Awakening (Kiss of the Jaguar Series Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

to the stove was her aunt Loraine.
     
    “Can I help?” Alesha offered with a smile.
     
    “Um, sure,” Loraine smiled back. “Set the table please. Breakfast is just about done.”
     
    Alesha did, then poured juice in the glasses, took the biscuits and gravy from her aunt and placed it on the table along with a large bowl of scrambled eggs. When the rest of the family showed up, her aunt had just finished grilling up steaks and had them going on the plates as everyone sat down.
     
    “Where’s Chloe?” Garek asked the moment he sat down.
     
    “Don’t know,” Loraine answered. “She left before the sun was up.”
     
    Garek scowled. “That girl is going to get into trouble if she doesn’t stop.”
     
    “She’s trying Garek.”
     
    Garek slammed his hand down hard on the table, rattling everything. “She’s turning herself into a whore! No male is going to want to breed with her if she makes it easy to get.” Silence spread out in the room and he took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. You two don’t need to have to worry about this stuff when you have other things to deal with.”
     
    “How long has she been going out?” Ashley asked him.
     
    “Almost a month,” he picked up the eggs, put a large amount on his plate then handed it off to Alesha. “I think she is hoping Devanta’s son will pick her. He has tamed down a lot the past few months, but he used to be trying them all out for a while. There’s talk he might be going imp now and won’t be able to breed.”
     
    Ashley gasped, “You don’t believe that, do you?”
     
    “He hasn’t been screwing around like he used to,” Garek stated. “And he isn’t going to pick her either. She needs to stop this crap and let the male hunt for her, not her hunting one down. It isn’t right.”
     
    “You mean the girls here don’t ask the guys out?” Alesha asked.
     
    Everyone at the table stopped what they were doing and looked at her.
     
    “They’re jags girl,” Garek stated. “The males hunt, not the females.”
     
    “I don’t understand,” Alesha said.
     
    “Thought you explained how things were here,” Garek said to Ashley.
     
    “I have, but you’ve got to keep in mind, humans do things differently. Girls do ask guys out and stuff.”
     
    “What she means is,” Alesha added. “Is that not all of us are stuck in the Stone Age.”
     
    “Alesha!” Ashley snapped.
     
    “I’m sorry,” Alesha quickly said.
     
    “It’s alright,” Garek stated. “Going to take time and adjusting for us all here. She was raised differently. I understand. But what you don’t get girl is the alpha is it here. You can think of me as king if you want. What I say goes within this family, and we live within our family domain, so everyone respects my wishes and I protect all of us in return.”
     
    “And your own feelings don’t matter?” Alesha asked. “What happens if someone challenges you?”
     
    Once more, the room went very quiet. Garek ended it by saying: “If I’m challenged then between the two, one will die. And since there are no males born to me, our family would assimilate into the winning alpha’s family. It’s our way.”
     
    The rest of the day was spent unpacking. After getting all of her clothes put away, she worked on deciding what to wear for this meeting tonight. To come face to face with the guy who would offer Garek backup for mother coming home baffled her. Why would she and her mother need extra protection? After all, this is the twenty-first century. Buy a gun.
     
    She kept her hair braided. Light amount of make-up. A simple cream color dress with thick straps on the shoulders and sandals on her feet and she was ready for this meeting, of sorts. At first her mother wanted to walk to the house, but because of a threat of rain the decision was made to take the car. Alesha was glad about that. The Devanta home was more than a mile and a half from her uncle’s house, which meant it would be a long