ROMANCE: Highland Bear Love : A BBW Paranormal Historical Billionaire Romance (Fantasy Alpha Male Shape Shifter Short Stories) Read Online Free

most unwholesome ways. He owned a real estate enterprise, but most of his earnings came from laundering, brutality, and other illegal means.
                  “Kendell must owe him money,” Dermott reasoned, beginning to realize that she hadn’t been completely truthful with him, probably too ashamed to admit why the wolves were after her.
                  Mary hesitated. “It’s not about money, Dermott. That girl – she’s not who she makes herself out to be.”
                  “What do you mean?”
                  “She’s involved with Freddie. Or at least, she used to be. I don’t know all the details, just that they’re connected.”
                  Dermott tensed, his body taut. “They’re lovers?”
                  “I believe so. Or they used to be.”
                  He refused to believe it. “Then why are they chasing her?”
                  “Maybe she stole something from him. Or maybe she found something out she wasn’t supposed to. I don’t know. Like I said, I don’t know all the details, just that they’re connected. She’s no damsel in distress. She’s involved in his corruption.”
                  Dermott looked out the window. A summer rain began to fall, casting rainbows over the lake, but all he could feel was betrayal. He could forgive a lie said out of shame, but this went far beyond a mere lie. She was involved in something serious. He judged her for her connection to Freddie, but that was not where his hurt lies. It was in the deceit. And the knowledge that she didn’t trust him enough to be honest.
                  “I need to go,” he said. “Thanks.”
                  He hung up and stormed down the hallway to his bedroom. He wanted answers. Earlier, he was convinced she was his mate, but now he wasn’t so sure. He had to know what was really going on. Not wanting to scare her, though it would have been within his right, he calmed himself outside his bedroom door, steadying his rage, and then he opened it, ready to confront Kendell.
                  There was no opportunity to do so. She was gone, her absence speaking volumes of her guilt.
     
    ***
     
    Kendell
     
                  Dermott knew.
    Kendell had followed him out of the bedroom to the study, ready to jump on him again, eager for more of the spice he’d served her the night before. Then she’d overhead his phone conversation. She didn’t know what the other person on the line had been saying, but clearly it was about Freddie.
    And so she went back to the room to dress, and then she ran, unable to confront him with her betrayal. The rain poured around her, slowing her down as she headed for the main road. She feared that Dermott followed her. Equally, she feared that he didn’t. Reaching the main road, she tried to hitch a ride, her frustration growing with every car that passed her by.
    As always, Freddie was ruining her life. It was soul shattering. She hadn’t wanted it. She hadn’t wanted any of it. All she wanted was for Freddie to leave her alone.
                  When Kendell was a teenager, she’d spent a lot of time with her cousin Derek – a wolf shifter. They were close. They always had been. She was an only child and most of Derek’s siblings were much older, so they had become like siblings.
    Hanging out with Derek meant spending time with his friend Freddie, also a wolf shifter. Freddie was Kendell’s least favorite thing about her time with her cousin. Freddie was always there, leering at her, trying to win her over. To honor her cousin, she was respectful to Freddie, but she never gave him what he wanted. She never gave him her.
    After high school ended, Derek moved out of state to attend college, leaving Kendell alone in the city. Thankfully, Freddie seemed to disappear too. Where, she neither cared nor asked. It was a