Wolves in the Shadows (The Wolf Clan Chronicles) Read Online Free PDF Page B

asleep.”  Sir Marcus said with a fond smile as he looked at the wolf. 
    “Romulus does not need to sleep,” Lord Reginald said.  His smile mirrored his son’s.  “ But he does like to try.  He can almost dream when he runs through his memories.” 
    “Ah, to dream,” Sir Marcus said.  “It has been far too long.” 
    Lord Reginald let out a deep sigh.  “Yes, to dream of my sweet Anya would be almost as wonderful as holding her once again.  But instead, I must be content to walk through these sweet smelling groves and dwell within the memories of the joys we shared until the dawn drives me to rest.  Romulus will watch over young Elizabeth until she wakes.” 
    Marcus looked down at Elizabeth’s sleeping form with a troubled expression on his face.  In a single liquid moment, he knelt and kissed her forehead gently.  As he stood, he nodded once to Romulus and then followed his father into the night.
     
     
     
     
    Friday
    Chapter 1
    Elizabeth woke up as the sun was rising.  She groaned and stretched, feeling that unpleasant stiffness that comes from sleeping on a hard wooden floor.  The early morning sun filtered through the wide cracks in the shed’s ceiling and walls, transforming the floating dust motes into dancing sparks of color.  She sat up and rubbed her eyes as memories of the previous night swirled in the front of her mind.  Had it all been a crazy dream?  Was she still dreaming?  No, everything around her felt solid and real.  But then again in the vision that Lord Reginald had shown, everything looked solid and real too.  Especially that last part.  What had happened after she ran to Anya?  She had felt so alive as she fell into that strange oblivion.  She shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair. 
    Beside her, Romulus lifted his head and yawned.  His yellow eyes were on the same level as Elizabeth’s brown ones.  The wolf looked at her thoughtfully.  His expression was more intelligent than any animal that Elizabeth had ever seen.  He even looked more intelligent than some of her fellow college students.  She jumped in surprise as the yellow eyes flickered and changed to a piercing blue.  Before she could quite process what she was seeing, they had turned back to their usual yellow.  She rubbed her eyes again.  Maybe it had been a trick of the light or something.  Or maybe she had just imagined it. 
    “Good morning, Romulus.”  She patted him on the head and smiled.  Normally she would have felt foolish talking to an animal, but after last night, she was no longer sure exactly what normal was.  Her whole world view had changed so drastically that she hardly knew herself.  The wolf continued to stare at her in silence. 
    A sudden pain shot through her temples.  Elizabeth gasped as everything around her grew dark.  At first it was not as clear as the vision that Lord Reginald had shown her last night.  It was fuzzy, like she was looking into a fogged up mirror.  She heard Lord Reginald’s deep voice telling someone about Anya.  As she listened, it became clearer, like tuning the static out of a radio station.  The fog before eyes melted away, and she realized with a jolt that she was seeing herself from last night listening to Lord Reginald’s story.  She was curled up on the floor looking up at herself.  She could feel hot blood coursing through her veins and hear the soft whisper of her own breath.  Her heartbeat seemed to make the air quiver. 
    Then there was the smell, faint at first, but growing stronger with each passing moment.  It was a cold smell that she somehow knew was the smell of death and another smell, warmer and richer.  She realized in a flash that she was somehow in Romulus’ memory, seeing and smelling herself as he must have.  It was by far the strangest thing that she had ever experienced, and considering last night, that was saying something. 
    Her head began to throb painfully.  She shook herself out of the