Saved by Wolves (Shifters Meet Their Mate Book 1) by Elena Hunter Read Free Book Online Page A

glazed over, but he was polite enough to try to continue the conversation. “Interesting. Do you enjoy it?”
    Not really. Sitting in front of a computer and writing boring articles on boring subjects she couldn’t care less about drove her up the wall on a regular basis. It paid the bills, though, and more importantly, it was a job she could do from home and stay under the radar. At least she’d thought so. Blackstone had tracked them down somehow...
    Kirra ducked under a branch Marcus pushed up out of her way. “It’s a job,” she finally answered. “Do you like your job? Being an enforcer?”
    “It’s what I’ve always wanted to do,” he said. “I can’t imagine being anything else. I get to be out in the woods, protecting the pack and my family.”
    Family. Her heart tripped at hearing the word, and not just because of Francesca. “What’s your family like?” she asked, when what she really wanted to ask was “Are you married?” There was no wedding ring on his finger, but that didn’t mean anything. Did shifters even wear rings? She searched her memory of any mention of it, but came up empty. Her appalling lack of knowledge about shifters was becoming more obvious with each passing hour.
    His face lit up. “My family’s great. I haven’t seen my parents in a few years—they’re off somewhere in Europe, visiting where our ancestors came from, but my gran and older sister live here. And my brother-in-law and nephew, of course.”
    They’d slowed while they talked, and Jackson, who’d been hanging back, caught up. Wearing jeans, heavy boots, and a plaid button-down shirt, he made her think of a stereotypical lumberjack. A really hot lumberjack. Kirra unzipped her jacket and flapped one side, trying to create a breeze. She was suddenly really warm. “Does your family live here too?” she asked.
    His face, always serious, went stone cold. “I don’t have a family,” he said shortly.
    “I’m so sorry,” Kirra said. His rigid manner told her not to pursue the subject, but the silence that fell was beyond awkward, and she felt she had to say something to fill the void. “I never knew my dad, and my mom died ten years ago,” she blurted out, then winced. Had that sounded whiney?
    There was no change in his expression, but his gaze sharpened.
    “I have a sister, though,” she said. “We’re always been close.”
    “Is she like you?” Marcus asked.
    “Not really. We don’t look anything alike. Francesca is beautiful—tall, blonde, fashionable—and insanely smart. She’s studying to be a biologist.” And she’d be one someday, if they ever had the chance to settle down long enough.
    “Any other siblings? No? A mate?” 
    “A mate? You mean, am I married?”
    “Married, engaged, have a giant boyfriend who will come looking for you. Any of the above,” he clarified. He didn’t seem to have the same problem she did with being direct about what he wanted to know. And the fact that he wanted to know made her flush.
    “No,” Jackson said from behind her.
    She whirled around, ticked off by the confidence in his voice. “How do you know?” Did he think she was so repulsive no man would have her?
    He growled, “Because no male would let his mate wander around alone, at the mercy of the military and the Cats. And if he did, you’d be better off without him.”
    “No one let me come here. And even if I had a ‘mate,’ he wouldn’t dictate what I could do. We’d be partners. Equal partners.”
    His snort conveyed what he thought of that, and Kirra faced forward again, determined to ignore him and his caveman beliefs. If that’s what female shifters had to put up with, it was no wonder the shifters’ numbers had been declining for the last few decades. She’d never get involved with someone who thought he had the right to deny or give her permission to do things.
    “You didn’t answer the question,” Marcus persisted.
    Part of her wanted to say she had a huge