Code of the Wolf Read Online Free Page A

the other side of the far door.
    Ordinarily it was a place of peace, but not tonight. Changying, Nettie and Michaela had settled the stranger in one of the unoccupied stalls where they kept ailing cattle, or calves needing special care. From the look of him, he hadn’t improved. Caridad stood with hands on hips, staring down at him with a ferocious scowl.
    â€œDon’t waste your time, Changying,” she was saying as Serenity approached.
    The Chinese woman looked up. “He has taken a bit of water,” she said. “I believe he will be well.”
    Serenity closed her eyes. Changying was too good at her craft to speak up if she didn’t believe it.
    â€œHas he been awake?” she asked, joining Caridad.
    â€œOnly for a moment,” Changying said. “But he is already better than he was.”
    â€œHe is an evil-looking man,” Caridad said. “ Un hombre malo. ”
    It was exactly what Serenity had been thinking, yet the words seemed far more harsh than her private thoughts. Now that the man was out of the glare of sunlight and in such quiet surroundings, he didn’t seem nearly so terrible. Still potentially dangerous, to be sure, and never to be trusted. Hard as the New Mexico desert. Yet his face wasn’t quite so much like a villainous mask, and there was an easing around his mouth as if he knew, even in his sleep, that he was safe.
    The inexplicable impulse to defend him against Caridad’s harsh judgment frightened her. She couldn’t afford to let down her guard. Not ever.
    â€œIf he is all right for now,” she said to Changying, “you should go and get your supper. I’ll watch him.”
    â€œAnd I,” Caridad said.
    â€œYou just rode in,” Michaela said. “Let us do it.”
    Serenity shook her head. “He’s my responsibility. Cari, get a little sleep. I’ll need you and Zora to do some scouting in the morning.”
    Caridad heaved a great sigh. “If you insist, jefa. ” Adjusting the twin bandoliers crossing her chest, she strode out of the barn. Nettie and Michaela followed reluctantly.
    â€œIf he wakes, try to give him a little water,” Changying said as she got to her feet. “I have treated his wounds as best I can, but he must take proper nourishment if he is to heal.”
    â€œI’ll see to it,” Serenity said. She couldn’t do less than Changying, even though she loathed the idea of touching him again.
    Moving almost as quietly as Zora, Changying left. Serenity leaned against the partition between the stalls, refusing to look at the man’s face again, unwilling to see anything in it she hadn’t already judged to be there.
    But when she looked down and away, she saw other parts of him that disturbed her just as much. Changying had stripped him of his clothes—a fact Serenity had been trying to ignore—and covered his lower body with a blanket. And though Serenity was able to avoid thinking about what the blanket covered, she couldn’t fail to notice the strength of his arms, the muscular breadth of his chest, the slim, lean contours of his waist.
    She didn’t want to notice them. The last time she’d seen a man undressed…
    Covering her face with her hands, Serenity turned her back on Changying’s patient. She should have felt utter loathing. She’d deliberately cut off even the remotest physical reaction to any man since her escape six years ago. She had believed herself incapable of experiencing such attraction again.
    And she wasn’t experiencing it now. It was only the poison this man had brought with him that had infected her brain like a fever. That made her view his body with admiration instead of disgust.
    Slowly she turned around again and deliberately examined him with the cool detachment Changying had displayed. It was only a body. A magnificent example, but only a body nonetheless. It had no power to frighten or attract