A Wolf of Her Own by Susanna Shore Read Free Book Online Page B

started breathing more easily after they reined in their energies, he felt relieved.
    "Vampires aren’t this overwhelmingly vibrant and pushy, are they?" he asked, and she smiled, her dimples deep. That delighted him, as if it was a personal achievement of sorts.
    "Never. We only flex our Might energy when we want to show off our strength."
    Kieran had been at the receiving end of such grandstanding, so he nodded. "Do you belong to a vampire community of some kind?" The only large gathering of vampires in and around Epsom was the Crimson Circle, but the vampire warriors couldn’t be said to represent average vampires.
    She shuddered. "Not if I can avoid it." Kieran lifted a questioning brow when she wouldn’t elaborate. "I don’t particularly like being a vampire."
    All eyes turned to Gemma in amazement. "You don’t?"
    "Would you?" she asked defensively.
    Kieran shook his head. "Well, no, I wouldn’t want to be a vampire. But I’ve never had anything against having been born a shifter."
    "You didn’t have a choice in the matter," she reminded him. "You knew early on that one day you would shift. I had the choice. I could have remained human."
    He knew that not all humans who carried the vampire variation of the two-natured gene became vampires, but he had never met anyone who wouldn’t have wanted to. "So why didn’t you?" Even as he asked the question he was glad that she hadn’t stayed human. They would never have met otherwise; she would have been long gone.
    She sighed. "It meant a lot to my father."
    The vet arrived, bringing the lunch and the conversation to an end. Andrew Farnham was outwardly in his early thirties, like most adult shifters. Tall and lean, he had the feline grace of his leopard in all his movements. His aura was out, the big cat watching them calmly from the high perch of his shoulder, regally ignoring the wolf auras that had come out to greet him. Kieran had always thought that a veterinarian was a curious occupation for a predatory shifter, but animals seemed to like him.
    The vet studied the carcasses closely and confirmed what they already knew. Wolf-shifters were to blame. He shook his head as he washed his hands afterwards. "I hope this is an isolated incident. There are some known cases of predatory shifters going feral, but they usually act alone, not in a group like this."
    "So you would say this was premeditated?" Jamie asked.
    "That would be my educated guess, yes. But don’t ask me why they would do it. Does your farm have enemies among wolves?"
    Gemma shook her head. "Not to my knowledge. Unless Tom’s taken to gambling and owes a bookie that is making his displeasure known." They all laughed, but her words stirred a memory Kieran couldn’t quite catch.
    "It’s nasty business, whatever the reason. And you’re right, we’d best keep this under wraps for now. There are some extremist groups among humans who don’t need this kind of fuel. I’ll write a death certificate that states the ewes died in lambing gone bad."
    "Will the authorities believe that three ewes would have a fatal labour at the same time?"
    Andrew brushed Kieran’s suspicions aside. "Yes. It’s not likely that one person checks all three forms. But just in case, I’ll add a note that bad weather contributed to the deaths." He opened a briefcase and took out the required forms and filled them. "That should take care of the formalities," he said, handing the forms to Gemma. "You can dispose of the carcasses now." He left and Jamie followed him out to walk him to his car.
    Gemma looked askance at the carcasses when she and Kieran were alone. "Do you need help with the … um … disposal?" The pink hue had disappeared from her cheeks and her face was drawn. She could barely stand up, the strength her anger had given her drained now the excitement was over. Unable to witness such distress, he put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to his warmth and energy. He would do the same for a clan member