Frost Wolf Read Online Free PDF Page A

He nearly choked on the last two words.
    Liam MacDuncan squared his shoulders and tried to assume an authoritative posture. “It might interest you to know, Lord Adair, that I would like her to consult with the wind scouts.”
    “Wind scouts!” someone shouted. “Why in the name of Lupus would you call for the wind scouts?”
    “For any storms,” Liam snapped.
    “Ain’t we got enough?” someone barked from the back. There was an explosion of laughter.
    “I wasn’t … talking about bl … bl …” he stammered. “Blizzards! I was talking about rainstorms,
ceilidh fyre
, sky fire. We have the best
skreeleen
in the Beyond. She can read the sky fire of summer storms as no one else and give us guidance.”
    “It might be summer, but these ain’t summer storms,” howled the wolf in the back.
    “Don’t talk to our chieftain in that manner!” someone else snarled.
    Outside, Mhairie the young outflanker and her sister Dearlea tried their best to hear what was going on inside the
gadderheal
cave.
    “They’re fighting again,” Dearlea said.
    “What else is new?” Mhairie replied with a sigh. “Everything is wrong, just plain wrong. Upside down and backward.”
    “That fool chieftain!” Mhairie muttered. “Lord Adair is absolutely bamboozling him. Nobody understands it, not even the
raghnaid
.”
    “There are rumors that the Watch is sending some wolves to see what is happening,” Dearlea said grimly.
    “Nothing is happening. That is the problem. How long has it been since the last rotation for the Blood Watch? How long has Mum been gone on the Blood Watch — two moons? She should have been back by now.” Mhairie paused, her tail drooping. “Maybe she feels that she has nothing to come back to since Da died.”
    “She has the pups.”
    “The pups aren’t pups anymore. They’re almost as grown up as we are.”
    “Well, then she has us and the almost grown-up pups.”
    Mhairie sighed. “I don’t know.”
    “What do you mean you don’t know?” Dearlea asked.
    “I think Mum doesn’t like an empty den. Ever since I can remember, she had a litter every spring. She gave birth to more pups than any female in the clan.”
    “But the pups are still here even if they aren’t pups anymore. We’re still here,” Dearlea replied stubbornly.
    “Sometimes I wonder if she felt the same way about us as she did the pups,” Mhairie whispered.
    “Have you gone
cag mag
? Of course she did. She appreciated how much we helped her with the pups sincewe were the oldest. And tell me who in the world would choose to go on the Blood Watch if they didn’t have to? I don’t think she’s staying out there just for her own amusement, Mhairie.”
    “Maybe she found a new mate. Someone else to have pups with.”
    “I’m not going to listen to another thing you say. You’re just being completely foolish.” And to emphasize her point, Dearlea gave her sister a quick body slam.
    “Ouch!” Mhairie yelped. “Neither one of us has enough meat on our bones for that.” Indeed, the impact had jolted both their bones. This struck them as oddly funny, and they began to laugh and tussle. They were both laughing hard when they heard a familiar voice.
    “Well, I’m glad someone around here has found something to laugh about.”
    The two she-wolves disentangled themselves and leaped up from the ground. “Faolan! Edme!”
    “So it’s true?” Dearlea said.
    “What’s true?” Edme asked.
    “There were rumors that the Fengo was sending wolves to check on us.”
    “Yes, and from the sound of it, something is going on inside.” Edme tipped her head toward the
gadderheal
.
    “It’s always like that,” Mhairie sighed. “They fight all the time.”
    “Is the chieftain in there?” Faolan asked.
    “Yes,” Dearlea said.
    “Is it true that the chieftain wanders off?” Edme asked.
    “Yes, every now and then. And then he wanders back,” Mhairie answered.
    Faolan took a step closer to Mhairie. He had not seen either