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"You don’t even care do you?" the old rowled

"I don’t know her," he had whispered then

"That’s an anirandfather had lashed out "One without a soul"

The drea alone in the shack high in the randfather’s visit He knew he had to stay hidden, knew that the people who had forced his birth on thefor him The television was his constant companion and with it, he had learned to read over the years, to decipher the words and to make sense of how to use the room A blanket was tucked in the couch He didn’t sleep in the bed In the dark, too hts raced across his mind and too many sounds in the mountains outside fueled his fear But that television was his lifeline On it he saw his dreams A family A mother, a father, children ere loved and protected, and in those dreah and be free, fly a kite, ride a bike He didn’t have to fear detection

"Here’s sorandfather stared down at hiust to chilly dislike over the years "I’ll put the food on the porch You’re big enough to put it away yourself"

Eleven years old He had celebrated his birthday alone, clumsily wrapped several pinecones he had found and books he had read in old newspaper and pretended they were ahirandkids They spoiled them, showed them the world, took them to amusement parks They didn’t lock them away on a mountain and leave them to suffer the silence and the cold alone

"Have you found your soul yet?" the old man snapped then

Kiowa had stared up at hirief locked inside him

"No, Sir No soul this week" He had oods and canned foods that he survived on

Winter was corandfather would forget to bring hiain Kiowa had been fourteen the night the news had reported a car crash on the interstate Joseph Mulligan had been involved in a head-on collision with a se family members, the newsman reported And for the first tile tear

The next day, he packed his s in a pillowcase and set off down the ain, and the cold was a bitter enemy when you had no dried foods, no warh that he understood certain things where the world was

concerned He knew he had to be careful, that his very creation was a law against nature, the sharp canines that he kept filed down at the side of his mouth were proof of that He knew there ays to survive, he just had to be tough enough Strong enough

As he walked away from the cabin, he paused and stared back at it quietly

"I have a soul," he had whispered forlornly "I always did"

Kiowa’s eyes opened slowly, the drea, but not the woainst his chest, her hair a cloud of silk around their bodies as she slept deeply, peacefully He stared to the , the dark curtain shielding the rays of the sun and tightened his hold on her If Felines and Wolves mated only once, then there was a chance a Coyote could mate forever as well He had never wanted another woman as much as he had this one, before he ever touched her He had never dreamed of another before her, but he had dreao

Chapter Seventeen

"Welcome to Sanctuary"

Amanda raised surprised eyes to the front door as it pushed open and Merinus Lyons walked into the cabin She carried a baby in her arms, the woman behind her carried a foldaway playpen

"Just put it in the corner, Lilly," Merinus directed the other wo the place while we’re here"

Behind her walked an older ray hair e black bag on the living roo

"I’h her brown eyes were shadoith concern as she turned back to Amanda "This is Dr Martins, a very dear friend of mine, and behind hi within the Feline Breed labs to help find a reason for thisstuff"

"Hello" A back at the her to shower and eat without hi forward to a chance to think and toon

"I know you have a lot of questions, Aaze compassionate "We’re here to answer as e to steal so it Callan and Dash said the er with you than it has been for the rest of us Which is saying so, because trust hed freely, her expression self-le" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>