Shepherd Hunted Read Online Free PDF Page A

listening to me wonder about home during those late nights? Oh, I guessed what might have happened,” Kit said. “But did you think I didn’t want to know until I got there? Did you think I would want to know that two hundred of my people had their tails cut off?” She quivered. “For trophies? Seeing that fat man’s single trophy and knowing my tail might have been next…do you know what that was like? Ugh. My head hurts.” She rubbed her forehead. “So was it fun, Timothy?”
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t think about…I didn’t know…I’m sorry.” He was an idiot. How could he not have considered that? Kit knew she was likely the last fox. She even told him she didn’t want to be alone. Stupid.
    Kit rounded on him, and her shoulders trembled. Her lips curled back in a fanged sneer. “Was. It. Fun? Was it fun for you to listen to me wonder about my home, knowing it was gone? And I confided in you. I trusted you. Did it make you feel like a man or something to protect a helpless little girl? You even left me last night! Frolicking with that big-chested squirrel?”
    “No! I spent all night looking for you.”
    “Did you?” She slashed the honey cakes with her gaze. “Sweet cakes for the little girl. How could you not tell me I was alone? That everyone was—”
    “I tried—”
    “Oh, you tried. That should be enough. The wise Timothy tried to tell me my family, my kind, are dead. Tails and ears all cut off.”
    “How could I tell you something so terrible? I…the words…” Timothy’s shoulders slumped. She had every right to be angry.
    “I should have chosen Trent. At least he is honest about what he cares about.” Despair, anger, and fear warred across Kit’s face.
    Timothy squared his shoulders. “I…I care for you. I should have told you…I’m sorry.”
    “More words.” Kit’s head sagged against the window frame. Sunlight wrapped golden fingers around her. The pain in her eyes chilled Timothy more than the morning air. Kit’s sudden laugh tore through Timothy. “You care for me? You are no different than the hunters who just want me for my tail. You humans are all alike. “
    “Stop it, Kit.” Timothy’s terror edged his voice. “I am not that way, and you know it.”
    “Do I? Who are you? Who are you to me? Who am I to you? Do you even know what it is like to be this alone? For all I know, I am the last after you humans have hunted us. I should have gone with Tahd. At least then I could have a child and not be alone.” Her meadow eyes were lost to the conflagration. “That’s it! I need to have someone mate with me. Then I won’t be alone. That is what you want isn’t it?”
    She stalked toward Timothy. Her hands unlaced the neckline of her blouse. Timothy grabbed her shaking hands. She did not pull away. She trembled.
    “Stop it, Kit. I am not that kind of person. You need to calm down. It’s just a silly note from a silly book.”
    Her gaze drowned Timothy’s sky. “Then why didn’t you tell me? Why did you hide it?” she whispered.
    “I didn’t want you to be hurt.”
    Kit shoved Timothy and turned away. “Just leave.”
    Timothy hesitated. He let his arm fall. He had to do something, say something. Tears threatened his cheeks. No words would come. He heard a sob. He was not sure if it was hers or his own. He looked back at the woman silhouetted in the morning sun. The white tuft ears shook. Her tail wrapped around her.
    He walked out the door. Her last words squeezed through the closing space.
    “I’m sorry.”
    * * *
    Sister Tera passed a boy leaning against a building. Coughs racked his small frame. Ahead of him, several other boys waited. They stamped their feet and urged the coughing boy to hurry up. The boys jeered and laughed about how lazy the coughing boy was because he couldn’t run with them. The boy wiped his mouth, shouted a jeer of his own, and charged after.
    Tera stepped around a pool of mead. At least, she told herself it was mead. The town