Caged Wolf (Wolves of Willow Bend Book 2) by Heather Long Read Free Book Online Page A

sitting at the water’s edge, staring up at the moon. The location had been beautiful, heart wrenchingly so, and utterly remote. Medication had helped. Getting some semblance of control over her life had, too. She’d thrown every ounce of her energy into freeing A.J. and the episodes became fewer, and farther in between.
    So, it makes sense I’m having one now. He’s free, but all the stress is still there… The idea brought a semblance of comfort with it. “Okay, need to find my keys, go back to the apartment and finish packing.” A plan. She needed one, she had one, and she could do this.
    After splashing some water on her face, she abandoned the bathroom. The front room turned out to be as sparsely decorated as the bedroom she’d been in. The rough-hewn construction of the cabin gave it a quaint, Little House on the Prairie vibe while at the same time the fabrics and furniture style spoke of hand-crafted luxury.
    I really hope I didn’t blow my savings on the hotel fee. She could find neither her purse nor her keys in the living room. She had no suitcase, either. Maybe she’d left all of those items in the car during her kidnap delusion. Her heart fisted in her chest and she swallowed, trying to ease the lump in her throat. A delusion was better than reality, right?
    A.J. wasn’t human, nor were his brothers, brutal truths she’d learned one bloody night. So not being taken by their people should be a good alternative, but if she had manufactured it all—then A.J. hadn’t been in the doorway. He hadn’t been trying to reach her.
    She wouldn’t see him again. God, let it go. Seriously, Vivian. Say nothing. Don’t even think about it, don’t focus on it, escape the harsh truth. Opening the front door, she stepped out into the dappled sunlight and drew in a breath of fresh air. Real, clean air, perfumed with pine, woods, and grass. Closing her eyes, she tilted her face up to the sunshine. Regret threaded through her. It was almost a pity she would need to leave wherever the hell this was. The cabin was nice and the quiet…
    “Vivian.” The bubble around her wobbled.
    Squeezing her eyes tighter, she tried to ignore the frenetic thud of her heart. He’s not here, remember? It’s wishful thinking.  
    “Are you all right?” The years had ground his voice down to sandpaper roughness. Hollowed out by the need to make her fantasy a reality, she tried to breathe around the emotion clogging her throat.
    “You’re not real.” Maybe if she told the delusion, it would stop. The first step in mental health was to accept her reality. Wasn’t that what Nathanial had told her? She escaped into these fugues because she didn’t want to believe the unfairness of her life. They were symptoms of her overall condition. “You’re not real. I’m going to open my eyes and you won’t be there.”
    A hand cupped her cheek and she jerked her eyes open. A.J. stood inches away, his dark blue eyes clouded with concern. This near, she couldn’t miss the deep grooves around his eyes and mouth. The gauntness of his face stretched too tight against his bone structure. Her cheek tingled beneath the light touch of his fingers.
    “You’re not real,” she said, but she wasn’t so sure this time. Hadn’t she just wanted her delusion to be true? It had never been so crystal clear before. Except for the part when the woman grabbed me…  
    “I feel that way sometimes.” He curled his fingers, retreating from the contact. Bereft from his abandonment, she almost sighed when he brushed his knuckles down her cheek. “You had a cut here, when I first saw you. A slice that bled. This,” he traced a line beneath her eye, “was swollen. Promised to be puffier and dark.”
    “A.J.?” Torn between wanting to be in the moment and for the delusion to let her go, she stretched her hand toward him. Still, she hesitated. “Why am I doing this to myself? You’re not real.”
    His eyebrows drew together in a frown. Capturing her hand,