Shift Into Me (Werewolf Shifter Romance) (The Alpha's Kiss) by Lynn Red Read Free Book Online Page B

cushion – maybe before – he was dead asleep.
    “Does that happen too?”
    Hunter laughed. “Uh yeah, that’s... I’m amazed he even made it back here. Usually it takes people awhile to get their bearings.”
    “He had some times before,” I said, looking down to make sure Damon wasn’t having trouble breathing or... something, I’m not really sure what to look out for in an over-exhausted werewolf as a warning sign. “But it was never like this he was always kinda... taken over.”
    “Well,” Hunter said, with a lot more seriousness than I expected. “That’s how it can be. But once we learn to control our transformations, they get a lot less violent.”
    Damon snorted, rolled over and right off the couch, onto the floor.
    “He’s content,” I said, laughing. “Is it all right if I take your... wait, you don’t ride a motorcycle do you? In Fort Branch that’s kind of a werewolf creed.”
    “That was abrupt,” he said with a laugh. “And no, but I have a four-wheeler out back if you need to sate your loud-and-muddy desires. Otherwise, it’s the Toyota.”
    Somehow, the idea of him driving a reasonable family sedan sent a shudder through me. He tossed over the keys from the counter.
    “By the way, where are you going? It’s kinda early still.”
    “Just to the courthouse. I got a hunch that this isn’t the first time something mysterious has happened here. Figure I’ll put my own talents to some use. Poke through the old papers, see if anything turns up.”
    Hunter was staring at me, shaking his head. “I see what he sees in you.”
    Normally if someone said that to me, I’d take it as some kind of semi-subtle wolf-whistle, but in this case, I took it for what I think it was – a simple compliment. Me and compliments. There’s a whole catalog of books I could write about that.
    But just as I turned to leave, he called me again.
    “Lily?”
    “Yeah?”
    Damon grunted and rolled over, leg thrown up on the couch. A second later, he was out again.
    “Good luck. I’ll take care of the sleeping giant.”
    The chill from only a couple of hours before was already gone, replaced by heat from the blazing sun. I only had four hours. I had to make them count.

Five
    ––––––––
    I ’m not exactly the sort of person to want to be around other people all the time. Don’t get me wrong – I liked Hunter, and there’s nowhere in the world I’d rather be than in Damon’s arms, feeling his kisses on my lips, his hands running up and down my back.
    But sometimes, the fact that I can only take so much of others, even ones I like, becomes incredibly clear to me. I get jittery and nervous and I talk too damn much. I make jokes that even I know aren’t funny just to fill time and make sure there’s no silence.
    Sometimes, my joking even got me irritated.
    My phone buzzing in my purse startled me as I turned into a parking space and turned off Hunter’s hilariously reasonable gold-colored Carolla.
    The number that popped up belonged to Jolie Evers, the submissions editor at the New York Times who got me started, like really started – writing. She got me to write up a bunch of the desert folktales that Grandpa Joe told me. Of course, I ended up adding a whole lot of totally unbelievable werewolf stories that I’m sure sounded ridiculous to anyone who read them.
    Well, anyone who wasn’t a werewolf.
    “Lily?” she was talking before I even got my phone to my ear. “You there?”
    “Hey Jolie, how’s things?” We’d long since established that neither of us was very comfortable with being called miss-anything. I’d noticed without even asking that there was a certain twinge to her voice I’d never heard before, even when we were up against deadlines. “Is everything okay?”
    She was distracted as usual. Something sounded like a goose honking on her end of the line. “Ugh, shit, hold on a second. Got an email from the big boss. Did you hear that noise?”
    I couldn’t help but