Stonebound: Shifters Forever Worlds (Skeleton Key) by Elle Thorne, Skeleton Key Read Free Book Online Page B

her, in a province outside Rome, in the forests, near the volcanic cliffs.”
    “Can you be more specific?” Isabel asked.
    “No. But do be careful. That is Tiero territory, and Giovanni Tiero is very—and I mean very, very, very—territorial. He has been the least resistance to change in the shifter world. And his father ran the European Shifter Council.” Desideria shook her head. “Do not trifle with the Tiero family. They don’t play nice.”
    “I’ve heard of them,” Isabel agreed.
    Have I been living under a rock? Why don’t I know this? “I wasn’t aware,” Ana murmured.
    “They don’t do publicity,” Desideria affirmed.

    * * *
    I sabel shook Ana back to the present. “So are we going today?”
    Ana shook her head. “I don’t know.”
    “Bruno’s gone for a week, right?”
    “True, but Mama—”
    “We will have someone take care of Mama.”
    A thought occurred to Ana again. One that she couldn’t seem to shake. Would she ever see Tino again after releasing him? How would she keep Bruno’s advances at bay without Tino’s distractions?
    Would she end up pregnant with Bruno’s son? Images flew through her mind of younger, smaller, equally brutish miniature versions of bull shifters like Bruno raising Cain in a playroom.
    A shiver touched the base of her spine, then traveled upward.
    It doesn’t matter. Tino can’t stay there. Not any longer. It’s not fair to him.
    “We’ll leave tomorrow.”
    Isabel jumped with joy. “Now take me to meet your lover—”
    Ana gave her a doubletake and a dirty look.
    Isabel cleared her throat. “Sorry. Your friend.”

Chapter 14
    “ H ow much longer . I’m not meant for trekking through woods,” Isabel huffed.
    “I’m already regretting allowing you to come along,” Ana snapped.
    “I’m sorry. I’m not a hiker.” Isabel tugged her on her pants, readjusting them. Her steps heavy as they stomped through the forests in the province of Viterbo. They’d gone as far as they could by car, then they’d looked at the scribbled directions Desideria had given them.
    “See there’s the forked tree. Not much further,” Ana hissed her response. “But I wish you’d lower your voice and quit stomping so loudly. She’s bound to hear us and cast a spell. Maybe even turn us into trees.”
    Or something. It was the or something part that made Ana nervous.
    “Oh, and you’d rather sneak up on her and really piss her off? I’d sooner announce our arrival with foot stomping so that she knows our intent isn’t to sneak up on her
    Good point.
    “So, wise one, what do you suggest?” Ana asked Isabel playfully.
    “I suggest you don’t move. Unless you enjoy pain.” A very deep, very male voice came from within the darkness of the heavily treed forest.
    Ana glanced into the shadows but saw nothing, not even with her supernatural shifter sight.
    “Wha—?” Isabel whirled around, turning round and round. A creaking sound betrayed that she was beginning to shift.
    “Tell her not to shift. We don’t want to hurt her, but we will if she decides to turn into a tigress.”
    Ana put her hand on Isabel’s arm, which already was covered in a thick, downy fir. “Don’t, sister. Not yet. Not until we know—”
    “There’s nothing for you to know. Nothing at all. Except that you are trespassing.”
    Out from the forest, strode three men. All with dark hair, all with dark, swarthy skin, and all with a menacing predatory look on their sculpted faces.
    Ana glanced at Isabel, who was frozen in place, already back in her fully human form. Isabel’s gaze was focused on the one in the middle. The biggest one. The meanest looking one.
    “We can take them,” Ana whispered to her sister. “If we shift quickly enough.” What can three human males do against two fierce tigresses, after all?
    Isabel’s stare didn’t waver from the one in the center. The one striding confidently their way, though he was still yards off. “I don’t think so.”
    “She’s