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

boyfriend—larger than Jackson—who was waiting for her, but that would probably sound like the pathetic lie it was. “No, I don’t have a mate.” She’d tried to have relationships in the past, but it was hard to get close to anyone without letting her secrets slip. Somehow, they always sensed she was holding back, hiding something, and the relationship crashed and burned. The only positive was that because she’d never been fully invested, her heart had always survived intact.
    “Hmm.”
    Marcus looked as if follow-up questions were on the tip of his tongue, so Kirra changed the topic. “Have you guys ever thought of creating an actual trail?” she huffed as she balanced on top of a mossy tree stump, searching for the safest way back to the ground.
    He circled back from where he’d ranged ahead and held out his arms. She jumped, clearing the knotted roots at the base of the stump, and he eased her to the ground, hands resting on her waist, careful not to press against the wound on her left hip.
    “This is a trail,” he said. “Humans can’t see it, but it’s as clear to us as if it had signs with arrows saying This Way. We smell it.” He tapped the side of her nose.
    “Okay, but what about maintaining it? Someone could break a leg following this route.”
    “Only a human,” Jackson said. “And the last thing we want to do is make it easier for humans to find where we live.” His tone drove home the fact that he thought taking her with them was a bad idea. Kirra bit back the retort that sprang to mind. She needed their help to get to the council, and if putting up with Jackson’s surly attitude was the price for that, she could pay it. 
    Marcus slung an arm over her shoulders and shook his head warningly at Jackson before giving her upper arm a light squeeze. “What he means is that we need to be careful. There have been some... incidents in the past, and we’ve found that even on our own land, it’s best to keep a low profile.”
    “What kind of incidents?”
    “Oh, the kind that have gone on for years, ever since we ‘came out’ to humans. People will ‘accidentally’ cross into our land and harass us if they find us alone, and in a few cases, hunters have shot shifters in their animal forms.” His voice lowered, and his arm dropped from her shoulders. Kirra felt the absence acutely. “If we die in our animal form, we stay in it. There’s a black market for shifter pelts. It’s illegal, but it’s a booming business.”
    “That’s disgusting,” Kirra gasped. Horrifying was more like it. She’d lived in a state of fear most of her life, varying from the low-grade, constant fear of exposure to the acute, adrenaline surging fear of capture and death, and she knew that when she died, scientists would fight over who got to dissect her organs, especially her brain. One thing she’d never worried about was being skinned and put on display. Bile rose in her throat, and she bent over, pressing her hands against her knees, fighting nausea.
    In her peripheral vision, she saw Jackson stride past, not breaking step at all. Marcus waited patiently while she regained her composure. She exhaled and straightened, accepting his hand, and they continued. She didn’t complain when they had to work their way through a tangle of brambles.
    “Are the hunters ever caught and arrested?” she asked in a quiet voice. Was that what had happened to Jackson’s family? Maybe he had a reason to despise humans.
    “Sometimes, but it’s a hard thing to prove. Most claim they had no idea the victim was a shifter. Alphas all through North America are working with the human government to make the laws stricter, but the best we can do is police our own borders.”
    “Is that the only problem?” she asked. “Or do shifters sometimes go missing for other reasons?”
    He slanted a curious look at her, and she wondered if her question had been too specific. Not that it really mattered. She already knew the answer,