Read Online Silver Moon (A Women of Wolf's Point Novel) by Catherine Lundoff - Free Book Online

backward, dropping his gun. Snarling, she bit into his struggling body as he thrashed and fought. His scent, a musk of lust and fear and pain, maddened her, made her sink her teeth in anywhere she could reach him through his heavy jacket. Her wolf-self wanted blood and wanted it now.
    He twisted sharply under her, drawing a hunting knife from his belt and slashing it across her side. She yowled in pain and tore into his arm, tasting his blood. He managed to whip her head back and forth for a couple of moments, but he couldn’t dislodge her. Becca dug her feet deeper into the soil and bit down with all the strength in her jaws.
    The man dropped the knife and Becca turned and bit into his neck. He fell with her on top of him. Then he kicked out a few times, the breath wheezing in his throat as she felt her mouth fill with blood. After that, there was a moment of stillness for them both. She met his terrified eyes with her fiercest snarl. She could kill him now; it would be easy, justified even. But the little bit of Becca Thornton still awake in her head was fighting her.
    Then he yanked suddenly away from her, reaching and seizing the knife again with his good hand. He slashed at her, grazing her good side and Becca lost herself, letting her wolf-self fight for her life. They twisted and turned, rolling on the rocky ground, as the knife sank in once, then twice. She howled in pain and fury, then struck again. This time, there no human voice in her head to stop her.
    When Becca emerged again to regain control of her body, the man was still and her mouth was full of his blood. The scent of it was everywhere, pooled beneath him and coating her fur. She forced herself to make sure he was dead, prodding him with her paw and sniffing his face. Even if the legends weren’t completely true, she didn’t want to risk making him a werewolf.
    Then she dragged herself over to the lean-to without looking back. The boy inside stared at her, his eyes so wide they were almost all white, and whimpered. For a long moment, she was torn between wanting to comfort him and wanting to eat him. The latter feeling sent a thrill of horror through her. Could she risk getting any closer to him?
    But help was down the mountain. She couldn’t just leave him with the corpse and she couldn’t carry him as she was. Either she needed to bring him to help or bring help to him, somehow. She could not do either in her current form. Moonlight caressed her fur as if mocking her indecisiveness.
    She tried to think and an idea slowly formed. Shelly had been able to partially change back in order to carry Erin to safety. If Shelly could do it, why couldn’t she? She limped back into the shadows, leaving a trail of her own blood on the leaves; whatever happened, the boy shouldn’t see this. At least she could feel her new body healing fast. Her wounds stopped bleeding as she sat down and she could feel itchy scabs beginning to form. If her healing continued like this, she might be able to make it down the mountain carrying the boy, despite the pain.
    Becca closed her eyes and shut out the moon. She thought of quiet days and walks in the woods, of picnics and tea. Of anything except blood and running through the woods and the call of magic. Breathing carefully in and out, she tried to emulate the teacher of a long ago yoga class.
    With excruciating slowness, her blood stilled and the pounding of her heart eased. She pictured herself with hands and a shorter muzzle, able to walk and run upright. Then she held her breath and tried to force her body to change. The horrible wrenching feeling that followed laid her out in the dirt, whimpering for a few minutes. But the second attempt went better. By her third try, she could stand on her hind legs, though she was still a bit shaky.
    She approached the lean to cautiously, trying to shape her wolf muzzle into human speech. “Come. No hurt. Save.” The words were horribly growly and barely comprehensible but she hoped the