Desire the Night(3)

She looked up when Dr. Saltzman entered the examination room a few moments later. He was a tall, good-looking man with a plump, red-haired wife and six red-headed kids.

He shook his head when he saw the Rot lying quietly on the table.

“I see you’ve worked your Indian magic again,” he said, pulling on a pair of gloves. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Kay continued stroking the dog’s head, occasionally whispering to the animal in Lakota, while the vet performed his examination. The Rottweiler had been hit by a car and had been brought in bleeding from several cuts. One leg and several ribs were broken. The Rot had been reasonably calm until they carried it into the examination room and then it had bared its teeth, growling and snapping at anyone who came close until Kay entered the room.

“We’ll need to sedate her to set that leg and bind up her ribs,” the vet said, preparing a shot to anesthetize the dog. “Keep talking to her.”

Kay nodded. “There, now,” she murmured, still stroking the Rot’s head. “Dr. Saltzman will have you fixed up in no time at all.”





“So, what shall we do tonight?” Wanda asked as they left the office that evening. “Do you want to go to a movie?”

“Not tonight,” Kay said. “I have something to do.”

“A date?” Wanda asked, waggling her eyebrows.

“No, nothing like that. How was lunch with your mom?”

“Don’t try to change the subject,” Wanda admonished with a shake of her head. “It’s that monthly thing, isn’t it? You’re planning to take tomorrow off, aren’t you?” Wanda poked Kay lightly on the shoulder. “Sooner or later, I’m going to find out what you’re up to.”

“Believe me, I wish I could tell you,” Kay confessed, digging her keys out of her handbag. “But I can’t. I’ll see you on Friday.”

“All right, girlfriend.”

Kay sighed as she unlocked the car and slid behind the wheel. She would love to tell Wanda why she had to take off one day a month, but it was never going to happen. She was bound by the law of the pack not to reveal their secrets, and the truth of what they were was the most tightly guarded secret of all. The penalty for disclosing it to humans was severe, and that applied to Kay, too. Being the daughter of the Shadow Pack’s Alpha wouldn’t grant her any special privileges or immunity if she violated pack laws.

As far as the wolves were concerned, there was only one law—the law of the pack—and they all seemed perfectly happy to obey it. Why wasn’t she? Why couldn’t she obey without question? Conform to pack hierarchy without a qualm? Be content to do as she was told and live within the pack boundaries? Why couldn’t she be who her father wanted her to be? Was it so wrong to want to make her own decisions, decide where she wanted to live, who she wanted to marry?

At home, she broiled a chicken for dinner and washed it down with a glass of wine, hoping the chardonnay would calm her nerves. Too restless to sit still, she dusted and vacuumed, cleaned the oven, scrubbed the floor. And all the while, she could feel the wolf prowling inside her, waiting impatiently to get out.

In the morning, she called Dr. Saltzman and told him she needed the day off, then she ate a quick breakfast, packed an overnight bag, and drove to her favorite haunt in the sacred Paha Sapa, the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Ancient tribal elders Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Red Cloud had walked these hills and valleys in days long gone. They had sought visions on the tops of the mountains, hunted the buffalo on the plains, defeated Custer in a battle still discussed by red man and white alike. Sitting Bull had called the tribes together in a last, desperate attempt to defeat the whites so they could keep the Hills and protect their way of life. She often wondered what life would have been like if the Indians had won their fight.

The Hills were a magical place, filled with beauty and mystery, a vast expanse of pine-covered mountains with trees that were so dark a green that they looked black from a distance. The perfect spot for her monthly retreat from the world.





Wrapped in a fluffy yellow towel, Kay stood in a lush valley deep in the heart of the Black Hills watching the moon rise. It called to her, causing her whole body to quiver in anticipation.

The transformation came in a flood of physical sensations—the realigning of bones and muscle, the change in temperature as a thick pelt sprouted from her skin, the sudden acuity in her senses, the feel of the earth beneath the sensitive pads of her feet.

Lifting her head, she howled at the moon. How often had she wished she could transform more than once a month, that she could experience the wonder and freedom of this moment whenever she desired? She had often dreamed of being an Alpha, like her father, able to transform at will, to have his unlimited power and authority, to give orders instead of having to take them. But there was no use in wishing for what could never be.