Longer
Excerpt:
Olivia closed
her eyes, calling up her animal sensitivity ability, while shoving down her own
panic. After years of psychically working with animals, she knew they sensed
panic and fear. Her breathing needed regulating.
Olivia
relaxed as best she could and opened her mind. She sensed the wolf; masculine.
He came across with an urgent need to protect, more like helping her feel safe.
Another howl, with a deep and sinister timbre, shattered her concentration. A
stab of electricity zipped through her, pumping adrenaline and tightening every
muscle. This howl came from farther inside the forest than the first one. She
sensed aggression in the wolves within the forest, ready for battle. Her heart
drummed against her ribs in anticipation of an answering call, and she couldn’t
stop the tremors running rampant in her belly.
Instead she
saw the lights go out through her closed eyelids. She opened her eyes and saw
nothing but blackness.
Nine o’clock on a September evening, what did
she expect? Damn power company! Hopefully
Lacey sat in the Jacuzzi and wouldn’t come running out.
She lay
listening for any sound. Her own breath, the loudest panting she’d ever heard,
came in at a close second to her heart banging against the walls of her chest.
Slowly, she sat up. The back of her head throbbed, her spine hurt, and the
front of her body ached, especially her breasts. She bent her legs to stand and
in that same moment a jet of hot mist coated her face.
Wolf breath.
Olivia froze,
tamping down the run-for-your-life urge. Her mind reached toward the beast
beside her, searching his energy markers, his emotions, urges. She read him as
curious, stimulated. Maybe a misread of…sexually stimulated? She sat back on
her haunches, figuring if she stretched at least four feet of her five-foot ten
frame, maybe she’d appear larger. His breath assailed her from above, she
remained squatted.
Damn, this thing is huge!
He sniffed
the top of her head, down by her ear, licked the length of her neck and up the
side of her face. Another howl close by, echoing near the tree-line, got the
wolf’s attention. He raised his head from her and shoved her body back with his
own. She went down on her butt, folding her legs sideways. Fur from his
backside pressed into the front of her, including her face. Olivia turned her
head away and took a breath. A shiver began in her belly and inched through her
arms, legs, and up her neck. She sensed his urgency, he must move and his
need…again, to keep her safe and again something else, another misread?
He moved
back, his head next to hers. A growl vibrated, harsh and deep, beside her ear.
Olivia jumped when he yipped instead of howled. He circled her, stopping behind
her. A sudden scratch of claws and pebbles from rain washout near the barn
pelted her. Air swirled around her as the wolf leaped over her head in the
direction of the woods.
Olivia’s
breath whooshed out like a balloon being released. Tears welled and trickled
down her face. The wolf’s size was about as abnormal as it got. She’d never
heard of any wolf being that large. She’d done plenty of research on the
species, brushing up for the wolf pup she rehabilitated and released back into
the wild years ago when Ray and she first opened the refuge, before they owned
the preserve property.
Olivia pushed
herself up onto wobbly legs, her stomach lurched, and before she could blink,
vomit spewed. She retched hard, falling onto her hands and knees, weak and
crying, something she hadn’t done since Ray’s funeral. As if on cue, all the
lights popped on, illuminating her shadow against the barn wall.
Oh, that’s lovely. Damn power company.
A howl, and
then another and another, echoed from different locations in the forest. Her
forest, her wildlife preserve, not a place for a beast like her visitor, and
most definitely not a place for the aggressive lot in the forest. She swiped
her face with the bottom of her shirt and looked toward the woods.
About thirty
yards away in the mowed meadow, her wolf circled with another, close-in-size,
milky-eyed wolf with a deformed face, both spot-lighted in the yard light. They
flashed razor sharp teeth and glowing eyes, with the exception of the one’s
coated eye. Their vicious growls and snapping jaws filled the air. Olivia found
her tranq gun on the ground and grabbed it. By the time she turned for a shot,
she saw the tail end of both wolves leaping into the woods, her wolf chasing
the other.
Olivia leaned
against the barn, adjusting her position in accordance with her pain. She
thought of the curious readings she sensed from her wolf, not sure of their
meaning. She never questioned first impressions from readings anymore. Years of
experiences proved first intuitive readings rang as authentic truth in almost
every case.
She closed
her eyes and pictured her wolf looking at her for the first time, the way his
head snapped in her direction and how their gazes met and connected. She
touched her neck, sliding fingertips up her cheek where his tongue touched her
skin.
Her breath caught, heart
raced, and her eyes opened wide. She laughed out loud, maybe in relief, maybe
in a small fit of hysteria, or maybe because she consider that wolf as “her”
wolf. Her “stimulation” readings from him threw her off, knowing it wasn’t a
possibility.
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