Forever (Shifter Island Book 3) Read Online Free

wasn’t comforting her. Wasn’t offering her a handkerchief, or helping her get to her feet. He was disgusted with her.
    She didn’t look up, but some part of her was aware that he’d walked away, that he was headed back down to the dock so the old man could take him back to Dolphin Cove. Once he was back home, he’d turn all this into a story he could tell his buddies over beers, she was sure—that he’d somehow hooked up with a crazy woman who’d run away from a very expensive weekend at a five-star island resort to live in a shack with a hermit.
    Maybe he’d go a step further and say that all women were crazy, particularly one week a month.
    There was a knot in the middle of her gut that felt like a black hole, like it was going to suck her right through to another universe.
    That might be a good thing, if there was no Lane there.
    “Abby.”
    She couldn’t face Aaron, not like this. She was practically sitting in a pool of puke.
    He didn’t give her the option.
    One moment he was there beside her, and the next he had gathered her up into his arms. Her shoes slipped off as he lifted her, and she fumbled for them, but he held her tight against his chest and said close to her ear, “Leave them. They’re worthless anyway.”
    Then he carried her into their cabin and laid her down on the bed.

Five
     
    “Rest a while,” Aaron said. “I’ll make sure he’s gone.”
    He straightened up, ready to chase down the man who’d reduced his mate to such a mess, but Abby grabbed his arm and held on with fingers that dug deep into his flesh. There was a desperate look in her eyes that made her look like terrified prey.
    “Don’t,” she rasped. “Just let him go.”
    “He may not—”
    “He won’t stay. I’ve embarrassed him in front of other people. He won’t want anything more to do with me. I can’t… I can’t believe he’s been looking for me for this long.”
    During his brief time on the mainland, Aaron had picked up a number of the colorful terms humans used to describe each other when they were angry, or ashamed, or scared. Some of them, he’d been told, were words that weren’t used in polite company, or in front of children—powerful words, used like weapons, but none of them were strong enough to describe how he felt about this man Lane.
    It took him a minute to give in to Abby’s request, to convince the wolf that they shouldn’t run the man to ground and make him sorry he’d ever come here. He thought he understood how Micah had felt a few days ago: enraged enough to kill. The wolf was certainly ready to do that, and he thought Abby might see it in his eyes, so he turned away from her a little and focused on slowing down his thundering heart.
    “You thought you were worthy of that kind of disrespect?” he asked her when he was sure he could speak normally.
    “It’s hard to explain.”
    “We address enemies that way. Not a mate. Never a mate.”
    Now it was her turn to look away.
    He couldn’t imagine what her life must have been like, what kind of upbringing she must have had to teach her that she needed to endure—and even accept—Lane’s criticism and disdain. Then he remembered her telling him that her father had been critical and controlling, and the word cruel slipped into his mind.
    “Has no one told you how precious you are?” he asked softly.
    Her head wobbled, and she rubbed her face with the back of her hand. “My mother,” she muttered. “But she’s been gone a long time.”
    “Does that erase what she told you?”
    Again, Abby’s head quivered.
    “You are unique in the world,” he told her firmly. “You were born for good reason, and that reason is not to serve as the victim of someone else’s shortcomings.” Shaking his head, he wiped away the tears that had begun to slide down her cheeks. “You’re strong,” he said. “I’ve seen you be strong. Yet with him you’re weak and cowering. You should not be. You should not surrender to him.”
    For a