Cry Wolf Read Online Free PDF Page B

afternoon, walking the edge of the woods in his jeans. He twitched like a junkie, fidgeted, darted forward and fell back, jumped up and down a few times before trying to walk again. At one point, he started running, perhaps trying to run fast enough to leave the pelt behind him, but he wasn’t running in the skin that really wanted to run. Kelly could have told him that his efforts were futile.
    The moon was waxing crescent, so Malcolm didn’t have the pressure of the full moon to pull the wolf out of him like the evening tide. Kelly didn’t want him to wait until he had no choice. She needed him to change of his own accord.
    Usually, she kept her distance from him out of respect. But today she followed him, staying far enough that she could only ever just see him, pale against the forest and dark against the snow. Her feet made little sound on the snowdrifts and even lighter prints. She was not so much trying to stay undetectable as she was waiting to see how long it would take him to notice her.
    When she walked into his scent and it smelt like fear, she knew he had noticed her. She paused. She wasn’t stalking him. She didn’t want him to see himself as prey.
    “Stay away!” Malcolm shouted before ducking behind a tree and into the forest.
    Kelly abandoned her silence and ran after him. Her robe—the sheer one she loved so much in spite of the fact that David had bought it for her—trailed out behind her like wings. Her hair, too, streamed loose behind her. Yet she somehow managed to keep both of them from snagging on a single branch or bush as she followed Malcolm into the forest.
    “Wait,” she said, swerving into his path. Her voice came out strong, not at all winded by her exertion.
    Malcolm reared back to avoid running into her. His limbs flailed, and he slid to the ground, splayed in all directions. Kelly stood calmly in front of him, her clothes and hair settling after the run.
    “How’d you do that?” Malcolm asked. “Jesus, what are you? A ninja?”
    “I’m faster than you,” Kelly said. “The trees get out of my way.”
    “Really?” Malcolm asked. He caught his breath and sat up.
    “That’s what it feels like,” Kelly said.
    She took a step towards him and he flinched.
    “What are you afraid of?” she asked. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m certainly not going to hunt you.”
    “Just stay away from me,” Malcolm said. He ran a hand through his hair, where there were bits of brown leaves, pine needles and snow. The loose curls clung to his fingers. If he weren’t wearing his jeans, he would have seemed like some kind of mythical forest creature. “I don’t want anything to do with you.”
    “That’s not the impression I got when I came here,” Kelly said, clasping her hands behind her back. “I could have been simply imagining your relief. I imagine a lot of things. But I know the relief I felt when I realised that Iwouldn’t be alone, although I still wish it hadn’t been under those circumstances.”
    “Oh, well, it’s nice to know you felt bad about it,” Malcolm snapped. “I don’t expect you to understand what it felt like to be…” He swallowed thickly. “For that werewolf to rip me away from everything that made this life worth living.”
    “I know better than anyone in this sanctuary what it’s like to be turned into something you didn’t ask for,” Kelly replied. “But running from it isn’t going to make it easier.”
    “You’re a witch,” Malcolm said.
    He held out his hands. Kelly noted how big and lovely they were, how much they could hold—of promises and other things, things that made her lick her lips.
    “Why can’t you take this away from me?”
    “Renee is the one with the silver,” Kelly said. “Why don’t you ask her?”
    “I want my life back!” Malcolm arched his spine as though he had hackles, on his hands and knees in the snow.
    “Your life doesn’t have to end just because a new one begins,” Kelly said.
    “Quit with