Shifters Gone Alpha Read Online Free Page A

prefer it if you weren’t here.”
    “Too bad. I won’t live without you, Alice.” He strode to her and yanked her up by the arms. “You’re worth more to me,” he said through gritted teeth. “More than my blood line. More than my own life.”
    “You are worth a hundred of me!” she shouted. “You are the alpha. The pack needs you.”
    “The pack needs you, too. I need you .” He let go of her arms and stepped back. She saw his vulnerability then. “You are my strength, Alice. My heart. If I cannot have you, I will have no one. There is only one mate for me. You .”
    She understood now. Even if she let the Kunda take her, even if she sacrificed herself, he would not take another mate.
    “When the pack finds out I’m barren, you’ll be challenged. My family will be tormented, too, for my weakness. My flaw.” She sat down heavily on the couch. “If they had left me in the woods as a pup—”
    “You would’ve lived. You are too stubborn, too fierce, Alice. Your soul is like fire. And I need that. I need you.” His voice broke. He sucked in a breath. “I’m a better alpha with you, and the pack knows that. We are the strongest together. You bring balance to the pack—and to me.”
    That’s what he’d been telling her, showing her, and she’d been in too much pain, too afraid to understand the words, the actions. She and Jonas were two halves of a whole. He needed her as much as she needed him. Beyond everything—carrying on Jonas’s line, saving the pack—not wanting to be without him had driven her to desperation. To madness. She hadn’t considered that he wouldn’t want to live without her, either.
    “You’re shaking so hard I can hear your teeth chattering.”
    Alice blinked up at Jonas. Her cold, snow-soaked clothes had chilled her to the bone.
    He offered his hand, and she took it. He pulled her to her feet. “C’mon, let’s get you undressed.”
    “Yeah, I’ve heard that one before.”
    “Every time I get near you, I want you naked,” he said, but his tone was so grumpy he seemed more resentful than enamored. But hell, did she blame him? “I’ll run you a hot bath.” He waited until she looked at him again. He held her gaze, and she saw his pain, his fear, his anger. “Then we’ll talk.”

 
    Chapter Three
     
    Jonas stood watch at the window holding the AK-47. The winter storm had fizzled, though lazy snowflakes still drifted from the black sky. He’d turned off the porch light. The Kunda would return—the only question was when.
    He almost wished the ugly bastard would appear so he’d have something to do other than think about Alice. About her idiotic, moronic, self-sacrificing ass … he made a fist, the urge to punch something so strong his hand quivered. He understood why she’d done it. He did. But she hadn’t understood that he would not live without her. It would be like living without breath, without heartbeat.
    Had she really believed that she somehow loved him more than he loved her? Or that he would simply work through his grief until he could find a replacement wife with a working womb?
    He uncurled his fist and sucked in a ragged, harsh breath.
    After she’d finished her bath, they’d sat at the tiny table to dine on soup and crackers. There was too much silence between them.
    Now, while he stood watch at the window, Alice washed their dishes.
    Underneath the oversized shirt—one of his, he noted—he’d watched the seductive sway of her breasts. The rigid points of her nipples revealed she was either cold or thinking about him. Maybe she was just thinking about what he was capable of doing to her.
    He wanted her. Even now, as he returned his gaze to the snow-filled darkness and tried to keep his mind on business, his ears were tuned to her movements. He heard the patter of her socked feet on the hardwood floor. She stopped just behind him.
    He turned to face her and nearly lost his ability to breathe. She looked so small and vulnerable. He knew