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Page 84
Chapter Six
Wolves!
The night was too dark, despite the leaf-spattered moonlight, for Mariah to see their approach, but she knew they were coming. Swiftly. Inexorably.
She heard their footfalls in the underbrush, their ugly, harsh growling as they approached. And then another howl, taken up by two of the beasts. Three. How many?
Mariah quaked as she hugged the rough bark of a tree trunk for support. Surely they wouldn't hurt her. Weren't wolves just like overgrown dogs?
Yes, but dogs that had not been tamed. Dogs in which the instinct for domination had not been subdued.
Hungry, brutal dogs.
They couldn't be after her . . . could they? She recalled then her clumsiness in clearing the table. She'd spilled a little stew on her dress, then rinsed it off with water. She no longer smelled it, but maybe she smelled like food to the animals' keen sense of smell. Once they saw she was a human and not small game, they'd leave her alone.
She hoped.

 
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