Into the Light by Tami Lund Read Free Book Online Page A

porch after exhausting all of her magic in order to escape from the pack master.
    Tanner nodded.
    “Why are you helping me?” Olivia asked, unable to resist.
    Tanner hesitated, which was curious. Were his intentions really so pure after all?
    “On principal,” he finally said. “I left the pack ten years ago, because I did not believe in my father’s obsession with finding and killing lightbearers in order to inherit their magic. I did not even believe you all existed anymore, let alone that we could inherit your magic.”
    “Now that your father was at least partially right—we do exist, obviously—you refuse to let him be any more right,” Olivia guessed.
    She could tell that her assessment angered him. His eyes started flashing, and for the briefest moment, she was half-afraid he would shift into the form of some carnivorous animal and eat her for lunch. He clenched and unclenched his fists, clearly trying to get his temper under control.
    “Do you want to live or not?” he demanded hotly.
    “I’d prefer to live, actually,” she admitted primly.
    “Then do what you need to do,” he growled. He pointed at the bedroom door. “There’s a bathroom across the hall, if you need it. I’m going to go talk to Freddy, figure out the best way to get out of Quentin’s territory without being spotted. You have one hour.” He strode from the room, clearly leaving it up to her as to whether or not she wanted to test his theory and escape again on her own.
    Olivia decided that, for the moment at least, she would heed Tanner Lyons’ advice. But just as soon as she was safely away from this pack of shifters, she would escape at the first available opportunity.

Chapter 4
    There’s no honor or chivalry left in this world .
    Tanner’s mother had said those words to him, when he was eleven years old, and had asked her why, if his father was mated to his mother, had he seen the man doing inappropriate things with another woman.
    Clearly, his mother was wrong. Otherwise, why the hell was he going to such lengths to protect a woman he did not know, a woman who did not remotely trust him? He’d left the bedroom for less than ten minutes, and Olivia had tried to escape through the damn window. His blood chilled at the thought of what would have been waiting for her out there had she succeeded.
    He was half tempted to turn back around and check to see if she was stupid enough to try it again. But when he heard the telltale sign of the faucet turning on in the shower in the hall bathroom, he let out a sigh of relief and headed toward the kitchen, where Lisa and Freddy were nervously eating their own lunches. At least little Sofia did not appear to be affected by the stress level in the house. Tanner had scarfed his own lunch down before taking a plate back to the lightbearer, because his gut had been right in warning him not to leave her alone for too long.
    The guilt hit him again, as he stepped into the yellow-and-white kitchen and felt the tension in the air. Everybody knew what Quentin was capable of. Even little Sofia had been exposed to his violent side, because Quentin was an attention whore, and he knew well that if he ensured his pack feared him, they would not betray him.
    Except Tanner, his own son. And now, by default, Freddy and Lisa.
    “You shouldn’t have helped us escape,” he said yet again as he strode across the room and stared broodingly at the window framed by blue-and-yellow-checked curtains. For the moment, they were relatively safe, but he knew that would not last long. Quentin no doubt had every decent tracker in the pack searching for them. He only hoped no one had seen him jump into Freddy’s SUV when they’d escaped from the manor house.
    He recalled seeing Finn step around the corner, pause, and then turn away again. Someone had seen them. But he turned away, instead of toward them. Tanner hoped that meant he had wanted them to escape.
    “Get over it already,” Lisa replied. Her personality