Chasing Her Tail by Katie Allen Read Free Book Online

gold, with a medium-length coat. She definitely didn’t look like a wolf.
    Not a werewolf then, she decided. So what—a were-mutt?
    She sighed, which came out as a whine. How inelegant—instead of a majestic wolf, she’d turned into the lead character in The Shaggy Dog . Questions began to cram into her head. What was she? Could she turn back into a person? What had happened the night before? Why was the doctor chasing her? Where did they go? Was she safe? Were they watching her right now?
    As her brain raced, her pulse accelerated until her heart thundered in her chest and she was quivering with the need to run. But where should she go?
    Bridget looked around. She was at the bottom of a ravine and had been sleeping wedged against a decaying log, forest debris piled around her. Glancing up the incline, she guessed that she’d fallen, pulling after her a mini-avalanche of dirt, fallen leaves and whatever else made up the ravine she’d tumbled down. This natural blanket was probably what had hidden her from the two men.
    Giving herself a shake, she heard the shower of dirt hit the ground as it flew from her coat. Bridget did an inventory, testing each group of muscles with care. Nothing seemed to have been damaged in the fall. In fact, she felt good—really good. After being so sick, she was almost giddy with the lack of pain and illness.
    Bridget spun in a circle, unable to hold back an excited bark. The noise echoed in the trees, quieting the birds and making all the small creatures go still, bringing Bridget back to reality. She had to figure this out. First of all, she needed to get home.
    Her car was probably still in the lot outside the emergency room, but what if someone was watching it, waiting for her to return? If she did manage to get to her car without anyone seeing her, she wouldn’t be able to drive home in her current state. She 28
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    wasn’t sure if she could change back into her normal, five-foot-two, less-hairy form and she was a little scared to try—what if this was it? No more opposable thumbs or speech-enabled vocal cords. Instead, she’d fight urges to drink from toilets and chase squirrels.
    At the thought, her stomach rumbled.
    No , she told her hungry dog part firmly. There will be no eating anything in the rodent family—including uncooked squirrel.
    Her hunger and the thought of the sandwich meat in her refrigerator nudged her into action. Bridget trotted along the base of the ravine, heading toward a section that rose less steeply than the slope she had tumbled down the night before. A part of her was amazed at her calm acceptance of her new canine shape but Bridget figured so much had happened, so much shock and fear and overwhelming panic had flooded through her, that her brain had just short-circuited. Besides, she was still half-convinced this was all a dream.
    She scrambled up the slope, her paws slipping a few times on leaves and loose dirt that pattered down to the forest floor below. Bridget was actually grateful for her four legs, since maneuvering seemed much easier than if she’d been human-shaped. As she climbed for what seemed like a long time, she marveled that she hadn’t been injured in her lengthy fall the night before. She wasn’t sure whether the two men had been put off their search because of the steep slope or whether they hadn’t been able to find her.
    When she finally reached level ground, she slunk toward the edge of the woods, peering out at the emergency room parking lot while keeping her body in the shadows.
    The hospital was busier than it had been the night before, with people walking in and out of the main doors and others standing around the entrance, possibly waiting for their rides or just enjoying the fragile warmth of the autumn sun.
    Bridget eyed everyone with suspicion, not trusting even the elderly man using the walker, making his shuffling way toward a taxi. Any of the people could be watching for her, waiting for her to emerge from the