Bound by Fate (Moon Bound Series Book 1) by Mandy Lou Dowson Read Free Book Online Page B

said and done.  And he was her claim to pack-life.  If her Den Father turned her out, she doubted anyone would take pity on her enough to take her in.  Not knowing the trouble she’d brought to David.
    “ None of your sniveling, girl,” came the bitter demand from behind her.  Beth twisted in her seat to face Bea.  She hadn’t even heard her re-enter the house, so lost in thought and self-pity had she been.  “You are under house arrest until and unless we decide otherwise.” Satisfaction gleamed in her ice-blue eyes, her thin lips framing the words with relish.  “You will not leave the confines of this Den House.  You will not speak with anyone from outside.  And you will not allow anyone entry.  Is that understood?” she snapped.
    “ Yes, Den Mother,” Beth had replied, accepting her punishment, knowing she deserved it and far worse.  If only they knew what really happened, she thought dejectedly.  There wouldn’t be a Den House in the pack open to me, then.
    “ And put some clothes on while you’re about it!”
    “ Yes, Den Mother.”
     
    She fluffed her pillow for the fourth time, trying unsuccessfully to get into the book she’d borrowed from David’s collection.  It was useless; she just kept replaying the events of that morning over and over in her head.  There was definitely something she’d missed.  What is it?  
    Three days now, she’d been trying to figure it out, and it was driving her to distraction.
    A soft rap on her bedroom door interrupted her reverie and she sighed, closing the un-read book.  “May I come in?”
    “ Yes, Den Father, of course.”
    David had been to check on her three or four times each day, no doubt expecting her to have flown out the window to freedom.  No chance of that, however, she had promised to play by the rules, no matter how hard.  Even though her mind buzzed with the incessant call of the pack, allowing her to overhear normally private musings.  This was the part she needed to get away from. 
    How the other purebred women coped, she didn’t know.  Could they choose to ignore the meaningless ramblings of someone else’s mind?  Or were they too, prone to flights of freedom from time to time?
    “ How are you getting on?”  David settled himself on the edge of her bed, looking anywhere but at her.  His hair hung over one eye and he shoved it roughly behind his ear. 
    “ Fine,” she replied.  It was a lie, and he would smell it, but she doubted he wanted to hear the truth of the matter.
    “ Have you,” he cleared his throat awkwardly.  “Have you anything you need to tell me?”  He did look at her then, his face so open and sympathetic that she found herself pouring her worries out of lips that would no longer stay closed.  She was driven to distraction by the call of the pack.  She felt cooped up, caged, and out of sorts like she was missing part of herself, and she was bored to tears!  She told him all this, and more.  Drawing each woe out so as to offer him the maximum insight into her mind.
    “ Missing something?” he questioned carefully.  “Missing what?”
    “ I don’t know!” she countered, exasperated.  How could she explain a feeling?  “I just know that being under house arrest doesn’t agree with me, but I daren’t leave for fear of bringing you any further trouble or disgrace!”
    “ So you do know,” he whispered, mouth pulled into a frown.  “This complicates things.”
    “ What?  What things does it complicate?”  How could he think she didn’t know the shame she brought on not only her own Den Family, but the Den Families of all who had been assigned as her Guardian in recent times.  She had ditched them all, leaving them in her wake, eating her dust, laughing and mocking them, never realizing until recently the embarrassment involved in reporting to her Den Father that they had failed him.  Guardians were not supposed to fail in their job, which was why they were Guardians. 
    “