Read Walker's Run for Free Online Page B

outside and nervously wondered if she’d slept another day away. How long would it be before her father came to look for her this time?
    “You were only asleep about two hours,” Braedyn said as if he’d read her mind.
    She tried to nod but winced. Pain shot through her neck, then down her chest and back. Tears burned her eyes. With a few deep breaths, she ground her teeth against the torment.
    “Care to talk about the dream?”
    Casey sighed, understanding that Braedyn was trying to distract her from the torture that was sapping her strength. “About twenty years ago, my father killed a wolf out here. I had gotten lost in the woods, playing with an adolescent. Then the young wolf came back and found me and brought a much larger one with him. They curled up with me, kept me warm and safe. My father found me and was terrified. He'd had a wolf when he was younger. It had turned on him after it’d been part of his family for five years. He loved them but never trusted them again.” She wiped at her tears. “It happened so fast, the adolescent ran off when my brother pulled me away. The elder lunged at my father. Dad had to shoot him. He never discussed it, and I never ran off from camp again.”
    There was tenderness in Braedyn’s expression while he watched her tell the story. Casey tried to push away the slight thrill she received from having him look at her the way he was. It was impossible to consider he could care more for her than just to help her through this ordeal. It was only sympathy, she tried to convince herself, nothing more.
    Braedyn’s expression tightened a fraction, and he cleared his throat. “Wolves are unpredictable. Your father was only protecting you.”
    “But so was the wolf. He placed himself between me and my father trying to protect me.” She ground her teeth while the vivid images replayed in her mind. “That was so long ago, I actually think I saw the adolescent I played with as a kid the evening I was attacked. It could have been my imagination, but I know those wolves, Braedyn. I've followed them and taken pictures of them. I don’t think it’s possible after twenty years he could still be roaming the forest, but he could be a descendant.”
    Braedyn looked down at his hands. “It’s possible.”
    Her gaze fell to his hands, searching for a ring and wondering if he had someone missing him at home. “Are you married?”
    His forehead smoothed and he smiled, shaking his head. The expression lit up his already handsome face. Casey wondered what it would be like to be the one to make him smile like that all the time. “No, I have a mother, a younger brother, and an older sister who passed away...very recently.”
    That surely wasn’t the answer she was expecting. A man who looked like him had to have women crawling all over the place. To hear he’d recently lost a family member evoked an odd feeling she wasn’t ready to think about.
    With a deep breath she cleared her thoughts. “I’m sorry to hear that. Were you close?”
    His jaw tightened, and he looked in her eyes. She couldn’t imagine an awful relationship with a sibling. Her brother was like an anchor for her; he kept her grounded.
    “My sister and I didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things. She believed in vengeance and wanted to see the one responsible for our father’s death brought to justice, her way.” He licked his lips and shook his head, all traces of the momentary joy she’d glimpsed earlier gone. “It didn’t turn out well.”
    “I’d say not. Though I have to admit, I’d probably be the same with my father. I’m sorry for your loss.”
    He nodded and looked away from her again. “Sometimes you just have to realize there are misunderstandings and let things go. She couldn’t. In her heart, someone had to pay for it. In the end, she did.”
    Casey could feel the sadness radiating from him. It must have been a very recent loss. “How does the rest of your family feel?”
    Braedyn shrugged and