Doctor Wolf (The Collegium Book 4) Read Online Free PDF

slightest scrabble for extra push, and they were up and over, inside Kew Gardens.
     
     
    Carson had run as wolf through the garden before. The expanse of Kew Gardens was irresistible to a were accustomed to wild country freedom. The collection of plants from all over the world produced a cocktail of scents that masked the city stench of London and stirred memories in him. But running through the garden with Liz was different.
    She pounced at him, inviting him to play, and they tangled on the lawn before she wriggled away and he chased her. He was bigger, but she was wilier. She used shadows and tactics, circling back and leaping up onto structures. Wolves weren’t climbers, but Liz seemed happier than most up high. He recalled that her brother and father were leopard-weres. Then she turned the tables and chased him, and he almost forgot himself and yipped excitement. It had been a long time, not since he’d been home a year ago, since he’d played. He ran occasionally with the Beo Pack, but play was a different thing, something that required greater trust. With Liz, there were no considerations of dominance or power.
    She was goofy. As she tired, she rolled on her back, paws flopping like a puppy’s, and half-laughed, half-panted, her tail swishing.
    Her vulnerability—throat and stomach exposed—and her ease at being vulnerable with him woke a protective streak. He lifted his muzzle, scenting the air for threats; listening for them. He heard the small wildlife of the garden: the hoot of an owl, the snuffling rustle of hedgehogs, the scurry of mice. From overhead came the darting shadow of bats.
    Liz rolled to her feet and they trotted back towards the river.
    She was wrong, he realized. The men chasing her weren’t simply after her wealth and the power of her family connections. They were attracted to her. She was an omega wolf from old folk tales, a person who made people feel better, healthier, happier. Who wouldn’t want someone like that in their life?
    But by keeping her out of his life, he kept her safe.
    He’d known when he went in search of the Elixir Gentian that the quest would be dangerous. He hadn’t thought through as clearly the fact that the danger would peak not in the Carpathian Mountains but here in London.
    John, Liz’s grandfather, had realized though. The old man was incredible. He’d warned Carson that the danger would increase the closer they got to proving the gentian’s power. For that, Dr. Victoria Pye was conducting preliminary lab work at the nearby hospital. Carson’s role was to prove that the plant could be grown commercially; hence, John’s provision of a London house with an extensive greenhouse. Already, one break-in at the greenhouse had been attempted, and repelled by the warding set around it.
    Magic. Carson had never had much time for it. He was a practical man and wolf-were even if he did hunt botanical legends. But, now, here he was wearing a magical amulet, and it was amazing. On his previous visits to the garden in wolf form he’d had to be surreptitious. Now, he trotted along the main paths with Liz. They leapt the wall, swam the river, and shook the water from their coats. Magic could be liberating.
    But turning the corner into his street, Liz stopped. She sniffed at something in the air.
    Only a drift of scent, and gone before Carson could identify it. He whined a question. Threat?
    Liz shifted to human. “Grandfather is here.”
    And there could be only one reason the Earl of Beo would turn up here on the night he was hosting a party at his own home.
    Carson ran.

Chapter 3
     
    Liz watched Carson dash into the tiny yard he used as a changing room, and shift.
    Since he was wearing Fay’s amulet, he could have shifted unnoticed in the street, but old habits of hiding were hard to break—and possibly safer unbroken. Once human, he unlooped the amulet from his neck and returned it to her. “Where did you park your car?”
    “Back that way.” She gestured