Dangerous by D.L. Jackson Read Free Book Online

supply truck used, but able to go into the Springs, should she need to go shopping. And the sled, well, it came in handy when the South Dakota winters buried her car and she needed to get to her office. Neither would be necessary if she had a place in Los Lobos. But that would never happen.
    Liv argued her security lights and alarms were a necessary evil she couldn’t live without. Running her house on generators all the time would get expensive, so she’d opted to live outside Hot Springs, on the grid, despite their generous invitation. She didn’t feel comfortable about the idea of living in Los Lobos.
    She had no reason to take up residence with the Wolves, and never would. She only had an office there because Drew thought she could help, she knew about the Wolves, and she believed she would make a difference. Maybe, just maybe on the off chance by hanging around shifters, she could find her coyote again. She kept the last bit to herself. No sense in letting them know what a failure she really was.
    She reassured the Alpha if she wanted Xan to open up and begin to heal, her bodyguard would need to go and quit hanging over him like a noose. So, with considerable hesitation, Ryker pulled back to let her do her job. It made her both anxious and relieved. She had a gut feeling he hadn’t completely gone. At times she’d catch Xan looking out the windows, as if he sensed someone there, watching the place—babysitting.
    “Can I lay on something other than a pink couch? I think I’m getting hives, Doc.” Xan scratched his neck.
    “Hives? Really?” Liv stroked the tip of her pen on her notepad, sketching a white alpine behind Xan’s face, using the paper’s negative space to show off his snowy coat. She’d sketched his intense expression moments before, the determined set of his jaw, the stone cold resilience in his exotic eyes. A don’t-fuck-with-me-look, which begged her to do just that.
    She couldn’t get the white wolf out of her head as he spoke. What did his Wolf look like? She wanted to ask him, drop the current conversation and dig deeper into nonprofessional areas, and well, asking a Wolf what his animal looked like dipped into very risqué area. About as big a faux pas as asking what color his underwear were. She didn’t need to know what his Wolf looked like, and that would take the conversation into a more personal arena, a place she’d promised herself she’d never go again with a patient. Talking about one’s Wolf or beast treaded in intimate territory, a place she couldn’t go.
    Did he have a coat like virgin snow as she imagined, or much darker, like his alter ego? Kayla told her his sister had the blackest fur she’d ever seen, and they were twins. “I think it’s best if we have these sessions here, instead of in Los Lobos at my office where my couch is brown. More privacy. You made quite a scene in town and, until things settle down, well, it’s better we talk here. Deal with the fuchsia.” Scratch, scratch, scratch. The pen moved over paper, carving out her wolf in two dimensions. Her wolf? Liv frowned and flipped the page, burying the image.
    “Pink. It’s definitely pink.” He sat up. “What did you just write?”
    “Lie down, Mr. Davis, and try to relax. I’m not the enemy.” She stared at the paper and lifted the pen, moving it over the page lightly, trying not to agitate him further, writing whatever sounded professional, so she might return to a more businesslike line of thought.
    He blew out a breath and dropped back onto the pillow, staring at her ceiling.
    “So, tell me about your childhood.” Liv glanced over at him. He seemed calm, nothing of the man, who only days before wrecked the Den and yelled like a lunatic. He seemed…. She glided the pen across the paper and started to draw again. She flipped the page quickly, returning to writing notes. Safer. Better.
    “What has my childhood got to do with anything?”
    “Well, a lot can happen when you’re a child,