Walking Wolf Read Online Free PDF Page A

fueling the pain inside my head, forcing my body into its true-form. Medicine Dog stepped away from me. I had the bloodlust on me and he knew words would be useless.
    Snarling like a beast, I fled the camp. I had the scent of Flood Moon and Small Bear, and I was determined to hunt them down and make them pay for their treachery.
    It did not take me long to catch up with them. Like most vargr, I am a tireless runner.
    The rage burning deep inside me kept me from growing weary. Although they had a whole night and day’s head start on horseback, I found them not long after dark.
    I saw their fire long before I saw them. They were alone except for each other and their horses, huddled against the coming night. Careful to keep upwind of their mounts, least they catch my scent and alert Small Bear, I circled their camp, listening to them as they talked.
    I could tell from their words and actions that they had been lovers for some time. Small Bear sat with his rifle at the ready, Flood Moon pressed close to him. The sight of my best friend sharing an intimacy with my wife that I myself had never known stoked my anger even higher, until everything I saw was covered by a blood red scrim.
    One of the ponies whickered nervously. Small Bear tightened his grip on his gun, peering into the dark beyond the fire as he got to his feet.
    Flood Moon looked up at her lover, knuckling the sleep from her eyes. “Small Bear—what is wrong?”
    â€œThere is something out there.”
    I came in low, tackling him from behind, snarling like a rabid wolf. Small Bear’s rifle discharged as he hit the ground. Flood Moon screamed out her lover’s name, driving the knife she’d kept hidden in her blanket into my right side. I yowled in pain and grabbed at the blade, giving Small Bear the chance to roll free and get back on his feet.
    Unsheathing his own knife, he made to drive it into my heart. Growling, I knocked the weapon from his hands and pounced on him as a coyote would a prairie dog, my teeth sinking deep into his soft, hairless throat.
    I don’t want people reading this to think the fight was one-sided. Small Bear was a strong, swift brave, and he did not surrender easily to death. Still, I tore at his struggling body with my talons, gleefully ripping his bowels free of his stomach. Small Bear’s liver, glistening brown-red in the campfire, lay on the prairie grass. Without pausing to think, I snapped the tender morsel up and devoured it on the spot.
    Wiping my muzzle on my forearm, I turned my yellow gaze to Flood Moon, who stood transfixed, staring in horror at the ruined remains of her lover. Smiling, I plucked her knife from my side as if it were no more bothersome than a thorn.
    â€œWife,” I said, holding up the dripping blade. “Is this how you greet your husband?”
    She gave a sob of fear and turned to flee, but I was too fast for her. I grabbed her by her braids, wrapping them around my forepaws so her face was within biting distance. Her eyes were huge with fear, and the smell of her terror radiated like heat from the sun. Grinning, I licked her face with my tongue, laughing as she shuddered and began to cry.
    I took her there, beside the cooling body of her lover. She screamed and whimpered and pleaded with me repeatedly as I raped her—for that was what I did, I don’t deny it. But all her begging did was fuel my desire to punish her even further. By the time my lust had run its course, Flood Moon bled from dozens of deep bites and scratches on her breasts, belly, buttocks and thighs. Sated at last, I pulled myself from her quivering, sobbing body and collapsed beside her in a deep slumber.
    I awoke to find Flood Moon astride me, ready to plunge her knife into my chest. I’ll never forget looking up into the face of the woman who, until that day, I had loved with all my life and heart, her features rendered almost unrecognizable by the bruises I’d inflicted on her. The