Seduction (The Journal of the Wolves of Spruce Hollow) by Tarrah Betts Read Free Book Online Page A

the leftover money back to her savings account and then she got herself a job waitressing at a vegetarian restaurant. She’d acted very responsibly, so I decided to let her go and be free for a while.
    Aspen could have moved to Siberia and I would have found a way to watch over her. However, it was harder to conceal myself in the seaside college town as there were no forests for my wolf to slip into but I managed just fine in my human form. She never knew that I was there, watching over her on the beach and protecting her. I’d even eaten at her restaurant, dozens of times, while she was working. I’d sit in another waitress’s section and would watch Aspen work and interact with her customers.  
    She seemed lonely though. And sad. When she wasn’t at work or her apartment, she usually spent the rest of her time volunteering at the local animal shelter or sitting on the beach, by herself, and staring out into the ocean. She’d made very few friends in Springbay and had even fewer boyfriends, thank god.
    When my military service was up and Aspen was finally old enough, I hightailed it back to Spruce Hollow with the hope that Aspen would return as well, but there was one little thing wrong with my plan; I had grossly underestimated just how much my abrupt departure from Spruce Hollow had damaged Aspen emotionally.
    So, for almost a year after my discharge, I continued to clandestinely follow her around Springbay. I no longer had my military service to distract me from her and I missed her intensely.  
    But a funny thing had happened while I was off serving our country.  
    Aspen had grown up.  
    She was no longer this awkward, gangly teenager. But had turned into this beautiful, alluring young woman. She was delicate and fragile but so full of life and I was desperate to reconnect with her.  
     
    “Our mate is beautiful, isn’t she,” my wolf said appreciatively as I sat beside her on the bed and watched her sleep.
    “Yes, she certainly is.”  
    I could finally say that now without feeling like a creep and frankly, it was a relief. But the truth was I had been physically attracted to Aspen since the time she had turned about sixteen or so. I remembered the day I’d first noticed her as something other than a little girl. It was summer and she was dressed in a bikini top and daisy duke jeans shorts. I was outside, working on my truck, when she’d walked down to the end of driveway. She was waiting for Sorcha, who had just gotten her license and the two of them were going to drive around and enjoy their new found freedom. I’d sniffed the air as she walked by and something about her scent had changed. It drew me in like a homing beacon and I couldn’t stop looking at her.  
    I’d had freaked me out and I went into the house to get away from her. I’d figured it had been a fluke because she was still too young but when I saw her again later that night, I knew that I was in big trouble.  
    After all this time, I still felt bad about the weird, semi-sexual tension that existed between Aspen and I from that point on. She’d was only a skinny, awkward teenager and I knew that our connection completely overwhelmed her. But the truth was, I was overwhelmed too.
    But that was in the past. Besides, I had done the only thing decent thing I could think of to combat my Were biology and had left Spruce Hollow to protect her.
    However difficult the ensuing years had been, my wolf and I were both deliriously happy over our reunion. The only one who was miserable right now was Aspen.
    “I thought our mate would be ready for us by now,” my wolf said apprehensively, “she looked quite distressed to see us.”
    “Human females are different from female Were’s. She will be content and settled soon enough. She just doesn’t realize it yet. Don’t worry, it will be alright.”
    My wolf and I had made up a long time ago. Time away from Aspen had cleared his head and made him much more agreeable. Enlisting in the