Keeper of the Wolves Read Online Free Page A

dozen others. His hair matched the girl’s but was cut shorter and
held back by a golden circlet around his brow. The air that
followed him smelled of frustration and outrage. The emotions were
similar enough to the Cruel One that my lips drew back of their own
accord in a snarl. The man stopped a few paces from my cage and
pointed at me, his gaze barely meeting mine before he rounded on
the girl. He shouted something, anger clear on his face.
    I expected her to cower in front of such an
attack; instead, her hands rested on her hips and she waited for
his words to run out before she spoke in a simple, quiet reply that
angered him further instead of calming him down. He shouted and
swept an arm to indicate everything outside the room. She merely
shook her head and spoke softly again. I glanced at the tattooed
man, but he wasn’t alarmed in the slightest. Instead, he watched
the proceedings as though they happened often. My fear for the girl
abated.
    A long, low howl cut through the sound in
the room and my heart lifted. Several more combined with it, the
notes haunting and clear through the late night. The argument faded
and all talk around me died away. My pack called. After I was
captured and forced to travel with the circus, the wolves followed
me, uprooting their lives and leaving our forest to follow. Their
cries tormented the circus workers, but they were music to my ears
each night they lifted to drown out the torments of the day. If
anything held hope in my life, it was their song.
    The fear and sorrow I heard in the notes
that flowed through the windows broke my heart. They didn’t know if
I was dead or alive; they had followed my scent to the wagon, and
somehow trailed it to the strange building I was held captive in.
The strength of the forest lay beyond the walls, and they feared
the worst. I couldn’t let them suffer needlessly.
    I closed my eyes and the answering notes
rose from my chest. Calling a wolf howl from a human throat wasn’t
easy, but the tones were right and the notes reassuring and bare as
I told them I lived and expressed my gratitude that they still
followed.
    The howls of the pack changed, their tones
rounding out and becoming fuller in notes of joy and relief. Tears
stung my closed eyes and I yearned to be with them hunting through
the midnight forest and following the elk herds on their migration.
It was where I belonged.
    A knot rose in my throat, choking off my
howl. The wolf cries died away, leaving only remnants to echo
around the still room. I leaned against the bars, defeated and full
of frustrated sorrow as only an animal trapped in a cage can feel.
A chill ran through my body and I swept my hand across my forehead
to wipe away the answering sweat. I opened my eyes and found them
watching me. Every person in the room looked afraid that I would
break through the bars and attack them, a wild creature they
suddenly realized was more dangerous than a mere man.
    But my will to fight left with the last
notes from the wolves. I sank to my knees and studied them as they
watched me. Only the girl’s expression remained unchanged. Her soft
blue eyes reflected empathy and sorrow. Her hands were stained with
my blood and the firelight illuminated the track of a single tear I
wasn’t sure she knew trailed down her cheek.
    The night changed into morning. It wasn’t a
feeling or a breath of air, but the merest whisper of difference
that made the hair rise on the back of my neck. I gritted my teeth
and welcomed the change back into my wolf form. Black and gray fur
ran up my arms and down my back. My fingers pulled into paws and my
arms and legs shifted into the more natural stance of a wolf.
    The wounds from the whip bled during the
change, but I relished the feeling of being in my wolf form once
more. Another shudder ran through me, the chill of the fever, and I
settled exhausted to the ground with my eyes on the audience. My
life had shifted again, but having an audience was nothing new.
    The