Kin Read Online Free Page B

reconsidered, for once. Considering how things had turned out.
    Ruby hopped, lightly, testing her trainers. Just right, bouncy in the heels and light in the forefoot. You wanted a broken-in pair, comfortable but with some life left, for this sort of thing. Heels for hunting, boots for tracking, and trainers for fullmoon.
    A silver thread ran through the night sky, and like she did every time, she ducked her head and picked up the pace, searching for the right beat.
    She settled into a long easy lope, but she didn’t follow the thread. Instead, she aimed the long way down the Park. The rest of them could bunch up tonight, but she wanted space and no awkward questions or narrow-eyed judging. Of course, what you wanted and what you got were two different things, even on fullmoon.
    The others would ride up the thread like it was a silver rail, pulling the circle tight. You weren’t quite helpless in the face of the moon, but sometimes it felt like it.
Rootfamily means freedom
, they said, the strains of the moon’s blood in yours stronger, the kin unraveling in branches out on either side.
    Freedom? Sure, to a certain degree . . . until responsibility closed in, and your duty to the clan reared its ugly head.
    Why are you so Wild?
Ellie had asked, once, and Ruby had just shaken her head. Adulthood meant freedom to her friends, but Rube only had a little time before she became a Clanmother-in-training, trying to breed more girls after college so the moon’s kin didn’t die out, learning diplomacy and how to navigate her clan through alliances, keeping up with Gran’s import-export business to keep Woodsdowne a power in the city, and just generally doing everything she disliked until she died.
    Ruby sped up. The silver thread widened, and behind her the boys’ footsteps fell away. They were branch, too; their mothers had married outclan. Hunter had siblings, all boys, but Thorne was an only. It was probably why he was angry. Without siblings, you didn’t have anyone to help take care of your children, and inheritance might pass to a branch with more members after you died.
Cubs need siblings
, the Elders said.
    Continuance, every clan’s obsession. How many other Wild kingirls felt this desperation? She couldn’t just come out and ask
do you ever feel like just a walking incubator for more kin?
None of them had ever been friendly, and Gran sending her to different schools hadn’t helped.
    Nobody had ever been quite friendly, except Cami and Ellie. Even then, she didn’t talk about being kin. There was no point, and the habit of secrecy from the Age of Iron was old and strong. They sort of knew, but they didn’t talk about it. Not like Cami and the Family.
    Cami considered them normal, and let little things drop. Of course, it probably helped that Nico’s father had treated her just like a born-in daughter. It used to make Ruby feel a little funny to visit and see the way the entire Vultusino house sort of revolved around her friend, with Enrico Vultusino clearly thinking she hung the moon and Nico always glowering if he thought someone had messed with her.
    Come back to the now, Ruby. You’re running.
    Hop skip and jump, trainers lightly touching a moss-covered rock, branches whipping by, more sensed than seen. She leapt, ducked, and settled into another lope when she was certain there was a nice, comfortable distance between her and anyone else.
    In the distance, the song began. High trillings and long modulated notes, a chorus of communion. Mere-humans would fear the sound, hearing fur and teeth in it, but there was really nothing to be afraid of. It was when the kin were dead silent that you had to worry.
    Ruby sank her teeth into her lower lip. A bright scarlet star in her mouth, copper-tasting, the smell maddening and rich. Behind her, Hunter’s cry was an orange rose opening against the deepening sky, and Thorne’s fierce quiet a song all its