Elder: Reckless Desires (Norseton Wolves #6) Read Online Free Page A

fresh out of give-a-damn.
    Or maybe he’s only alluring to wolves.
    She had no idea how natural wolf attraction was supposed to work. Her marriage hadn’t been a love match. She’d been taken to her late husband when she’d turned eighteen. He’d bitten her and, though his bite, added the enzymes to her body that made her able to shapeshift. She was a born wolf—everyone in her family was, going back hundreds of years—but female wolves couldn’t shapeshift until they’d received their mates’ bites. There was some evolutionary explanation of it that had always eluded her, but she did know that because of his bite, she’d be wearing the man’s scent for the rest of her life. She was used goods.
    “I think a cheeseburger sounds good, too,” Nixon said, “but make mine a double. Swap out the fries for chips, would ya? And bring us a pot of coffee, and milk for the kids, please.”
    Please. He said please.
    “Yep.” The waitress sidled away, taking the menus with her.
    Esther dug in her purse looking for something— anything —that would keep the kids engaged while their meals were being prepared. She found some scraps of paper and a nearly dry blue pen for Darla, and slid her phone over to Kevin. There were a couple of games on it he could play.
    Then she stared at her placemat, trying her damnedest not to meet Nixon’s too-curious stare. She could feel his gaze boring into the top of her head. She was used to that—of looking away and always having her head down. Eye contact was a dangerous prospect.
    “Did you run?” Nixon whispered. “Or were you allowed to leave?”
    “Allowed to.”
    “You don’t think your alpha’ll change his mind?”
    “He’s been known to be fickle, but—I can’t say. I didn’t tell anyone except my mother where in particular I was heading.”
    Her mother knew everything. She knew Esther had facilitated Michael’s fall. She knew how he got violent when he was drunk, and sometimes even when he wasn’t. Esther had tried to love him— really tried, for the sake of the kids—but Michael was too much a product of his upbringing. He would have never changed. His behavior was typical of men in the pack, and was celebrated for its normalcy.
    Idly, she raised a hand to the scar runnels on her chest and ground her teeth.
    “So, you left before your alpha could change his mind and find a new household to put you in.”
    She nodded.
    “Pretty sure Adam will get you set up in your own place. No roommates, unless you want one.” Nixon chuckled, but Esther was strung too tight to laugh.
    She wished she could laugh.
    “What kind of wolf are you?” Kevin asked.
    Esther pinched the bridge of her nose again. She risked a look up and found Nixon grinning.
    “Bit of this and that. No particular kind. Not like your ma and uncle.”
    “I’ve never met Uncle Anton. Grandma misses him a whole lot, though.”
    Nixon nodded. “I bet she does. I’m sure my ma misses me a little, too.”
    “Daddy was different.” Kevin stuck the tip of his tongue out of the side of his pressed lips and tapped away on his phone screen.
    “Different?”
    “Not the same kind of wolf.”
    “Oh. That’s ’cause your old pack took in a bunch of wolves like your ma a long time ago.”
    And then kicked out all our strong boys.
    She’d missed her brother terribly growing up. She worried about him. Expelled wolves didn’t tend to last long on their own, but Anton had Uncle Adam with him and Aunt Lilith. They, of anyone, would have cared for him as if he were their own. In the end, he’d probably been better off than she’d been.
    “Daddy said we were little mutts.”
    Gods, Kevin. Esther didn’t bother giving him a pinch that time, because Kevin seemed to be intent on running his mouth to the stranger across from him no matter what she did, and she was too damned curious about how Nixon would react.
    “Nothing wrong with being a mutt.” Nixon’s voice was more growl than bass. Annoyed, but not at