Carolina Valdez Twilight (pdf)

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were saying in his shifted form. It felt less lonely and helped put
him in touch with his human side.
Whenever he returned to the ranch, he threw himself into the
work with frantic fervor, trying to make up for his absences and
hide from the memories of hunting.
Boss, are you okay? Mark asked one day when they rode out
looking for a stray cow.
Cade s shoulder muscles tightened along with his gut. I m
fine. Why?
I don t know. Sometimes you seem unhappy and, well, not
really in the here and now. Is your granddaddy worse?
He s not going to improve, but so far he s holding his own.
Glad to hear it. I notice Lee don t come around any more.
We ve got a new doc.
That s right.
I thought maybe that was worrying you.
Cade forced himself to smile. He kept his voice light. You re
not planning to advise your boss on his private life now, are you?
Mark held up a hand. Okay, son, I get the message. Forget I
said anything. He tipped a finger to the brim of his hat and rode
off toward a tumble of boulders where a cow might have gotten
trapped.
60
TWILIGHT
Look, vultures circling, Cade called out as he spurred Iron
Man toward the spot.
Cougar, Mark said as they dismounted and advanced on the
dead cow.
Damn it to hell, I told Lee this would happen!
When Mark questioned him, he told him about the one Lee had
saved and released. Mark nodded. I wondered what had happened
between you two.
Cade left it at that. It ll be back now that it s found its own
private food chain.
I agree. And the Lazy M s the closest to the mountains. If it
gets tired of what we have to offer it ll move on down the line of
ranches.
They went back for Thornbird and tracked the animal for about
a mile, but then lost its paw prints and scent in the stream coming
down from the high country.
At twilight, armed with a rifle that had a night scope, Cade
dressed against the cold and drove to the shack, which was in a
direct line from as much of the cougar s path as they d been able to
follow. He started a fire in the fireplace, waited until night and then
sat in the surrounding darkness and waited for any sounds from the
forest indicating the cat was hunting or moving about. Nothing that
big moved through the trees.
Three nights later, the cat raided the hen house, escaping when
the fluttering and cackling hens alerted Nick, who was asleep in
the nearby bunkhouse. He ran shouting and waving his arms to
scare off the cougar and rescue the terrified chickens.
Come daylight, all they found were big paw prints and a
dusting of feathers. A hen and a rooster were missing. Again, Cade
took his rifle and headed into the mountains to wait, but the killer
61
TWILIGHT
eluded him.
Days later, when it carried off a young calf born in the spring,
anger caused the veins in Cade s throat to pound. Again, armed, he
waited in the darkness in the area of the neglected shelter. When
the scream of a mountain lion broke the night s silence, Cade s
hands began to tremble and he shivered uncontrollably with anger.
When he changed and killed he didn t threaten anyone s property.
But this predator was a threat to Wild Heart and the other horses.
To all of the livestock.
* * *
When Cade came to, it was morning and he lay face down on
the ground. He hadn t quite made it back to the building before
he d changed. As he pushed himself up and strode into the hunters
shed, he realized his violent anger must ve triggered the shift.
There was a logic to it happening. It balanced the scales of the
natural world a tracking, attacking leopard s wits matched
against those of the marauding puma.
Inside, his clothes lay beside his rifle. He dressed and tried to
warm his body. Then he went out, suspecting what he d find
because he didn t have a mark on him.
Eventually he located the dead puma and crouched beside it. Its
throat had been ripped open, its windpipe and spine crushed. It
died the kind of death it dealt: it had suffocated in the same manner
it killed its prey. In the form of a snow leopard, he d apparently
dragged the body into the open where it would quickly become
carrion like the fate of the poor, placid cow. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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