Crying Wolf (Black River Pack Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

other men. That was a lesson I was slowly learning.
    Since my arrival in Wolf’s Pointe, I had studied Hunter just as closely as he seemed to watch me. Worried that my taste in men was horrible, I looked for signs that he would hurt me if I allowed myself to get involved with him. On the surface, Sam should have been the perfect boyfriend. He was charming, good-looking in the all-American boy-next-door kind of way, and a police officer. He should have been a safe choice. Someone who would protect the woman he loved.
    In contrast, Hunter seemed dangerous. He was often surly, had the dark looks of the bad boy mothers warned their daughters about, and owned a bar. Many women would expect him to be the kind of man who would leave a string of broken-hearted women behind him.
    What I found was the exact opposite. People trusted Hunter. At least one person came to him with a problem every day, and I never saw him turn them away. It didn’t matter how busy we were or how tired he appeared. He always made time when someone needed him. If I had been paying the same kind of attention to Sam back when I had met him, maybe I would have noticed that he never really seemed interested in anyone else’s troubles unless he benefitted in some way from helping him. Meanwhile, from what I had observed so far, Hunter worked endlessly to improve the lives of those around him without expecting anything in return.
    By the time I made it back to the motel, I’d bounced back and forth in my head with what I should do about Hunter. My resolve was weakening, and sooner or later, I would give in to the desire between us.
    Maybe I was just delaying the inevitable, I mused as I unlocked the door to my room. I was distracted enough that I almost missed the sign that someone had been in my room while I was out. I’d learned to be cautious during the months I’d been running from Sam, and one of those tricks was marking the door of my hotel rooms. The tape I’d left on the doorframe when I left for work was disturbed even though the staff knew not to clean my room while I was out. I slowly backed out as I realized that it could very well mean Sam had found me.
    Walking down the stairwell and up to the check-in desk, I tried to stop myself from panicking. There could be a perfectly innocent explanation. Just because someone had been in my room didn’t mean that the person was Sam.
    The same girl who’d checked me in was working tonight. She worked most nightshifts, so we’d gotten to know each other a little.
    “Heather, do you know if housekeeping was in my room while I was out?” I asked her while glancing around to make sure I didn’t see anything suspicious.
    “No way, Grace,” she replied. “We don’t have many rooms in use right now, so they were done before my shift even started. Why? Did you need more towels or something? I can grab them for you.”
    My heart dropped at her words. I could think of no reason why anyone else would be in my room. Which meant Sam really could have found me. I shook my head wildly, and Heather was looking at me strangely. I couldn’t seem to get any air in my lungs.
    “Grace,” Heather said as she quickly came around the counter and nudged me into a chair. Her hands pushed on my back until my head was between my knees and I was gasping for air. “Take deep, slow breaths. Whatever’s going on, it’s going to be okay.”
    When I finally lifted my head, I noticed that she was holding her cell phone in her hands and typing out a message.
    “I’m sorry for scaring you,” I whispered since she was looking at me with a furrowed brow and her lips tilted down in a frown.
    “No worries as long as you’re okay,” she reassured me.
    Breathing deeply, I pushed up and out of the chair and swayed for a moment as I saw spots. “I need to go.”
    “No, you need to sit back down before you pass out,” she disagreed. “Besides, Hunter will be pissed at me if you’re gone when he gets here. You don’t want to