Read The Last Wolf: A Highplains Shifter Erotic Romance (Wolf Fire Book 1) for Free Online

that hard could they? Just like riding a bicycle only more dangerous and a whole lot cooler.
    Maybe I didn’t have to end up a craigslist slut, maybe setting the wild free and leaving the old Hope behind meant starting a new life as a kick-ass biker bitch. I picked up Hakan’s aviators and tried them on, pouting at myself in the wing mirror. Looking into the glass I spotted movement behind my shaded face. I turned and saw a large creature slinking out of the shrub land to my left. I recognised its sinewy advance from my housecats at home, feline, it crept forward just like they did when they had found an unsuspecting bird to massacre. The low, careful footfall was exactly the same the only difference was that this creature was much, much, bigger, a full grown mountain lion, and it wasn’t stalking a bird, it was stalking me.
    I looked towards it. Making sure it knew I had seen it. Hoping that it would stop its advance now that it knew it had been busted, but it just kept coming. Its eyes were locked on mine. I knew it was just a hungry animal, and that I shouldn’t read anything into the look, but its eyes seemed to shine with pure yellow malevolence.
    “Easy now puss. Easy.” I said, using the soothing tone that worked on my pets, but still the creature advanced on me. “GO!” I screamed, waving my hands in the air, trying to make myself look as big as possible. “GO AWAY CAT!” It made no difference, still the lion advanced towards me. I watched the muscles in its flank bunch and relax as it sloped onwards, testimony to the raw power of the creature. I turned to the dashboard, desperate to start the bike, but I couldn’t remember how Hakan had done it. Had he pushed this button, or flicked this switch with the key? Had he done both, maybe he’d twisted the throttle or kicked the peddle I had no Idea, shit.
    I turned and looked towards the lion, now even closer. It kept its body low, it belly hugging the dry ground, and it was drawing itself back onto its haunches, gathering energy for the final spring, the leap the would take it on top of me. The world seemed to stand still, I could hear the sound of drumming thunder as the lion and I remained frozen, our eyes locked together in what would surely be my last moment.
    It pounced, though it was still yards away from me, more than twice the length of its body, the leap sent it high into the air so that it would crash down on me with all its bodyweight, knocking me from the bike and pinning me to the ground. I braced myself for the impact, waiting for the feel of sharp fangs around my neck.
    But the collision never came, the thunder I had heard arrived in the form of a speeding gray and white blur. The huge timber wolf I had seen the night before had charged between us. I watched in awe as the two animals met in a rolling, snarling ball of fury. I could see the lion’s claws drawing deep bloody gashes in the wolf’s flank, it roared and made to bite down on the other animal’s neck, delivering the death blow, but the wolf twisted and threw the lion from its back.
    The lion, as all cats will, landed on its feet and the two of them faced off across the shrub-land, both breathing heavily, the wolf with bright red blood streaming down its white flanks. The lion sprang again, aiming for the neck. The wolf met it in mid-air, barrelling into it like an intercept missile, sending the monstrously overgrown cat spiralling backwards with a yelp. The mountain lion sped away across the plains with the wolf in hot pursuit. I sat shaking on the seat of the bike, in awe of what I had just seen. The day was all getting a bit much.
    Ten minutes later Hakan came walking back. I ran to him, wanting to tell him how close I had come to death, and about my miraculous rescue. When I reached him I in my tracks. His white shirt was absolutely soaked through with crimson blood.
    “What happened!” I shouted, I wanted to throw my arms around him but held back, not knowing the extent of his