Hunted (Riley Cray) Read Online Free PDF Page A

something more, the cold wind blowing into the room sending snowflakes skittering across the carpet. Just as I began to turn, the door closed with a soft click, and I was left alone in the cold room with a rather disgruntled cat.
     
    * * *
     
    Excitement sang in my veins, fiery and golden as I rode the waves of ecstasy. It was like being high, riding the wave of pleasure that came along with the change. The pain of bones breaking, shifting and reforming was lost beneath the orgasmic rush of letting the wolf burst free from the shackles of humanity.
    It had been too long since I’d shifted, the burn of stretching muscles as welcome a sensation as the anticipation that blossomed in my gut. Every inch of my skin tingled as if being pricked by hundreds of tiny needles, goose bumps rising along my spine as thick dark fur began to sprout all over my body.
    My back arched at an inhuman angle, my vertebrae moving and changing shape as my spine reknit into ridges not present on the average human. My fingers flexed against the grubby linoleum, shortening and growing together to form thick-padded paws while my stubby nails lengthened into claws that gleamed black and wickedly sharp. From the cramping in my feet I knew that my toes were undergoing the same change, shifting into the paws of a massive wolf.
    Shaking myself, I threw off the last few tremors of the change, settling into my familiar other self. Stretching languorously, I flexed newly formed muscles, feeling the need to run and jump growing in them as a dull ache.
    Not yet, I thought, fighting against the wolf to hold onto my human thoughts. There are things to do first.
    I’d been cooped up for too long in the silent dark, the four close walls of my cell, and the stink of piss my only company. My senses were overloaded with a thousand different scents and sights, the cacophony of them dizzying. It was like being a clumsy pup all over again as I struggled to find balance in the tangle of sensations.
    Closing my eyes I hung my head low, focusing on sorting the scents one by one. The stink of humanity was all around me, but gradually I was able to untangle them, picking the scents apart until I could identify each one.
    Closest was the cloying chemical smell of disinfectant that burned my sensitive nose, coating my tongue with its sour perfumed stink and making my eyes water. I couldn’t understand how humans thought it was anything even closely resembling the fresh, crisp scent of pine. Next was the over processed smell of junk food that smelled more of chemicals and additives than real food.
    Humans are such pathetic idiots, stuffing their flabby faces with this crap when there is delicious, wet and wriggling meat to be had.
    The recorded chime of the door sliding open drew my attention up from the floor beneath my large black paws, my ears turning in the direction of the sound. I caught the exchange of voices but I didn’t care about them, all I cared about was the scents carried to me on the cold wind blowing in through the open door. Even the noxious smell of cigarettes couldn’t smother the tantalizing scent of hot blood pumping strong and full of vigor just beneath the surface of wind chapped skin. My mouth watered at the thought of it pulsing hard against my tongue, washing down my suddenly dry throat, sating the hunger that clawed ferociously at my gut.
    Drawn like a puppet on a string I inched towards that mouth-watering scent, the sound of my claws on the linoleum beating a dull tattoo at the back of my consciousness. Rounding the edge of a display case smelling of hot electrical wires and processed animal byproducts, I spied the source of that most delicious smell.
    A pimple-faced kid, stinking of grease and floured dough handed over a crumpled wad of cash for a gallon sized soda to the store’s clerk, a young dark skinned man with a thick and exotic accent. Lingering at the cash register the pizza boy struck up a conversation to discuss the asinine details of