Big Bad Wolf Read Online Free PDF

are, just as I’m sure the Dire Wolf told you, one of them, taken from your mother after she was killed by my parents. They took you because the enormous Dire Wolves were a constant threat to our people even though their packs were small. But they had one great weakness—they don’t have as many females as our people do. Often in their packs, the one alpha female is mated by several pack males even though most of the offspring come from her mating with the alpha male. There is no jealousy among them, it’s just customary. If the female happens to breed with one of the other shifter males besides the alpha, the children are all treated equally. Whatever children she has are brought up by the whole pack, who share responsibility equally in caring for them.
    “My parents knew how vital their females were to their survival so a plan was hatched to cull their numbers. We decided to capture all the female Dire Wolves we could find and raise them as our own. Because we are a different species, the females would never come into season and never be able to breed.”
    “They’d never be able shift either,” Pam said. “But there were unexpected consequences.”
    Eleana sat there feeling like her belly had been sliced open and her guts spilled on the floor. But this is my family. I trusted them… She closed her eyes for a moment trying to rein in her emotions. Of course the Dire Wolves didn’t attack her. They could sense she was one of them, just like Gregor had told her. “What consequences?” Eleana asked.
    Steven frowned and traced the patterns on the tablecloth with his index finger. “With no females to breed with, the Dire Wolf males began killing themselves in large numbers. By the last census our territory was just about free of them.”
    “I’ve been living a lie all these years. Your parents killed off most of my real species…” Eleana said, trying to get the facts straight in her aching head.
    “We didn’t count on loving you so much, Eleana,” Steven said. “We just thought this would be in the best interest of everyone.”
    Pam pulled up a chair and sat between Steven and Eleana. “You were never meant to know all this. You could have been happy with us if that big bastard and those other two ancients hadn’t showed up here.”
    “You mean Gregor,” Eleana said stiffly.
    “That’s right,” Steven replied. “And he knew what we had done. Someone must have told him. So he vowed to kill every last one of us just as we had destroyed his kind. And he’s been hunting down unprotected werewolves ever since.”
    “So everything Gregor told me last night was true. I am a Dire Wolf,” Eleana said.
    Steven nodded grimly. “That’s right.”
    Getting up from the table, Eleana walked to the door like a sleepwalker. “Where are you going?” Pam asked, her voice thin with worry.
    “Outside for a walk. I have a lot of thinking to do.”
    “Will you be back?” Pam asked. Tears were welling up in her eyes.
    Eleana turned around and looked at these people who were now strangers to her. “I honestly don’t know,” she said truthfully. “I’ll get back to you on that.”
     

 
     
     
     
    Chapter 7
     
    Eleana walked down to Seminole State Park where she’d first met the Dire Wolves. This is where she felt the most at home, among the soaring pines and lush grasses. This was even where she’d had her first kiss with a boy named Dan. But now everything, the life she had led, the family she’d been raised with, was destroyed. A huge empty hole filled her heart.
    A faded green picnic bench sat alone under a cluster of trees. She climbed up and sat on the tabletop, scanning the empty park around her. At least she thought it was empty until she spotted a huge black wolf prowling among the trees. He was larger than any werewolf she ever seen and he was different, having shorter legs and a stockier body. Most impressive of all was his sheer size. He had to be around a hundred and seventy pounds,