Guarded (True Alpha 2) by Alisa Woods Read Free Book Online Page A

they would have a chance to talk. Sort things out.
    As they emerged on the 32 nd floor, Lucas said, “I think we left the reports in your office.”
    “You don’t think Lena would have locked them up after us?” Mia asked.
    He was about to answer, but his attention was drawn to the light coming from his father’s office. The other rooms were dark, the shades having been drawn for the night and not opened in the morning, but his father’s was occupied. Or somehow Lena forgot to close up shop last night. She was meticulous, so he doubted that very much.
    Mia’s gaze was drawn to it as well. “Is your dad here?” she whispered.
    He nodded. They paused at her office, halfway down the hall. “Go in and get the reports. I’ll wait.” He paused, then met her blue-eyed gaze. “I think it’s time to introduce you to my father.”
    Her eyes went wide, but she scurried quickly into her office and returned with an armful of reports, both his copy and hers. He took them from her, then gently guided her toward his father’s office with a hand at the small of her back. Just before they reached it, he remembered he wasn’t supposed to be touching her. He dropped his hand and used it to open the door.
    His father was bent over his own nest of papers spread on his desk. His head jerked up, and he was on his feet, claws out, before Lucas could say a word.
    “It’s just Mia and me,” Lucas rushed out. He’d never seen his father so on edge, or so quick to shift. Things must be worse than he thought.
    His father’s body immediately relaxed, and the claws disappeared. “Lucas. Good. I’m glad you’re here.” He frowned and dipped his head to Mia. “Sorry, to startle you, Ms. Fiore. I’m sure shifters are the last thing you’d like to see at the moment.”
    A glance to Mia showed her rigid in the doorway, but he didn’t think it was fear that held her there. At least, not fear of his father’s claws. More like his father’s position in the company. Her boss’s boss, he supposed, although he hardly thought of the structure that way anymore, not since he left his father’s pack.
    “Father, there’s something you should know about Mia.” When Lucas called his father last night to report the attack, he left out the aftermath—including the hot sex against the door and the fact that Mia was a shifter. He had no idea if the Red pack had managed to bug their phones or what, but he didn’t want to take any chances with that secret getting out. Yet now that they were in person… “Mia is a wolf.”
    His father’s eyebrows flew up, and he did a double take of Mia before pinning Lucas with his gaze.
    Lucas cut off the question he knew was on his father’s lips. “She doesn’t belong to any pack. She’s really only half blood, on her father’s side. And she’s not pack-raised. She’s been a recluse.”
    “Um… excuse me?” Mia said. “I am not a recluse.”
    He turned to her, an apologetic hand holding her off. “It’s just a term we use. For shifters who are hidden from everyone, even their pack. Or their families.”
    “Kind of a pejorative term, don’t you think?” She frowned at him.
    He really didn’t need this right now.
    His father’s chuckle brought his attention back. “She’s right, you know.” His smile for Mia was kinder now, softer than any Lucas ever had directed at him. It was the kind of smile he saved for his daughter, Lucas’s sister, and the other females of his pack. Mia probably didn’t realize it, but she had already won his father over, simply by being wolf and not taking any flak from Lucas.
    This wasn’t exactly a surprise. Lucas had long ago realized that all the alphas of his family—his father, his older brother Llyr, and not least, himself—liked their women strong. Alpha females in their own right. His inner beast growled its appreciation for something Lucas was just now figuring out: Mia was likely an alpha herself. Loner. Stubborn. Driven. She just didn’t