Free Broken Moon: Part 1 by Claudia King

BROKEN MOON, PART
1
     
    Claudia King
     
     
    Published by Claudia
King at Smashwords
     
    Copyright © 2013 Claudia King
     
     
    Smashwords Edition,
License Notes
     
    This ebook is licensed
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directly help this author to continue doing what she loves, and to
share it with you the reader!
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     
Broken Moon, Part
1
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     
    The taste of rain in
his mouth and the chill of icy sleet running down the back of his
neck didn't bother him. He was used to it. Even with his hunting
jacket soaked through and his dark hair hanging in wet locks before
his eyes he carried on, pressing up the mountain slope to where the
weather was harsher, the wind colder.
    They were stalking him,
he could tell. Half a dozen times he'd tried to climb the mountain
to find their pack, and now, at last, they had been the ones to
find him.
    He smiled to himself,
exhausted, and forced his thickly muscled body onwards up the steep
slope, the forest thinning and giving way to scattered pine trees,
the grass becoming patchy beneath his boots where snow blown down
from the chilly heights had smothered it.
    In the back of his mind
his wolf whispered to him, like a wild animal dogging his every
step, trying to latch on and sink in its teeth the second he
faltered.
    You need me. You need
my strength. They'll come for you soon.
    He grit his teeth and
pushed his wolf to the back of his mind. The thoughts were his own,
but they weren't born of the human part of him. He knew the steep
slope would be made easier by his wolf's powerful legs, the cold
more tolerable by a thick coat of fur, but he refused.
    They were close now.
Even without the sharp senses of his wolf he could hear their paws
disturbing the rocks and smell their pack-scent on the wind. No
doubt they were waiting for him to turn back, as he had always done
before, but not this time.
    He forced his aching
legs to keep moving forward. Years of rough living had chiselled
him into a rugged, weather-hardened creature, and he could endure
far beyond the point at which most others would give up. He grit
his teeth, forcing his endurance to the limit in a silent challenge
to his pursuers. Would the harsh weather get to them first, or to
him?
    As long as they were
out there, he wouldn't stop. He'd force them to make the first
move.
    His boots slipped on a
heap of loose shale and he dropped to one knee, cursing through his
teeth as pain shot up his leg. He curled his fingers into the
grass, struggling to drag himself back to his feet, and then he saw
them.
    They slunk out from
behind the trees and rocks all at the same time, far nearer than
he'd expected.
    He was a large wolf, an
alpha among his kind, but every one of these creatures matched him
in size. Half a dozen pairs of animal eyes glistened through the
rain, watching him with human intelligence. They were werewolves,
like him, and he was trespassing in their territory.
    He huffed a breathless
sigh and sat down on the slope, closing his eyes for a moment as he
fought the maddening urge of his wolf prickling at the back of his
mind.
    Fight them. You need
me. Fight them.
    A pair of boots
crunched on the shale as the lead wolf took his human form,
standing just a few feet away.
    "This is the third time
we've seen you in our territory. What are you doing here?"
    He smiled, wiping the
wet strands of hair away from his face as he looked up at the
leader, blinking through the rain. "Looking for you. I'm getting
close to your pack, aren't I? Otherwise you'd never have shown your
faces. And this is the fifth time I've been up here."
    "Why?" The