Free Changeling Dream by Dani Harper Page A

to that, and the need for rest and nutrition became paramount. Two things he hadn’t had enough of in well over a week. The hunt for James would have to wait.
    It didn’t prevent him from thinking about his brother, however. As Connor drove home, he wondered how on earth Jillian had encountered the white wolf. She would never hurt the wolf, of course, that wasn’t the danger. But was James being deliberately careless? It shouldn’t be possible for Jillian to find James by accident. Even the Pack couldn’t find James if he didn’t want to be found—the white wolf simply seemed to melt into the forest and disappear. Connor wasn’t completely certain he could find his brother either.
    Why would James reveal himself to a human? He was still mulling that question when he climbed into bed and fell into a dreamless sleep.
     
    Far on the other side of Dunvegan, James was wondering the same thing. He had submerged himself beneath the animal persona from the time he left the woman on the trail. He didn’t want to think about her, didn’t intend to see her again. He resolved to stay away from the clinic, the trails, anywhere he might encounter her. It was safer that way. He was unconcerned about possible danger to himself. But he was all too aware that he could bring danger to this woman. Associating with Changelings had proved perilous to humans throughout history. They had nothing to fear from the Changelings—it was forbidden among them to harm humans—but everything to fear from their fellows. James was certain that death had visited Evelyn, had taken her because she was married to him , and someone had known what he was. Humans as a whole tended to be suspicious of those who were different, fearful of anyone not like themselves, and their fears sometimes erupted into violence.
    Yet the wolf resisted James, refused to take shelter in the deeper forest even though it was broad daylight. Refused to do anything but lie barely hidden under a spruce canopy, head on its paws, facing in the direction of the town. James began to wonder if he had finally lost his mind. He was the wolf; how could he be so at odds with himself ? It felt uncomfortably like the wolf was becoming a separate entity and surely that way lay madness.
    Maybe if he figured out who the woman was, he could solve the puzzle and be able to leave it alone. If he could just get some answers, maybe then he could stop struggling with his animal self and slip comfortably into oblivion again.

    Jillian signed up for a post office box, transferred her eastern bank account to a local branch, and explored a few shops, but was unable to achieve any kind of distraction. There was a poster for a new wolf stamp at the post office. Wolves ran along the front of her complimentary wildlife-themed checkbook cover. The faces of wolves stared out from greeting cards, puzzles, T-shirts and framed wildlife pictures. A poster in a DVD rental outlet advertised a movie with wolves. A child in a stroller held a stuffed wolf—okay, it was supposed to be a husky, but it had blue eyes for God’s sake.
    Jillian knew that on any other day, she would barely have noticed these things. Okay, maybe she might have noticed some of them because she liked wolves. But last night she had met a real wolf, her wolf. And there was just no way to rationalize away that experience even if she’d wanted to. When she’d undressed to shower, she’d discovered white hairs on her clothes—a few black ones from the enthusiastic Buster but dozens upon dozens of pure white hairs. Evidence that she had not only seen a white wolf, but touched and even hugged a white wolf. And it had permitted the contact. The whole idea was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. By some accident of fate, she’d somehow stepped outside the bounds of normalcy and made a connection with the unknown for the second time in her life.
    There was no proof, of course, that the wolf had communicated with her, had spoken in her