Desired by Wolves [Call of the Wolf 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read Online Free Page A

knew that if they did the ceremony, Lena would have to give up her dream of being a veterinarian to be with her mates. There were no vet schools in driving distance of Harmony, and the mating bite wouldn’t allow her to live far from them. And he knew Lena. She wouldn’t let them give up their dream business, so she’d help them with Lupo’s but would always regret her own lost dream even though she’d never admit how much she missed it.
    And it would tie him to Harmony, too. If he was completely honest, he wasn’t ready for that either. He was the Alpha, but even with the mating ceremony, he could do as he pleased, but they’d be tied to him and wait as long as they had to, and he wasn’t that much of an asshole. He had things he needed to do away from Harmony, and he couldn’t leave Joe and Will in some kind of limbo and Lena mated to an absent Alpha.
    So he’d gone back. It wasn’t because he loved war, but he had men who depended on him. He was a good soldier, and he knew he could make a difference. He was fearless in battle and a good leader. There was one soldier in particular who drew him back. Craig had joined the unit six months before Alex went on leave. Craig wasn’t well suited to being a soldier. But he was a good kid, and Alex worried about him. Craig’s was the oldest in his family, and his salary was what let his widowed mother stay home to raise his younger sisters. He was determined to provide for them, but he had to stay alive to do that. He died while Alex was back home, but Alex didn’t find out until he was back overseas and had Lena and his brothers hating his guts for sneaking off while they were sleeping.
    Maybe he really was a coward. He’d wanted to make memories that could comfort him when he was in far-off war zones and give him inspiration to survive and come home, but that had been more selfishness on his part.
    He’d planned to tell them all this before he left, but when he saw them all sleeping so peacefully, he’d rationalized that it was easier to leave a note and just go without any messy scenes. He could face the enemy and guns and bombs and bullets, but he wasn’t man enough to face her expression when she found out that he wouldn’t mate her while he was a soldier and faced possible death on the field of battle.
    Some brave warrior he was. He felt like a fraud when he had to dress up and wear his medals. When he learned of Craig’s death, he’d accepted an offer from the Rangers and had thrown himself into his new training. The military called him a hero, but he knew that he was a coward and didn’t deserve a woman like Lena. And now, with his injuries, he didn’t even have the military to fall back on. They’d have given him a desk job, but he didn’t want that, so he came home to lick his wounds and figure out what to do with the rest of his life.
    Part of him wished he’d died. If he had, the three of them would have mourned him, but then his brothers would be able to have a full moon mating ceremony with Lena, and then the three of them could be happy together. But here Alex was fucking up everyone’s lives again. Maybe if he left town again, Lena, Joe and Will could have a happy life together, even if they could never truly be mated.
    But then he remembered what she looked like standing the lighted doorway of the clinic, holding Otis tight, and he knew he could never leave Harmony again, not while she was there. Even if he could never be with her again, he liked just being close to her and maybe, in time, he’d be able to see her again and not just lurk from a distance. He didn’t have any realistic hope that she’d ever want him again like she did before, but just to be near her again, in the same town, made him happier than he’d been in years. Maybe it could be enough?

Chapter Three
     
    Lena lived about ten minutes outside town in an old house built by her grandfathers right after they’d returned from WWII and settled in Harmony with the other