Moon's Choice Read Online Free PDF Page B

into the path of the leaders. She stiffened her shoulders and lowered her head, snarling, as they slithered to a halt in front of her.
    â€œBack off! Get away!” She bared her teeth.
    â€œHa! Ha! No! Dogsie run now, dogsie live!” The first coyote lunged for her throat, and she could only dodge back, snapping wildly with her own jaws.
    â€œSnap!” she barked, gasping in air between each desperate bite. “Pebble! Help!”
    She couldn’t turn to see her friends come racing from their dens, but she heard their pounding paws and their snarling barks. The two dogs appeared on either side of her, biting and clawing at the coyotes, but Moon’s relief was short-lived. There are only three ofus. We’ll never hold them off!
    A yellow flash caught the edge of her vision and she twisted, sinking her jaws into a scrawny neck. But as she flung that coyote away, another leaped and bit her shoulder hard. Moon yelped, lashing at it with her claws. Beside her, Snap was thrusting violently at a coyote’s belly with her hindlegs as another struggled to hold her down.
    Moon’s sight was blurred with blood, and her lungs felt like they were on fire. She had never fought like this before. There was no time to catch a good lungful of air, or plan a clever tactic. She could only bite and scratch and snarl, flailing wildly at each new enemy that piled on. Her Father-Dog had rarely led the Pack into battle, and then only when he had no other choice. And, while Moon was accustomed to the dog-on-dog challenges for rank within the Pack, those duels were fought with honor. There was no honor here—only a vicious, mindless struggle to kill or be killed.
    The coyote that had wounded her shoulder was back; she saw his yellow eyes just before he sank his fangs into her upper foreleg. Yanking herself clumsily from his jaws, she felt her flesh rip, and the trickle of warm blood; she clamped her own teeth on his spine and tossed him weakly aside, but the damage was done. When shelunged for him again, her leg faltered under her, and she stumbled, almost crashing to the ground.
    If I fall, they’ll kill me.
    The realization hit her with a cold, sickening certainty. She could make out Pebble, a few tail-lengths away, and the cruel gash in the black dog’s side. Blood was gushing from it in frightening quantities. Snap was almost hidden beneath a pile of coyotes, fighting desperately but gradually subsiding under their numbers. Once the three of them were dead, Moon realized, the coyotes would be free to kill every dog in the camp.
    My Pack is dying. My Pack is dying!
    â€œYou! Coyote vermin! ”
    Gasping, Moon turned. The furious bark came from her Father-Dog’s den. Alpha was standing at its entrance, his leg muscles trembling with the effort, but his muzzle was peeled back to show his fangs. For a moment the coyotes paused, glancing up nervously, and one tumbled off Snap’s back.
    â€œYou want easy prey?” Alpha barked savagely. “Take me!”
    â€œNo!” barked Moon in terror, but the coyotes had already turned to fly at him. Alpha spun and ran, plunging weakly away from the den with at least eight of the coyotes snapping at his heels.
    He could barely put one paw in front of the other, and as he lurched and stumbled into a gap between two pines, the coyotes were on him. Teeth flashed and claws raked as they dragged him to the ground.
    â€œFather-Dog!” howled Moon. She bolted toward him, but two of the coyotes had held back, and now they barred her way. They lowered their heads threateningly, lashing their tails and growling their hate.
    â€œSilly dogsy, wait!”
    â€œYes. We kills Daddy first. You waits your turn, heh!”
    Furious, Moon flew at them, but they were fast and strong, and not nearly as tired as she was. Bite and scratch as she might, she could not fling them off and get past. Father-Dog! My Alpha!
    Pain seared her ear as coyote teeth ripped it. She