Beasts Within Read Online Free PDF Page B

through him as he squinted through the darkness and the rain to see if he could make out what it was that he'd seen. It was too small to be a deer, and from what he could tell, the figure had climbed over the guardrail from the river and was proceeding to collapse on the side of the road. Karic checked the rearview mirror to make sure no one was coming, and then slowly eased his car closer to the guardrail. It would have been better to just ignore whatever or whoever this was because anyone who came out of the river in a storm like this was probably more trouble than there were worth. But there was a reason why Karic was working to become a doctor and why he had been the one everyone had brought their sick animals to when he was younger. There was something about seeing something or someone wounded that just refused to let him ignore it.
                  So he sighed and took his seatbelt off, groaning at the deluge of rain. He counted to five in his head and then opened the car door, darting out into the night. He could only hope that his headlights would illuminate the person (he was just going to assume that it was a person) enough for him to be able to see them and them to see him.
                  When he got close enough, he could tell that it was a woman. She was lying on her back in the space next to the guardrail, and her clothes were plastered to her body. All he could tell was that she was a short little thing with generous curves, and Karic mentally slapped himself for noticing things like that when she was clearly in trouble and worn out from the way her chest was heaving as she fought to breathe.
                  “Excuse me, ma'am?” he said, raising his voice to be heard over the pounding rain and the wind that had picked up. “Ma'am?”
                  The woman sat up quickly, eyes squinting as she tried to focus on him. “Who are you? What do you want?” she asked, and her voice seemed to tremble. Well, that made sense. It was a warm night, but after taking a plunge into the river, she was probably cold anyway, and she was clearly winded.
                  “My name is Karic,” he replied. “Do you need help? Only it's raining, and you're on the side of the road.”
                  A dry laugh was her response. “Yeah, I'd noticed that. You…are you from this side of the river?”
                  That was an odd question, but Karic nodded, pushing sodden hair out of his face. The longer he stood there, the wetter he was getting, and the remaining drive back to his house was going to be highly unpleasant at this rate, but he couldn't just leave her there. “Look, it's probably going to be coming down like this for the rest of the night at least, and if you need a ride or something, I can help you. Or a place to stay for the night, even? Just…you can't stay out here.”
                  He watched as she chewed on her lip, and he couldn't help but smile at seeing the familiar action on another face. Karic didn't know what was hard to decide about getting out of the rain or not, but he supposed he was a stranger to her, so it made sense. This was clearly a woman who had something to be afraid of. Who had something to hide. Or maybe she was being chased, he didn't know.
                  Just as he was about to ask again, the woman stretched out one hand in his direction. “Oh,” Karic said, and he could have slapped himself. “Right. Let me help you up there.” He hurried over to her and took her hand, brows furrowing when it was warmer that it should have been. He looked at her face, seeing that she had closed her eyes and seemed to be gathering herself together. “Are…you hurt?” he asked. “I can probably carry you.” Shifters, especially those of the canine persuasion, were gifted with strength, and her ample curves aside, this woman was probably easily