Resisting The Alpha (Werebear Shifter Romance) (The Crane Curse) by Liliana Rhodes Read Free Book Online

their help. And if Jerry was telling the truth about the Talisman, then creating an enemy out of him was the last thing Erich needed.
    "Just get me everything you can find out," Erich growled through clenched teeth.

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Faith stood on the porch as Abel in full coyote form stalked into the forest. He would be gone for a while as he hunted for food, giving her the time she needed to get back to the clearing and hope Miranda appeared again.
    After slipping her arms into her sweater she reached around behind her for the belt and knotted it at her waist. Stepping back onto the porch she felt a little guilty for sneaking out on Abel. He had been very upset when he realized she wasn't there last night. So upset, Faith was surprised he left her to hunt. The fresh bruise on her temple when she returned didn't help matters.
    Fingering the silver crane at her neck, Faith stepped off the porch then stopped. Did she really want to find out about her family? What difference did it make after all this time? She couldn't fool herself though, she needed answers and was willing to do whatever it took to get them.
    As she entered the clearing, she looked up at the moon as she did the night before. Everything looked the same, even felt the same. The only difference was that yesterday she followed Miranda there and had no idea how to find her again.
    Faith thought about Abel's teachings on witchcraft. The one thing he repeated was that if she believed she could do it, she would. That faith in herself got her very far in his teachings and she pulled on it now as she imagined Miranda in her white nightgown, running through the woods.
    Slowly, as if appearing from an old movie projector, Miranda appeared in the clearing. She wore the white nightgown again and smiled warmly at Faith.
    "I knew you'd figure it out," Miranda said. "You're lucky I showed up, I'm sure you've heard stories about these woods being haunted. What's funny is in all this time no one has bothered calling me. I have so much to say, yet no one seems truly interested."
    "No, I don't think its that at all. I think people like the tale, the idea of the woods being haunted. If they called you then they'd have to deal with reality."
    "Well my reality is why I'm here and have been here for so long. At least it feels long. I'm sure its been at least thirty years." Miranda looked up at the moon then around the clearing. "Feels much longer than that."  
    Miranda walked towards the tree line and kicked at some loose white stones but they didn't move. After taking a few steps back she grinned at Faith. "Watch this," she said.
    A flash of white light hit the ground and spread out until it reached all the stones. Throughout the clearing the stones glowed, the majority of them were collected into a large square resembling the foundation of a house.
    "Is that where your house was?" Faith asked.
    Miranda nodded as she looked wistfully at the glowing stones. "It hasn't been long enough for there to be nothing left of the house. My great great great grandfather built this house centuries ago using a stone foundation. Almost my entire family had been born here, died here too. So did I, just not in the same way as the others."
    Faith was afraid to ask but could see Miranda wanted to talk about it. "What happened?" she asked quietly.
    Miranda smiled, her eyes wet with tears. "Thank you for asking. It's the only way I can talk about it," she said then shrugged. "Strange dead rules, nothing you need to know about. You were probably too young to remember, but just thirty years ago things were much different here in Leeds Point. Nowadays shifters can be themselves and not have to live in fear. Back then, shifters were just beginning to make themselves known to society."
    "So you're a shape shifter?" Faith asked.
    "Yes, or I was. Being a spirit now I lack the body to hold onto my animal spirit. But when I was alive this clearing and the surrounding areas were my territory. I was an Alpha