Ride the Wicked Woodsman (A Night Falls Alpha Werebear Shapeshifter Romance) by Christa Wick Read Free Book Online

sufficiently formidable and -- I took a quick count -- fifteen, not counting Braeden, would be a problem for any shifter to handle alone.
    "Why is your pack dressed like some kind of outlaw biker gang?"
    "Can you think of anything more outlaw to humans than a biker gang?"
    Coming up behind me, Taron opened the curtain wide then stood, his hand against the small of my back. I felt the heat radiate into me immediately and then a woozy rush of something else.
    "I told you," I growled. "Don't try to heal me."
    His hand didn't move from my flesh as he turned his head and met my gaze. Looking into his eyes only made my woozy rushing feeling intensify. Staring at the full lips didn't make things any better.
    "My question was serious. What's the deal with looking like bikers?"
    "There's no local police in Night Falls," he answered, his thumb rubbing absently at my back. "Makes the town vulnerable to real outlaws. Make sense?"
    Numb from all the goose bumps racing across my flesh as he continued to stroke my skin, I nodded then forced my attention back to the problem outside. "Who are the ringleaders?"
    "See that old graybeard at twelve o'clock?"
    I nodded and tried not to lean into Taron.
    I really needed him to stop touching me. That hand on my back and the mesmerizing rub of his thumb was doing crazy things to my concentration. I could feel the heat moving through me in every direction, down my legs to my toes, across my arms to my fingertips, even the hair on my head seemed to be getting fed by his energy.
    It wasn't sexual -- at least most of it wasn't. Certainly a little of it was, the sensation between my thighs and across my breasts multiplying exponentially if I thought about it.
    But mostly it was ... restorative?
    Maybe telling him to never try healing me again had been a bad call. It had certainly been hot headed.
    "Graybeard," he continued and moved a little closer, "is Axel. He's the father of last night's hunters, who are not present this morning. He thinks he's alpha because he has three wolflings he can boss around. But he's just the troublemaker, not the real problem. That would be the shifters at nine and three."
    I looked at the man standing beside his bike in the nine position. Another wolf, he wasn't as old as Axel, but I could see the silvering that was starting to take hold of his black hair. Turning my attention to the shifter at three o'clock, I released a small gasp.
    "You have a cat in your pack?"
    "More than one, but the rest are all mated or had the good sense to stay home. That is Joshua, he's a cougar. Of course, he'll get pissed of if anyone refers to him as anything other than a mountain lion, but he's pissed off most of the time anyway. The other is Mallory."
    I looked down at the ridiculous fall of Taron's clothing on my body, the lack of a bra that meant my full breasts would be swinging with every step I took, all while I was supposedly in heat.
    "You really think it's a good idea for me to go outside." I gestured at my get-up. "Especially like this."
    His gaze swept down my body, the motion stuttering when he reached my breasts and again when he came to my hips.
    "You're not really hiding because of clothes -- or is that what's become of city wolves?"
    His hand had surreptitiously moved to my hip and I shoved it away before walking over to the front door and waiting for him. Calling me a city wolf was a low blow. He could level that insult at my vapid, Vogue devouring, mall hopping little sister or my vicious, marijuana dabbing, steroid shooting older brother. They were both fully wolf and treated as such, but had become more human than the blood flowing through my veins by immersing themselves in everything that represented the worst the human world had to offer.
    Moving past me, Taron caught me glaring at him and chuckled.
    "Got you to the door, didn't it?
    He stepped outside, confident that I would follow him. I did after a second's hesitation.
    Taron waited just past the bottom step of his