Caleb Read Online Free PDF Page A

through her. Another body hit the
driver’s door window so hard she expected the glass to crack. It held. Thank
God for safety glass. Drive, Allie.
    As
before, calm soothed her panic and for once she didn’t mind following an order.
She stomped on the gas, yanked the wheel so the wolf slid off, and headed for
town, glancing in the rearview mirror as her tires grabbed the blacktop. The
wolves were in hot pursuit.
    Turn
around.
    “And
drive back into fang and company?” She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
    Another
glance in the rearview had her blinking. The wolves were gaining. She checked
her speedometer. She was doing thirty-five miles an hour and climbing. That
wasn’t possible.
    “What
in hell are those things?”
    No
answer, just more of that calm stroking of her nerves, and another statement of
fact. No one in town can help you.
    She
stepped harder on the gas. “So Mr. Know-it-all, where would you suggest I go?”
    She
shouldn’t have been surprised by the answer.
    The
Circle J.
    The
turnoff to the Circle J was a mile in the other direction. On the other side of
her house. On the other side of that rabid pack of monster wolves.
    She
tightened her grip on the wheel. “Come up with another suggestion.”
    There
isn’t one.
    She
believed him.
    “Shit!”
She hit the brakes, spun the wheel, and accelerated out of the slide. Behind
her there was a heavy thud. A glance in the rearview showed the black wolf in a
heap on the other side of the cargo area. She winced. That had to have hurt.
    The
tires squealed a protest as she floored the accelerator, heading straight for
the wolves. She expected them to separate, not form a solid wall across the
road. She instinctively went for the brake.
    Don’t
stop.
    “Okay,”
she licked her lips, “but I hope you realize hitting one of those things is
going to total my car.”
    Don’t
hit one.
    Great
advice from the amorphous voice in her head, but she wasn’t sure she was going
to be able to avoid it. They were a solid line of snarling determination spread
across the narrow road. She fumbled with the gun in her lap until she found the
safety. She flipped it to off.
    On a
“Here goes nothing,” she tromped on the gas.
    The
wolves didn’t move, just held their position slightly behind the one in the
middle, the expression on his black-masked face both arrogant and vicious. In
the second her gaze met his, his chin lifted. A challenge?
    Keep
going.
    There
was an edge of desperation in the weak order.
    Why
did everyone, from her family to voices in her head, think she was unreliable?
    “Don’t
worry, I’ve never lost a game of chicken yet.”
    They’re
not playing.
    “News
flash.” She ducked her chin and braced her arms. “Neither am I.”
    She
hit the wall of flesh doing fifty, at the last minute swerving so the fender
glanced off the lead wolf’s shoulder rather than hitting it dead-on. Yanking
the wheel to the left, she sent another wolf flying. In the interim, four more
swarmed the car, their snarls bruising her ears while their claws screeched
against the metal. One jumped up onto the hood, limiting her view to the
gray-black of its chest and the white gleam of its huge teeth.
    She
pulled the gun from her lap, pressed the muzzle against the windshield, closed
her eyes, and pulled the trigger. The roar was deafening in the small interior.
The recoil slammed her forearm down into the wheel. Only her death grip on the
revolver kept it in her hand.
    When
she opened her eyes, there was a huge spatter of blood on the windshield and
open road in front of her.
    “And
stay off my car,” she muttered in weak relief as she hit the windshield washer
button. Most of the blood cleared, leaving an oily smear between the maze of
cracks.
    She
looked in the rearview. The wolves were gone. For the first time in ten minutes
she took a deep breath. She glanced at the unmoving wolf in her cargo area.
    “We
might just make it after all.”
    They’re
going to head you