Alpha Curves (Paranormal BBW Shifter Romance): Wolf Clan Book 3 Read Online Free Page A

never quite looked like a shifter, her sweet body too soft, her face too round. But he could smell the wolf in her when others -- not even the grandmother raising her -- couldn't. He could see the shift that never fully materialized as it shimmered beneath her skin, fighting to break out.
    Now there was no doubt that Iris was all wolf, in heat, just down his hall...in his shower.
    Tossing the pillow aside, Cade stood and took his first step toward the bathroom. His right foot dragged forward, his once iron will fighting the desire to shift. Body shaking, he took a third step, right hip dipping, ankle rolling outward as the other foot started to move forward.
    A tentative knock landed on his front door.
    He sprang backward, landing expertly behind the couch in a tactical position before laughing at himself. Tears flooded his eyes and he rubbed roughly at his cheek, laughing some more and shaking his head. Maybe Mathis was right and he was turning into a pussycat. He sure as hell had just jumped like one. And how the hell did someone make it to his front door without him knowing it at the first crunch of tires on his drive?
    Oh, yeah -- because his entire focus had been on Iris, on the lingering scent filled with her heat and the memories of her half-yielding flesh the last time the two of them had been alone in their youth.
    The knock landed again, producing another startled jerk.
    "Coming!" He prowled toward the door, his wolf seeking out the energy of the person beyond it. Not Mathis, whom he expected to return with the clothes. Not male at all. Female, shifter, unmated and trembling...
    He yanked the door open to find Joelle Frost holding a small duffel bag of clothes in front of her like it was a silver shield that could protect against Cade's ire.
    "Mathis said to bring this!" she blurted.
    Hearing Joelle's voice shake worse than her hands, Cade closed his eyes and cursed Mathis. He understood why his second had sent someone else, but he'd made a bad choice. He could have chosen any other female wolf, or a mated male, even one of the latents. Instead, Mathis had sent a nineteen-year-old wolfling who had been sniffing around Cade since her first heat -- a move that reeked not of stupidity but sabotage.
    Grabbing the duffel, Cade jerked it toward him. She held tight to the bag, the momentum pulling her into his house.
    "Leave, Joelle."
    She dropped her gaze, refusing to challenge a pack alpha directly, even if Cade wasn't her alpha. "I thought all new latents were supposed to go to the Fielding house."
    He could hear the question lurking beneath little she-wolf's statement, could see it in the way her body twitched with a poorly concealed need. She wanted to know if the woman she had brought the clothes for was a latent whose scent marked her as Cade's mate.
    "My guest isn't a latent and you need to go now." He fought the urge to growl at the wolfling, knowing the energy running through his body was too confused by Iris's proximity for the sound to come out right. The way his day was going, his mate would exit the bathroom to find Joelle on her knees, ass bobbing in the air in supplication for Cade to take her if he risked another growl.
    The girl's delicate nose lifted to scent the room. "A regular human?"
    His right brow slowly rising as he breathed deeply, Cade shook his head. How could she not smell what Iris was? Did the silver mute it completely for another she-wolf? Maybe it was the water and soap covering Iris's lush body as she washed away the evidence of her dead partner?
    He wanted to tap Joelle's pert nose and ask the girl if it was defective. There was no missing Iris's scent. Even with the wolfling drenched between her thighs, all Cade could concentrate on was his mate's smell, the cloves and oranges, the sweet, deep odor of the heat that would let him put a pup in her as soon as he could get Iris to spread her legs for him.
    With the duffel as a barrier between them, he tried to steer Joelle out of his house.