Alpha Champion (Wolf Fighters Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

moment seemed to go on and on, and then he finally pulled back to look down into her face. She could tell it was his way of saying good-bye.
    “Lucas…” She trailed off, wanting to think of something clever or memorable to say to him before he left. But he simply nodded, kissed her forehead, and then started to walk away.
    She watched him walk out of sight and then sank to her knees in the dirt, not caring if it ruined her blue silk dress.
    It didn’t really matter anymore anyway.
    She slowly got to her feet and trudged back to the house.
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    L ucas balled his hands into tight fists as he walked away from Lily. He could see it in her eyes—how much she wanted him, how trapped she felt—but he couldn’t make her say it. Couldn’t make her admit she needed him. Couldn’t get her to ask him to stay there.
    And without answers, what excuse did he have to stay? Clearly, she wanted the tournament to go on. Clearly, she didn’t want him to enter.
    He paced in the dark garden, wanting to stay close to where she was even if he couldn’t see her. Once he went home, he felt like it would totally be over.
    It was a cruel twist of irony that the family would come back to the home they’d abandoned to hold this awful event. This place brought back so many memories. Him being yelled at and told to never come back by Lily’s father. Lily crying and promising to meet him. He ran a hand through his hair. So many things he didn’t want to remember.
    Yet seeing her beautiful face had made the past just wash away, and he could no sooner leave her than stop breathing. He’d seen it in her face when she’d been cornered by the blond douche from earlier. She hated this, feared it. She didn’t want to be here. She still wanted him. He felt it when he’d kissed her.
    And damn, what a kiss that had been. Her curves were even more womanly now, rounded and soft in his hands, and he’d longed to free them from the tight silk so he could pay them more attention. Her beautiful face had sharpened slightly with age, but she still had those beautiful, deep brown eyes, that amazing smile with those cupid bow lips, that little pointed chin he loved to tilt with one finger. She was still short enough that he had to lean down to kiss her.
    He loved everything about her, and if he’d thought coming to see her would make it easier to walk away, he’d been wrong.
    He should have kept his promise to himself and stayed away. He should have been content to watch her across the ballroom, but when he’d seen her in trouble, seen her eyes widen as she tried to pull away from the blond douche, he hadn’t been able to help himself.
    He’d never been able to resist rescuing Lily. He never would.
    He longed to go find her. Sneak up into the room that used to be hers and see if she was still there. Have a late-night rendezvous like they had before, when he would break her out and they’d run in their wolf forms through the gardens. Would her father be stupid enough to put her back in the same room?
    Likely, he thought Lucas had grown up and moved on, having realized the cruel ways of a world where alpha females deserved only full-blooded alpha males. Like Asher.
    But Lucas couldn’t move on. Seeing her again, glowing in that gorgeous blue gown he just wanted to rip off her, he was able to clearly articulate what he hadn’t been able to as a teenager. She was his mate.
    He shoved his hands in his pockets and cursed as he paced. There was no point to this. No point thinking of her as his. She’d told him to go. He had no excuse to follow her. No excuse to go after her. He should leave while he was ahead.
    But whenever he tried to walk away, something in his heart tugged him back. She doesn’t want you, he tried to tell himself, but it didn’t stick. He told himself to stop with the wishful thinking, but he couldn’t help wondering if there was something more to all this. A reason she wouldn’t want him to stay.
    He didn’t know what the issue