Beloved Wolf Read Online Free Page A

Meredith another child.
    Was that when Meredith had begun to turn away from him?
    No, that wasn’t it, and Joe knew it. Meredith had stuck with him day and night, even when he was being a selfish, self-pitying jackass.
    And it had been Meredith who had finally convinced him that there were many, many children who needed loving homes, many children they could help, who could help them, for Joe and Meredith still had so much love to give.
    Joe smiled slightly as he remembered how Meredith had jumped in with both feet, taking on the mosttroubled children at the Hopechest Ranch, opening their house and her loving arms to Chance, to Tripp, to Rebecca, to Wyatt. To Blake, to River, and to Emily. To Joe Junior, the infant who had been literally left on their doorstep.
    Emily. Joe’s thoughts, which had begun to ease, now plunged him back into despair. Because the life he and Meredith had lost when Michael died, the one they’d rebuilt together—not a better life, surely, but a different one, a fulfilling one—had shattered again nine years ago, not six months after Joe Junior had come into their lives, on the day Meredith had driven the then eleven-year-old Emily into town for a visit with her natural grandmother.
    Yes. That had been the day the light had forever gone out of Joe’s life, out of the Colton family.
    It was a small accident with the car, although there were never any small accidents. Each took its own toll. This particular one had taken Meredith from him, his beloved Meredith. Not in death, but in a head injury that had changed her in some way.
    Emily had said her “good mommy” had been replaced by an “evil mommy.” That was, of course, too simplistic, although even the doctors who had treated Meredith were at a loss as to why her personality had undergone such a dramatic change after the accident.
    Change? No, that was too mundane a word to explain what had happened to Meredith. His sweet, loving wife, the concerned mother, had been taken from them, to be replaced by a woman who cared only for Joe Junior, a woman who ignored her other children,a woman who positively despised and shunned Emily. A woman who had turned hard, and selfish, and grasping. A woman who had dared to present him with her pregnancy a year after the accident and insist he was the father.
    They’d separated then, for long months, but Joe had finally relented, let her come home, even claimed the child, Teddy, as his own.
    But nothing was the same. Nothing would ever be the same again.
    â€œDad?”
    Joe leaned closer to Sophie, who was looking up at him with Meredith’s beautiful brown eyes. “Yes, baby?” Now that she was recovering, she didn’t call him Daddy anymore. But she was still his baby.
    â€œDid Mom call you back yet? Is she coming?”
    Joe felt a stab straight to his heart. “No, baby, your mom couldn’t be here. She’s at home, taking care of Joe Junior and Teddy.”
    â€œOh,” Sophie said, disappointment dimming her eyes. “But she is coming soon, isn’t she? It’s been a week, Dad.”
    â€œShhh, baby, don’t talk too much,” Joe said, stroking Sophie’s hair. “You need to rest now. You rest and get strong, and soon we’ll be able to go to the ranch and see everybody. All right?”
    â€œShe’s not coming, is she?” Sophie looked up at her father, willing him to answer. “Is she, Dad?”
    â€œYou know how she doesn’t like to leave Teddy—”
    Sophie held up a hand, wordlessly begging her father not to make excuses for her mother. “Teddy’seight years old, Dad. Surely she could leave him for two or three days to visit me. There are plenty of people on the ranch who would take care of him. Oh, never mind. Why should I think things would be any different now than they have been for almost the last decade? You know, Dad, there are times when I feel this overwhelming urge