Wolf Shadow (Wind River Book 3) by James Reasoner & L.J. Washburn

Author:James Reasoner & L.J. Washburn [Reasoner, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Book Place
Published: 2011-08-14T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

The storm that had been looming to the north held off for a couple of days, but when it finally came rolling down through the mountain valleys and across the plains, it came with a vengeance.

Bitterly cold wind howled and gobbled, bringing with it blinding sheets of ice pellets and then waves of snow so thick that it was well nigh impossible to tell where the ground ended and the sky began. In weather like this, there was nothing anyone could do except hunker down and wait and hope for the best.

The blizzard struck late in the afternoon, and by that night, the stove inside the bunkhouse at the Diamond S was struggling to put out enough heat to warm the long, narrow room. The ranch hands drew their chairs closer to the stove and took the blankets off their beds, wrapping the covers around them as they huddled around the black, cast-iron stove.

"We'll be sleeping sitting up tonight, boys," Frenchy told them, and nobody argued with the foreman. Their bunks were going to be too blasted cold for slumber.

Lon pulled his woolen blankets tighter around him and shivered. Maybe it got this cold in Texas, too, he thought—once or twice in a hundred years or thereabouts. Even inside the bunkhouse, the bone-numbing chill seemed to creep in, all but freezing the blood in a man's veins. It was even too cold to play cards, although some of the boys had tried, giving up only when stiff, icy fingers fumbled the pasteboards repeatedly. Wasn't much a body could do in cold weather like this except sleep, Lon reflected. He leaned back in his chair as best he could, all wrapped up like he was, then tipped his hat down over his face and closed his eyes.

Sleep came gradually, but with it came the same sort of dreams that had haunted Lon for the past week and a half.

He found himself back in that little valley where he had been set afoot, hobbling along desperately with the gray, ghostly shapes of the wolves gliding along through the trees around him. Although he tried to go faster and faster, his injured leg held him back, and even in his sleep he felt the pain shoot through him with each step. His heart pounded faster and faster in his chest until it felt like it was going to tear itself out of his body.

Then the wolves were closing in, drawing nearer and nearer until he could see their breath fogging in the air and moonlight glinting off their fangs as they got ready to launch themselves at him, pull him down, rip his flesh to bloody shreds . . .

He came awake with a start and a gasp, his hat nearly falling off as he jerked upright in his chair. Quite some time had passed since he dozed off, Lon saw. The lanterns that had cast their yellow glow through the bunkhouse earlier had all been extinguished. The only light in the big room came from the grate in the door of the stove.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.