Brandi by Donna McDonald Read Free Book Online

sleep and heal.
     
    This morning she sipped coffee as she watched Gareth still sleeping. It wasn’t something she had gotten to do much over the last couple of months. Normally he was awake long before her, but the concrete head bashing must have set his internal alarm clock back a bit, not to mention the time change from traveling.
     
    She became wary when he rolled to face her, but her wolf perked up and whined in welcome. Her loud sigh over her internal conflict was unpreventable.
     
    “Want some coffee?” she asked, pointing at her cup. “I promise not to put cyanide in it.”
     
    Grunting, Gareth reached out a hand. “Sure. Give me yours… just in case.”
     
    Gareth snorted in disbelief when Brandi looked longingly at her cup before handing it over. Surrendering her morning brain fuel was as close to an apology as he was likely ever going to get from her given the seriousness of her attack on him. His head was still throbbing, and under the pain, he was hurt and mad.
     
    Not that he blamed Brandi for what she did in retaliation for waking up strapped to another gurney. He just wondered why he’d woke up on her couch this morning. He was on guard now. She needed him for something or he wouldn’t be here.
     
    Balancing the half-empty cup, he rose to a sitting position and drank that first bracing sip. It tasted a bit like her, a fact that had him sighing in frustration. The more he was around Brandi—the more she was being imprinted on his senses. God only knew what fresh tortures would follow a true mating with the volatile she-wolf. If the spirits chose, he might actually start to hear her talking in his head. Mind speak hadn’t happened with his other mates, but the other two hadn’t been anything like the woman staring him down now. It was kind of alarming to know she’d just as soon kill him as have sex with him.
     
    “It’s early yet, but I’m glad you’re awake. Some kind soul left a partial can of coffee in the refrigerator and filters in the cabinet, but there’s no food in the apartment. We’ll have to stop to eat along the way to confronting my doom.”
     
    Hearing her familiar sarcasm, Gareth looked at her over the edge of the cup as he drank. “Are you going along with me willingly or will there be gunplay and bondage after breakfast?”
     
    Brandi shrugged. “No shooting at least. My gun is missing. I assume it was confiscated yesterday.”
     
    She studied him as she watched him enjoy the rest of her coffee. Her paltry few sips hadn’t been nearly enough to banish her restless night. Visions of sex with Gareth had haunted her dreams and made her feel genuine regret for her violence toward him.
     
    She must have woken twenty times or more to check on him, before she’d finally climbed from the bed this morning and gotten dressed.
     
    For the last thirty minutes, she had been willing him to open his eyes and prove he was okay.
     
    She’d also spent that time trying to figure out why she hadn’t killed him. Gareth’s death would have solved at least part of her problems. She could have taken out her betraying handler afterward and quietly disappeared. There were many places to hide in the world where no one would think to look for her. Fallon and Lars might have been ordered to retrieve her, but she had a feeling they wouldn’t have bothered to do so.
     
    But who was she trying to fool? She wouldn’t kill Gareth, or Lane, because she couldn’t run away from the shitty situation she was in. Her sense of self-preservation wasn’t larger than her concern for Ariel and Heidi.
     
    Gareth hadn’t just brought shit down on her head with his betrayal. He’d brought it down on her pack.
     
    Ariel might have what it took to elude Gareth’s department, but Heidi would be picked up before she knew what had happened to her. Heidi’s chances of thwarting men like Santiago… much less another insane Crane… well, they were nil.
     
    Never one to box with shadows, Brandi’s