Roadkill

  My name is Catcher.

  Finally I’m standing on the edge of that cliff. It’s not a cliff beneath my paws, but it is a real one all the same. I don’t see it with my eyes. It can’t be felt by my flesh, but I can feel it in my mind. I can’t see what’s below. I’m not afraid, though. I’m not afraid, because I have family at my side. I have my cousin who is my brother. He is my pack. With all that beside me, how could I possibly be afraid?

  It is now. It is always now.

  Now is good. Now could be the best.

  Is the best.

  My name is Catcher.

  My name was Catcher.

  My name . . . my name . . .

  I am . . .

  I am lost, I am found, and then I am free and I am happy.

  When I jump over that edge, someone leaps with me, shoulder to shoulder. I smell kinship on him. Kinship is all. I’m not alone.

  Never alone.

  I land, earth below me, moon above. I am wolf. We are pack.

  And that is all I need.

  “For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.”

  —Rudyard Kipling

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Rob Thurman lives in Indiana, land of cows and ravenous wild turkeys. Rob is the author of the Cal Leandros Novels: Nightlife, Moonshine, Madhouse, and Deathwish; Trick of the Light, the first book in the Trickster series; a story in the anthology Wolfsbane and Mistletoe ; and an upcoming stand-alone novel, Chimera.

  Besides wild, ravenous turkeys, Rob has a dog (if you don’t have a dog, how do you live?)—one hundred pounds of Siberian husky. He looks like a wolf, has paws the size of a person’s hand, ice blue eyes, teeth out of a Godzilla movie, and the ferocious habit of hiding under the kitchen table and peeing on himself when strangers come by. By the way, he was adopted from a shelter. He was fully grown, already house-trained, and grateful as hell. Think about it next time you’re looking for a Rover or Fluffy.

  For updates, teasers, deleted scenes, social networking, and various other extras, visit the author at www.robthurman.net.