Winter (Rise of the Pride, Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

Winter could become weak and
eventually die if he wasn’t brought back into the pride after an
extended period of time.
    “No!” Liberty snarled, moving to Winter’s
side. “You will not go off on your own to find this
guy.”
    Winter cursed, knowing that Liberty’s order
was just as binding as Talon’s. His eyes flickered toward his
alpha. Talon nodded sadly, agreeing with his mate.
    “The pride will help you,” Talon stated, his
voice firm. “We do this together.”
    “Yes, sir,” Winter said in defeat. He knew
he couldn’t disobey. Even his panther sat back, relaxing when the
alpha gave the order.

    Nova’s body protested as she tried to roll
over on her side. Her head was fuzzy from sleep. She gasped when a
pain raced up her arm. Blinking to clear her head, she saw that she
wasn’t at home asleep in her bed. A machine beeped beside her head
and a calming scent invaded her mind as she tried to come fully
awake. A memory tickled her brain…something about Perry. God, why
was she so groggy?
    “Nova?” a deep voice greeted her. She
stiffened when she realized who was there with her. As soon as her
eyes opened, everything came rushing back.
    “A…am I going to be o…okay?” she asked
Winter. He was standing over her bed, his huge body shielding her
in a protective manner.
    “You’re going to be just fine, little one,”
he answered. His face was a hard mask as he attempted to smile to
ease her fears, but Nova knew she probably looked just as bad as
she felt.
    Guilt swamped her as her mind finally came
back online, remembering Winter arguing with her about going out
with Perry. “You were right.”
    “We are not even going to go there right
now,” Winter said, his words final. “You are going to focus on
getting better.”
    “Who found me?” she asked, trying to
remember anything she could after Perry started beating her. She
recalled the entire incident up until he punched her in the eye and
began choking her. “God, my throat hurts.”
    “Cole found you and called an ambulance to
get you to the hospital,” Winter began, but stopped when the door
opened. Sheriff Lynch entered, his notepad in hand.
    “Nova,” he said, then smiled. “We need to
get a statement from you.”
    “She just woke up,” Winter complained,
standing to his full height. “Can this not wait?”
    “Do you want us to find her attacker?” the
sheriff replied, glaring at the man who was standing over her bed
like he would throw himself in front of a bullet to save her. “Let
me do my job, Winter. After that, I will be on my way.”
    “I’ll talk to you and tell you everything I
know,” Nova stated, turning her face toward the big Guardian.
“Please, Winter?”
    “I’m not leaving,” Winter announced.
“Liberty has hired Shaw Security Specialist to help find him. It
would be best if I had all of the information as well.”
    “Fine, but if you find him,” Sheriff Lynch
warned, “he better not be dead.”
    “Not dead,” Winter said, but there was no
hint of a promise in his voice.
    “Okay, Nova,” he continued. “I need you to
tell me everything you remember.”
    “Perry picked me up around eight.” Tears
started leaking out of her swollen eye and she tried to wipe them
away, but more just replaced them. “We went to eat and after that,
he said he wanted to go back to my place. As we drove, he started
asking about the pride.”
    “What did he want to know?” Winter
interrupted, his fists balled up at his sides. Nova stiffened from
his anger, even though she told herself Winter was no threat. He
must’ve noticed her panic, because he relaxed, finally pulling a
chair up to her bedside. She didn’t continue until he was
seated.
    “He wanted to know how Liberty was doing and
then asked if I could show him where the pride lived.” She
swallowed. “I knew immediately that something wasn’t right. I told
him to head to my house and we could talk there.”
    “What happened when you got to your