Fated To The Alpha: A Paranormal Shifter Romance Read Online Free Page B

have one.  “Nowhere, I guess.”
     
    He shrugged, and gestured to the ground beneath my feet.  “Right here seems like a good enough place.  I’m here, if you need someone to listen.”
     
    Suddenly I wasn’t sure what to make of the man in front of me.  “What’s your name?” I asked him.
     
    “Jeremy,” he said.  “Yours?”
     
    Hesitantly I answered, “Evelyn.”
     
    “That’s pretty,” he said.  The step he took then was the first time I actually noticed him moving closer to me.  It was only at that point that I realized he had been slowly coming closer to me the whole time.
     
    A howl rang out in the distance behind me.  Immediately I recognized the voice.  It was Leon calling for me.  “Oh shit, that’s my alpha,” I said.  “I’ve got to go!”
     
    He shrugged.  “All right.  If that’s where you really want to be… I’ll leave you to him.”  He turned around to start walking away.  “Who am I to stand in your way?”
     
    “Wait!” I said, holding a hand out to him. He turned to look at me… and I paused, not certain I really should say what I wanted to him.  After a few seconds, say it I did. 
     
    “Can I see you again?”
     
    His mouth curled into a smile.  “I don’t see why not, if you don’t.  Come back here tomorrow night?”
     
    “I can sneak out after midnight,” I offered.
     
    “Works for me.”
     
    Almost against my own volition, I caught a smile cracking across my face.
     
    “See you then,” he said, before shifting to his four-legged form and loping off into the brush.
     
    I stood there staring after him, until I heard Leon call for me again.  I came back to reality then, and turned and shifted back to my four-legged form to go rejoin my pack.
     
    *
    Most of the pack was just getting back to the village by the time I returned.  My pack brothers and sisters were returning to their two-legged shapes and busily retrieving their clothes when I emerged from the trees.
     
    Leon had already redressed when I found him, and he stepped up to me.  “There you are!” he said.  “Where did you disappear to?”
     
    I shifted to my two-legged form again, and carefully met his gaze.  “Well, I… I just…. ran off somewhere else.  I got a little lost and… had to find my way back.”
     
    After I met a Morgandorf wolf and agreed to meet him again tomorrow.   Yeah, things wouldn’t be pretty if he knew that part.
     
    “Why didn’t you join us for the hunt?” he asked.  “This was our first howl with you as my betrothed, and you were nowhere to be found!”
     
    I wondered if he could sense my nervousness.  “I just wasn’t hungry for deer,” I shrugged.
     
    He cocked his head, studying me.  I bit my lip, unable to guess what he was thinking.  “All right then,” he said, “what are you hungry for?”
     
    “What?”
     
    “If you’re going to be my wife, I have to make sure you’re taken care of, and that means keeping you fed, don’t you think?  I have plenty of food to offer you.  It’s the least I can do.”
     
    “Um… thanks, but I’m not really hungry now.”  I started walking past him to find my clothes.
     
    Leon reached out and took hold of my arm to stop me.  “Oh, don’t be coy,” he said.  “You have to eat something.  The last thing I want is for you to starve yourself out of jitters.”
     
    As lightly as I could, I pushed his hand away from my arm.  “Really, it’s okay.  I’ll get something to eat at home, don’t worry about me.”
     
    When I again attempted to go for my clothes, he suddenly moved in front of me, blocking my path.  “Is there something wrong?  You seem bothered.”
     
    Well, he wasn’t wrong, especially at that point.  I was beginning to lose my patience with him.  “I just want to be alone right now,” I finally said.  “Please.”
     
    This time when I went to retrieve my clothes, he didn’t try to stop me.  I got dressed and headed back to my