Changeling Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

kind, no one would be on alert. Tell a half-truth and maybe people would at least be careful. Maybe no one else would get hurt.
    Zoey sighed and tried to rewrap the gauze on her leg, feeling clumsy as she did so. She felt clumsy about the story too. She could just see the headline now: Giant dog bites editor. Details on page 11 .
    Of course she wouldn’t title it like that, but frankly, she didn’t know if she could make it sound much better. She might not mention who the victim was either, although she knew darn well it wouldn’t stay a secret in such a small town. But she could place the article somewhere on the front page where it would be seen and people might be on their guard for a while. Might be a little more alert, might watch their children a little more closely.
    But damn it all, it had been a wolf , a genuine call-of-the-wild wolf that had attacked her, and not being able to say so was frustrating beyond all words.
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    Thankfully, it had been a quiet day at the clinic. No calvings, no emergencies, no urgent calls. Connor had left Bernie, dragged himself through the morning’s scheduled surgeries, then gone home at noon. To bed. The strain of many days without adequate rest and the intense emotions of the past twenty-four hours combined to send him into a dreamless sleep almost before his head hit the pillow.
    It was well past midnight when he finally awakened. He lay on his back looking up at the bright moon through the tall windows that stretched almost floor to ceiling on the west wall of the master bedroom. His headache was gone but his heart hurt. There was little anger left in him now, only a deep aching sadness and questions that had no answers. Why hadn’t Bernie asked for help? The old Changeling had no love for the Pack, but the Pack was bound by its own laws to assist him, work with him. Younger, stronger Changelings could have been assigned to watch over him when he was in wolfen form and keep him out of trouble. Keep him from hurting anyone. If all else failed, every Pack maintained a haven , an iron-barred place of safety in which an out-of-control wolf could be confined until his senses returned.
    At least Bernie would have still been able to Change.
    Applied to the wound within twelve hours of being bitten, silver nitrate would prevent a human from becoming a Changeling. Applied at least once more, the colorless liquid not only stopped the genetic shift in its tracks, it reversed it. Silver nitrate had just as dramatic of an effect on someone who had been born a Changeling, and only a single ample dose was required. Once injected into Bernie’s veins, it would have quickly spread to every cell. By now, his inner wolf would be permanently suppressed, forever a prisoner in its human form.
    What would it do to the old Changeling to look up at the moon, knowing he could never answer its call again? How would he stand it?
    Connor got up and went to the balcony door, clad in only plaid pajama bottoms. The air was cold on his exposed skin as he stepped outside, but it blunted the painful emotions a bit. He stood for a long time, scenting the air, then walked to the cedar steps that led from the balcony to the ground. Come. He called out the wolf within and trotted briskly downward, first on two feet, then on four. Paused in the yard and shook himself all over. His silvery pelt was marked with a blanket of black over his shoulders—a rare saddleback wolf. Soundless, he bounded away into the night.
    Behind him, the only evidence of the Change was a faint whiff of ozone in the air, a crackle of static electricity, and a handful of tiny blue sparks that fell to the ground and winked out at the foot of the stairs.
    The wolf was nature’s perfect running machine. With long loping strides that ate up the miles, Connor raced for hours until flecks of foam began to fly from his lolling tongue. He finally slowed near the top of a hill, his flanks heaving, mouth wide and lungs