Riley's Downfall [Brac Pack 29] by Lynn Hagen Read Free Book Online Page A

Sterling’s safety. He wasn’t going to be gone long. Just as soon as Ahm found a replacement, Riley would be back and Sterling would be bugging him again.
Riley realized that he had never met Ahm. Not in all the time the elves had been in this territory. Well, he guessed he would be meeting the man soon since it was Ahm who would relieve him of this responsibility.
Riley didn’t want to go, but he wasn’t going to allow his pa to take his place. His pa had other obligations, and Riley had one, Sterling. But he knew Sterling would be safe here. His brothers may clown around a lot, and they may slack off on work, but they would protect Sterling with their very lives. Of this, he had absolutely no doubt.
He gave one last long look at Sterling before Riley headed for the bedroom door.
* * * *
    “ Why are we heading to a tribe of elves again?” Max asked as he sat next to his mates Chey and Eagle as Eagle drove down the long stretch of road on Route 14. He couldn’t believe that the alpha had pulled Max away from Pride Pack Valley General to go visit some elves. He had scheduled surgeries and patient appointments that he had to hand off just to go frolicking in the woods. And he was still a bit confused about why.
    “ Because,” Eagle said as he turned his blinker on and then made a left turn, “the wood elves’ healer has disappeared and Alpha Maverick wanted us to check the wood elves out, make sure they were healthy, and possibly help the tribe until a replacement is found.”
    “ What the hell do we know about finding a replacement? I didn’t even know there was a whole tribe of them to begin with until the alpha ordered us to go. And from what Zeus tells me, they don’t even have modern conveniences. I’m not pampered, Eagle, but hell if I’m forgoing my morning cup of coffee.”
    Eagle chuckled, which only ticked Max off. “Relax, Max. It’s only temporary. Some shadow elf named Ahm is on the hunt for a new healer. We’re only staying long enough for him to find one.”
    “ I think it’s kind of cool,” Chey said from between the two. “It’ll be like camping. No electricity, no running water. Just us and nature.” Chey let out a long sigh as if he were looking forward to living off of the land.
    Max was not.
“No running water?” Max felt like Eagle was driving them back into the Stone Age. Okay, maybe he was a little attached to his creature comforts because Max started to envision cooking out on the open fire, having to wash all of his clothes by hand, and shitting in the woods with nothing but a leaf… “Did anyone pack toilet paper?”
“You are so damn pampered,” Eagle teased. “You’re a shifter, Max. Being in the great outdoors should be second nature to you.”
It wasn’t. Max shifted into his lion form and ran with his mates, but he didn’t live in the damn woods. He and his wolf mates shared a large California sleigh bed, and he liked the Tempur-Pedic mattress that they slept on. It conformed to his body and made sleeping with two grown men who hogged the bed worth it. For some odd damn reason, Chey turned in his sleep like a damn hand on a clock, knocking Max to the edge every single night. He was seriously considering tying Chey down when they went to bed. But then of course, he really wouldn’t get any sleep seeing Chey tied up.
But what in the hell was he going to sleep on in a tribe of throwback elves?
Chey laughed as he smacked Max on his knee. “We have a princess among us, Eagle.”
“Am not!” Max defended. “I’m a fierce lion shifter.”
“Who is crying about having to use an outhouse?” Eagle interjected.
“An outhouse?” Max was horrified. The damn things were germ factories. “They use outhouses?”
“Don’t worry, Max,” Eagle said as he reached across Chey to rub a knuckle on the side of Max’s face. “I’ll protect you from any snakes that try to bite your sexy little ass.”
Max swallowed hard, wondering if maybe he shouldn’t have stayed with