Promised: True Mates Book 1 (BBW Paranormal Wolf Shifter Romance) (A Craggstone Paranormal Romance) by Olivia Arran Read Free Book Online

Please, Mother of All, lend me the words to woo my mate! The old porch, built by a great-great-grandfather long gone, creaked under my feet, the sound loud in the stillness of the night. Kara flinched, almost imperceptibly, her fingers halting mid-motion. It stung to see such a strong woman devastated like this. And she was strong, to have survived her life so far. She will never be scared again, I vowed silently to the Mother. I will protect her .
    “It’s just me, Kara,” my voice echoed, sounding loud in my ears. “Why did you run?” Immediately I cursed myself silently for asking such a direct question, one that challenged her rather than protected her.
    “Because…,” her voice drifted to me, quiet on the cool air. “Because, you really don’t know who I am, you don’t know anything about me, yet you believe I am your mate. It’s hard for me to believe…” She spun to face me, her hands clenched in little fists at her hips. The moonlight lit her face, highlighting her wide green eyes and plump, luscious lips, lips that I desperately wanted to taste again.
    My feet took an involuntary lurch forward, my arm lifting from my side, seeking to smooth her hair that was scattering in the wind, drifting around her face.
    “Kara, I know who you are,” I stopped in front of her, managing to resist the urge to touch and stroke. “You are my true mate. My beast knows this, I know this, now you need to know this.”
    “I’m an orphan—” the words tumbled out of her.
    “I know.”
    “I don’t know who I am—”
    “I know.”
    “I don’t know who my family was,” she rushed on. “I don’t know what my heritage is. It turns out I have been fed lies since I was young — manipulated and forced into being someone who I am not. Told that I had to behave in a certain way. That things are expected of me…things that I find out now — I do not have to do. I have a choice for the first time in my life! A choice ! To be me !” Her voice rose in a crescendo, the words tumbling over each other.
    “Kara—”
    “I may not be your true mate—”
    “You are—”
    “—but I may not be! You can’t be 100% sure,” she pressed her hand against my chest, her nails digging into my shirt, “you can’t . But…even if you were, and I was, why? Why would you want me ? You can have anyone.” She shook her head, her long hair flying with the movement. “And why should I want this? I have a chance to escape Eric, to find out who I really am, to do whatever I want to do. To live life however I want!” Her lips twisted in a grimace. “I don’t know you, not really. I would want to know my mate.”
    Pain clawed inside my chest, her words cutting and tearing through me. She didn’t want me. And why would she? Anger burned inside my chest, at Eric for the twisted abuse he had subjected her to, and at her old pack for not protecting her. She would have been just a cub when they found her. She should have been loved, protected, and cared for. Sharp pain flared as my nails shifted to claws, digging into my palms. A growl of frustration welled in my throat. She didn’t know about the fledgling bond between us. She didn’t know enough to recognize it for what it was. I could tell her, make her see that we are destined to be together, but part of me, the stubborn, fool part, I admitted, wanted her to want me, to trust me — to recognize the bond for what it is by herself, and choose me.
    “You want to be free?” I forced the gritted words out.
    “Yes…no…I don’t know!” she threw her hands up in the air. “That’s just it! I don’t know what I want! I…I like you, you’ve been nothing but kind to me. But I don’t — no, I won’t — be trapped again!”
    Emotions swirled in her teal-green eyes as she grabbed the front of my shirt. “How can you be so sure that this—,” she twirled a finger between us, reaching on tip-toe as she locked gazes with me, “—is real?”
    “This is how I know,” I