Earth's New Masters Read Online Free

albeit a poor one, and they’d still taken in a lost little girl.
    She’d stayed until she was old enough to make her own way. A Drakon couldn’t be at home in the pack forever, not when they needed to find their past, where they belonged. Blyth hadn’t liked it. He’d followed her, kept a distant eye on her and pleaded with her to come home.
    When she’d refused, he’d proceeded to join a local pack and set about cleaning it up. He made a name for himself. He saw it as his mission to change the way the world viewed his people.
    The surprising thing, she mused, was that it was working. He had made a different name for the MoonSkins. The wild wolves tamed, he spent years working through the packs, taking over the minor ones, then the larger ones, changing each as he went. He taught them control, to take command of their beast, not let the beast control them.
    Then, about six months ago, he’d challenged the leader of the most powerful wild pack in the region and won. When he’d taken over the Moon-Spun clan and become the Alpha of all the wolves for a hundred miles, she had been proud of him. She longed for him, and she worried about him when she thought he wouldn’t find out.
    She watched Erick from the corner of her eye. A good loyal man, he’d been with Blyth since the first, and she couldn’t think of a better person to replace her than him. She didn’t know how far Blyth planned to take it, but she had a feeling he wouldn’t be satisfied until he changed the general opinion that Wers were only good to be used as hired guns. Until Blyth, most packs encouraged little or no control. The Alphas clung to the beast side of their nature, they lingered lost in a half state of being, and the rest of the population used them. Blyth thought it was time they were better than that, that they could be better.
    ***
     
    She walked up to the manor, a tall brick building with sweeping arches and glinting windows, and felt a little overwhelmed at first. She'd spent little time in grand estates, and now that one of her oldest friends resided in such place it took her breath away.
    A lanky young Wer she didn’t know guarded the door. She went to move past him as he put his hand out, touching her on the shoulder.
    “You can’t come in here,” he said
    “Bullshit I can’t, Blyth’s expecting me,” she snarled, actually lifting her lip.
    He sneered, “Blyth doesn’t deal with filthy, outcast Drakons.”
    Without stopping to think, she knocked his arm aside and slammed him against the wall. She wasn’t even aware of what she’d done until she felt Erick’s cool hand on her neck. He whispered calming words she couldn’t quite make out. She let go.
    The young Wer turned around, his eyes down, his stance submissive. “I didn’t see you there, Sir.”
    Surprised he didn’t piss himself, she reevaluated Erick. Shrugging her shoulders, she brushed the thought aside and watched how this would play out.
    Erick didn’t say anything for a moment. “I wouldn’t let Blyth hear you speak of her that way if I were you,” he said, pushing past the younger man.
    Jinxi followed him without looking back at the Wer. She’d already forgotten him by the time she got into the main hall. Even though she’d not been here before, the place had a familiar feel to it. It had been several months since she’d seen Blyth, and then he’d come to her. Their friendship was an uneasy truce, the feelings too raw to deal with, but they were too close not to have some contact.
    The Pack leader stood at a window staring into the blankness of the night. He didn’t turn when she entered. Erick left them. She stood near him, reluctant to break the silence, enjoying his company before words spoiled it.
    He finally spoke. “You came.”
    “Did you expect anything else?”
    “No,” he replied.
    “So, are you going to tell me how you want to deal with this guy and what he looks like?” she asked.
    “He’s cunning and smart. He was second