Snow Wolf: Wolves of Willow Bend (Book 9) by Heather Long Read Free Book Online Page A

melted caramel atop dark chocolate. “As I said earlier…welcome to Tikaani.”

Chapter 4
    T he steps descended thirty feet to a well-lit corridor. Machinery hummed beyond the walls. The vibrations shivered through her legs and along her frame. Shock piled atop shock—since when did the Yukon have such technology? Everything she’d been briefed on detailed an almost archaic lifestyle. The damn guest cabin had a refrigerator that dated back to the 1950s, if not further.
    Diesel strode one pace a head of her. The corridor narrowed at the top of the steps. Despite the almost painfully white walls, it seemed littered with shadows—or maybe it where the stairs disappeared into the darkness below. Claustrophobia wasn’t her issue. Fragments collided in her thoughts. As a pup, she’d been afraid of the dark. Not because she didn’t have night vision or because she feared monsters in it…but because her brothers used to prank her and each other. More than once, they’d leapt out of the dark and pounced her.
    Adrenaline-fueled terror plagued her through childhood. Her brothers always made it up to her. They never complained when she wanted to sleep in their room, but she hated the weakness. Tough wolves didn’t need their brothers to protect them. Dominant wolves didn’t need to be told it would be okay. She made herself sleep in the dark, even when she couldn’t sleep. Even when she stayed up all night, sweating buckets as she waited for something terrible to happen.
    Maybe she made it happen herself. Intellectually, she knew what utter crap the idea that her fear proved complicit in A.J.’s incarceration or Claire’s abandonment of Ty. Ranae had nothing to do with either of those events, yet she’d seen one brother vanish and another have his heart ripped out. The dynamic within the family changed. Her parents weathered the challenges, but her brothers Ty and Linc had seemed lessened until A.J. returned. Before that happened, Mason overthrew Toman and the pack split its time between mourning and celebration—Mason proved a capable Alpha, but even his focus had been torn between acclimating the pack and saving his mate.
    One thought pinged off another. The air clogged in her throat. The narrow corridor seemed to funnel her toward the stairs and the past. Ranae shook her head. The damn humming behind the walls, the narrow corridor… It was all too much.
    With the wolves swarming behind her, she couldn’t back off and her shoulder brushed against the Alpha’s. Power flared at the contact. Her wolf bucked at the shadowy quarters. Her chest tightened. How far down did it go?
    Trapped against Diesel, she struggled against the twin desires of fight and flight striking at once. A warm hand closed over hers. Strength flooded her, settling her beast’s urges.
    Unease pitted in her gut. She didn’t want the Yukon Alpha’s comfort or the contact, no matter her body’s traitorous response.
    “This is about fear. Not trust.” His sub vocal words ruffled her fur and stifled her argument. How the hell did he arouse such contradictory responses within her? “Stay with me, and stop scowling. You’ll scare the children.” Children?
    Tending to and protecting the next generation united disparate packs at a most basic level. Willow Bend would protect the children of any other pack without question, even those of Three Rivers, a pack on probation who faced dissolution should the Alphas finally reach a consensus. The reminder, however, jerked her attention back to where they stood. The steps descended into the darkness and her wolf surged beneath her skin. She wanted to rip her arm out of Diesel’s grip, but he was right.
    It was his pack. They were his to protect. Wildness threaded through her veins. Her wolf surged to the surface and no amount of self-control could prevent her eyes from their shift. The lack of light below betrayed the true darkness awaiting them. All she wanted to do was flee, but Diesel’s grip steadied