Healed: True Mates Book 3 (Wolf Shifter) (A Craggstone Paranormal Romance) Read Online Free Page B

anymore.”
    “Bullshit!” a loud voice from the back called out.
     
     
    ***
    Tarq
    I scanned the crowd, searching for the unknown voice, my body tense and ready. Nobody was going to threaten Amanda, not on my watch.
    A tall man stood up, kicking his chair back, and scowled at us. He was broad through the shoulders and well-muscled. I pegged him to be in his late twenties.
    “I said, bullshit!” he repeated, glaring at us both.
    Amanda’s fingers twitched at her side, a downward flick—she didn’t want me to react. Well, fine. I could do that. Here I was, not reacting at all! But if I could kill with a look…
    The room had gone silent, waiting for the new Alpha’s reply.
    “Sure, bullshit,” she said clearly. “You might think that, and so might some of the others. Because you don’t know us, you don’t trust us. It’s up to me to show you that I deserve your trust. But don’t mistake that as weakness. I am your Alpha, and Tarq is your Beta. And we will make decisions for the good of the pack, which includes rooting out the bullshit . Now, sit back down, unless you have something useful to say.”
    I wanted to applaud her. She had dealt with the ignorant fool in just the right way, with a careful balance of strength tempered with approachability and fairness.
    I watched the man sit back down, his posture resentful. He would be one to watch.
    Amanda had continued to talk, and I tuned back in.
    “…and I want to meet with each of you individually, in confidence. Get to know you and hear your views, complaints and so on. The rest of you, while you are waiting, can enjoy the meal that Monica has prepared. Tarq, remind me to thank Monica later,” she hissed under her breath, and strode toward a door at the back of the room, one I had noticed earlier. The Alpha’s office, most likely.
    Closing the door behind us, I glanced around the room, noting the wood paneling on the walls, the heavy oak desk that dominated the center of the room. It looked like a gentlemen’s club. Heavy and oppressing.
    Amanda wrinkled her small nose in disgust as she, too, looked around the room. “This place definitely needs redecorating, and a woman’s touch,” she muttered, pulling out the chair behind the desk and sitting down.
    I watched her shove some papers over, flicking through, then piling them haphazardly out of the way. She was dwarfed by the massive desk, its size emphasizing her petite frame, her femininity jarring against all the gloomy dark wood.
    She sighed heavily, stacking yet another pile of papers on the growing mountain. “It will take me forever to go through these. What was Great-Uncle Col playing at, letting it get like this?”
    “He wasn’t playing, he was sick.”
    “I know he was, but he should have had someone deal with all this.” She waved a hand over the mess in exasperation.
    “He thought he had. Eric.”
    Amanda shuddered, her eyes sparking with anger. “Then he was a fool to not see Eric for what he really was—a sick, twisted bastard.”
    I strolled over to the desk, catching her hand in mine before she could knock the pile over in her agitation. “Agreed,” I murmured. Then added, “But what is done is done. The only way now is forward.”
    She blinked at me, then quickly pulled her hand from mine, her fingers sliding through against my palm in a swift caress.
    She nodded. “Forward. Can you send the first one in?” She leaned back in the chair, assuming a nonchalant pose.
    She had the balls for the job, I had to give her that. It was not an easy mantle to wear, the one of Alpha.
    “And where would you like me to be, during these discussions ?” I asked, heading over to the door.
    What she said next would be telling, and I held my breath.
    She hesitated, then answered, “Facing them with me. Your input could be useful.”
    “By your side?”
    She hesitated again, this time a fraction longer, and I could see her weighing her reply carefully.
    Good. It meant she was worried about