Wolf Bite by Heather Long Read Free Book Online

opportunity, but I didn’t leave Willow Bend for you to keep taking care of me or making decisions for me. I’m an adult. I get to make choices for myself.” No matter how stupid I feel the morning after.
    “Alexis, we worry.” At least he included himself that time, and his growl tapered into a sigh. “I don’t like being out of reach if you need me. Protecting you—”
    “It’s what dominants do, I know.”
    “It’s what fathers do.” He corrected her and she bowed her head. Even from a thousand miles away, her father could still inspire her obedience.
    “I’m sorry. I should have called you last night, but truth be told—all I wanted was to come home, lick my wounds, eat some ice cream and sleep.” Seriously, all true. Having wild sex all night hadn’t been in her plans. She didn’t think it had been in Mason’s plans either. Maybe that’s why he left… Sure, he left because he was ashamed of their choices. Wolves were intensely sexual creatures; he had no reason to feel shame.
    She had simply been a way to scratch an itch, right?
    Yes, anger was better than hurt. She preferred it.
    “Did you get hurt?”
    “Yeah,” she admitted, conceding to his softening tone. “Skinned my knee.” Probably sprained my vagina, too, in an unrelated incident.  
    “Are you in pain today?” His voice dropped to a low note. It soothed and asked her to let him take care of her, even just a little bit. He’d done the same thing when she was little, when she’d begun to have nightmares about all the wolves eating her. He’d sat in the doorway to her bedroom every night and talked to her until she’d gone to sleep. In the morning, he’d still be there guarding her, keeping her safe. A few weeks later, he’d done it in his wolf form and the last of her nightmares had gone away.
    “Yeah, but no worse than when I slid on the gravel outside Me-maw’s house.” Ryan’s mother, her adopted grandmother, was a tough old lady. She’d taken one look at Alexis and decided they would be best friends. Friends meant she let Alexis make stupid mistakes, then patched her up afterward. It caused a fair number of arguments between mother and son—disagreements, amazingly enough, Ryan never won. Me-maw would always wink at her during the fight, then launch back into her son.
    Ryan growled a chuckle. “No, I will not call her so she can win your fight for you, but well-played.”
    That fact hadn’t actually occurred to her and she laughed. “Sorry, I really did mean it only as an example.”
    “I know. Mother would take your side though. She always does.” Thankfully, he didn’t sound too displeased by the idea. “You should take the day off. I’ll call Carter and square it away with him. Why don’t you take the rest of the week off? Go do something for yourself. Can you let me take care of this for you?”
    Translation—would she not fight him so he could feel she was still under his protection? “I would appreciate it. I think I’d like to clean the apartment, maybe go to a couple of the museums and explore Dallas. Between work and school, I don’t get to as much as I’d like.”
    “Then I’ll take care of it. You call me if anything else happens and I promise to at least consider letting you handle it yourself. Deal?” It was one hell of a concession and Alexis blinked back tears.
    “Thank you, Dad.” She sniffed.
    His voice sounded gruff. “Love you, kiddo. You come home and visit us soon.”
    For the first time since she’d left, she wanted to do it. “I will. Maybe in August, before school starts again.”
    When Ryan hung up, she swiped away tears. He’d let her win that argument. He wasn’t flying down to take charge and check on her. Letting him deal with her boss was a cop out in some ways, but then she didn’t have to lie either. Choosing the photos on her phone, she pulled up a picture of her family. Kyle wasn’t a little kid anymore. He was twelve and tough as nails.
    But still her baby