Read Six Months for Free Online Page B

clicked on the floor and I got an eyeful of his enormous size. I briefly entertained the thought of locking myself in the bathroom, but decided it wouldn’t be in my best interest to show fear and run. After polishing off every morsel on the floor, he lifted his nose and sniffed in my direction, his tail wagging lightly. I kept my eyes glued to the table so he wouldn’t perceive me as a threat.
    “Change your mind?” I asked softly. “ Good boy.”
    His wet nose glided across my left arm and I shivered. I sat motionless, allowing him to check me out even though a small voice in my head was whispering, You’re a certifiable idiot. You just let the Big Bad Wolf in, whetted his appetite with hamburger meat, and now you’re going to become the main course .
    The poor thing limped in a circle and collapsed on his right side. He looked barely conscious, panting the way an animal does when it’s in pain. I circled around him and locked the door.
    “Oh, baby. What happened?”
    I knelt down and ran my long fingers through his silky fur. His face relaxed at my touch and while I couldn’t see any blood, his front leg was curled in a peculiar position. When I gently lifted his heavy paw and peered underneath, I saw why.
    Instinctively, I began humming a made-up melody to keep him calm. Lodged deep in his upper leg was a screwdriver. It made me steaming mad to imagine that someone could have impaled him intentionally; we had sickos in the area notorious for animal cruelty. The brown handle protruded from the inside of his leg and the spike angled toward the back. I bent over to make sure it hadn’t gone into his chest cavity, but it looked clear. His dense fur made a close examination difficult. I couldn’t call animal control because they would only put him down.
    My hands trembled and I took a deep breath. I had to pull it out, and that would snap him out of his placid state of semiconsciousness, and he’d be looking for someone to bite.
    “How did this happen?”
    He refused to answer the question.
    I slipped out of my robe and decided the best thing to do was cover his head so he wouldn’t see me when I pulled it out.
    Kneeling before him in my bra and panties, I draped my silky robe across his back, sliding it over his face until it obscured his view. I wrapped my fingers around the handle, ready to pull it out with lightning speed. At least I had medical insurance, even though the deductible was outrageous.
    “Here we go,” I whispered. Then I did a mental countdown. One… two… three!
    In a clean motion, I yanked the handle and pulled the screwdriver free.
    He yelped and growled all at once. The wolf flipped onto his feet and the robe fell away, revealing one pissed-off animal. I scrambled backward, holding the bloody screwdriver in self-defense.
    He limped forward, tracking blood with each step as his brown eyes locked on mine like a target.
    This was it. I was going to be one of those sad-o’clock news stories about a lonely woman found mauled to death in her bra and panties. Then they’d go to commercial and talk about squeezably soft toilet paper.
    “I’m so sorry,” I said in a shaky voice, lying on my back as he reached my legs and then my hips. “You had a bad thing happen, and I’m… Please don’t hurt me.”
    In that moment, I was either going to be ripped to shreds by an incensed wolf, or I was going to kill an animal to save my life—something I’d never done.
    My fingers gripped the handle tightly and I tensed, preparing for the inevitable attack.
    Tension mounted.
    I couldn’t breathe and kept thinking about my sister.
    The wolf lurched forward and fell beside me, resting his chin on my left arm. After two short wags of his tail, his tongue stretched out and licked the bottom of my jaw. I sighed dramatically and stared at the ceiling in relief.
    “Just another exciting night in the life of April Frost,” I said, laughing with tears hovering at the corners of my eyes.
    That was the night