couldn’t change into the hands the luperci teen had. They couldn’t paint or sculpt or garden—whatever the hell gardening was for. Had the singer mentioned healing herbs, Vesper would have made the connection, but wolves did not regularly eat plants, so she didn’t know what use they would be. Maybe their culinary tastes changed when they were born luperci? She gave her head a small shake and managed a halfhearted, “Sounds cool. I guess this field would be a good place for growing plants.”
At the mention of riding horses, Vesper shook her head. She was reminded of the conversation she’d had with the black wolf in Halifax when they’d been looking at the human car. “Why would you ride horses? You have paws.” Even if she was only using two at the moment; that was her fault. She was surprised luperci didn’t grow fat with all the work they made other animals—prey animals—do for them.
Leigha described her own horse, apparently named Archie, and looked back at a tree that Vesper hadn’t quite noticed before in the darkness. She was surprised that she hadn’t caught the scent of the stinky animal, but she’d been too entirely focused on Leigha to really pay attention to the other surroundings. The horse called, and Leigha smiled suddenly, gesturing to the horse.
Vesper blinked and lowered her ears. “I—I don’t—” It wasn’t like her to stammer, but this was a situation she didn’t know how to deal with. She’d seen horses before, but she’d never gotten close to one. Wouldn’t it shy, thinking she was a predator? Was it used to strange wolves walking up to it? She was probably more afraid of the horse than the horse was of her.
Her brow furrowed with a frown. “It smells like prey. And it’d probably try to stomp me to death, anyway.”
