Destiny Unchained by Leia Shaw Read Free Book Online Page A

steady. She would be fine. And he had
business to attend to. With a last glance around the room, he
scribbled a note then walked out into the chilly night air. He
jumped in his jeep and cranked the heat up to high.
    A strange feeling hit him deep in his gut. Fear. He
sucked in a breath. He was afraid for Natalia. If this werewolf was
playing with her, and he’d already captured her once, what would
happen if he did again? Visions of Natalia strung up, gutted,
tortured, flooded his mind. He shook his head, forcing them away.
What business was it of his what she did with her life? He would
follow her closely, for now. He would use her skill and knowledge
to kill the bastard stalking his territory. When the task was done,
he wouldn’t think of her again. She was a puzzle, yes, but not his
to solve. Not his to protect.
    He shifted in his seat. His muscles twitched,
unsettled about the Slayer, confused about his feelings for
Natalia. He needed to run. Tires screeched as he spun the jeep
around and headed the opposite direction toward one of his favorite
spots to let loose some steam.
    This wasn’t the first time he pondered how Laurel’s
death tied into who he was meant to be. If he even believed in fate
and destiny and all that shit. He wasn’t convinced he did. The
supernatural world was full of mysticism and mumbo-jumbo. Having
been raised by a traditional Orthodox Christian mother outside of a
pack, his views differed from his counterparts. Though she was a
werewolf, she’d lost the ability to shift after becoming pregnant.
Still, she helped him through his first change when he hit puberty.
His human father died in one of the many wars that plagued Eastern
Europe when Cristian was young. At age thirteen his mother sent him
to live with his father’s brother to learn the blacksmith trade.
Though his uncle wasn’t a werewolf, he taught Cristian how to be a
man.
    When he died Cristian mourned the loss almost as much
as he’d mourned Laurel’s. After a few years of wandering among his
uncle’s human clan, he found he needed a pack to belong to. Like
most werewolves, he craved organization, family, hierarchy. The
werewolf population was booming in Romania at that time. It wasn’t
hard to find a pack that would accept him – a strong young wolf
with skill in blacksmithing.
    Now, three centuries later, he could recognize
Laurel’s death for what it was. Escape from a life not meant for
her. Could it be that fate, or destiny or God or the fucking
confusing-as-hell universe, had someone else in mind for the mate
of an alpha? Any one of his pack members would die for him – and
wasn’t that a messed up truth – yet he’d been battling feelings of
loneliness for the past few decades. Funny how isolated he felt
while being surrounded by people who respected him. But love and
respect were not the same. He longed for someone to know him
intimately, even his weaknesses and flaws. As Sorin reminded him
countless times, he could never appear weak. It’d grown into such a
burden he could hardly bear it any longer.
    And Laurel…they’d been mates, yes, and their bodies
and souls cried out for one another. But even she had needed his
strength. Not only because she’d been a born submissive, passive
and dainty, but in those times, women depended on men for
everything, including their survival.
    He couldn’t remember a time when he didn’t have to be
big, bad protector. Or passed off some of the responsibility to an
equal, someone who wouldn’t stab him in the back for pack rank.
Sorin was the closest he had to a true friend. He understood
Cristian like no one else and Cristian trusted him with his life.
But he was a born beta, and a political mastermind at that. He
would never accept the share of power Cristian wished he could
develop with someone.
    His jeep bumped down the dirt road leading to one of
his favorite places in the park. The tourists flocked to the
geysers – with good cause – but it was the smaller things