Healing the Wolf (BBW Paranormal Romance) (Luna Junction) Read Online Free Page B

summer, culminating in the deaths of the Bellini alpha, Carmine , as well as the Luna Junction sheriff.  And also Anton Ivanov.  As winter descended all had been quiet.  Ominously so. 
    But my heart knew Javier was no threat, even as my blood wolf instincts were raised by his presence.  I smiled at him as he approached, brushing the snow from his dark hair. 
    “Where’s Tess?” 
    He jerked his head.  “Inside with Kate.”  
    Tess Ivanov was as headstrong as any Ivanov, perhaps more so.  When she had decided to mate with the rogue bitten wolf there had been no stopping her. 
    I turned the ignition off just as the door to the cabin opened.  Tess was radiant as she bounded out the door and landed lightly at her mate’s side.  I had worried for the youngest Ivanov girls; they were strange and naïve as a result of being kept so closely to Kate’s side. But Tess had adjusted nicely to her new role as mate.  Her usually taut belly was beginning to show the effects of impending motherhood. 
    The boys poured out of the truck and mobbed her.  While they fought for her attention Javier watched me soberly. 
    “How is he?”
    I bit my lip.  “The same.”
    He sighed.  “Is there anything we can do?”
    I shook my head.  “This battle belongs to Talon alone.” 
    He raised his eyebrows.  “Does it?”
    “What do you mean?”
    Javier glanced over to where Tess was being shepherded back to the cabin by my raucous sons.  His face softened.  “She wouldn’t let me fight alone.”  His gaze returned to me and he spoke quickly.  “You know of the, ah, challenges we faced.”
    “Yes,” I agreed.  “I mean, I can imagine.” 
    As a new bitten werewolf Javier had to learn how to control the animal within.  How to shift back and forth and be ruled by the mind rather than the wolf.  It was a tall chore. One that blood wolves, wolves who were born to shift when they came of age, couldn’t quite relate to. 
    He nodded again, choosing his words carefully.  “I don’t know what would become of me, had it not been for her.” 
    I stared at him squarely.  “You mean, Tess didn’t let you fight alone.  And somehow you believe I’m not doing right by Talon.”
    Javier winced.  “I didn’t mean for it to sound that way, Sheree.  I know how you’ve tried to bring him out and I know what a tough bastard he can be.”  He put a warm hand on my shoulder and looked into my eyes earnestly.  “All I’m saying is, it matters.  Having someone beside you.”  He removed his hand and started to walk back to where he had left his rope, glancing back once with a wry grin. “Don’t stop trying.”
    With a heavy sigh I followed Tess and the boys into the cabin.  Seth was climbing all over Amelia and she laughed, picking him up and twirling him around.  She was the only one of Kate Ivanov ’s seven children who had not mated and remained at home.  She was a year older than Tess and though she had always seemed to cower under her mother’s thumb, she had proven her mettle when it counted.  Amelia had bravely defended her sister, standing between Tess and the threatening Casteel cousins who were bloodthirsty enough to deliver vengeance upon any bitten wolf and his mate. 
    Amelia tickled Seth and he rolled ont o the floor, his face flushed.  Amelia smiled at me shyly.  We had never been close, but I felt for the girl.  She had a lonely life here in the woods with her mother, especially now that her younger sister had mated.
    Kate Ivanov herself stood coolly in a corner and watched her children and grandchildren.  She had taken it as a personal affront when Amy chose to return nor th with the Chevaliers, taking Anton’s children with her.  Though she was a slight woman, Kate had always loomed larger than life.  A rare female alpha of a fabled werewolf family, with her powerful sons at her side she was a force to be reckoned with. 
    But one son was gone.  And the other, the one who was meant