The Touch of Her Hands [The Wind River Pack 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) by Missy Martine Read Free Book Online Page B

ice-cold beer bottles.
    “How the hell do you keep them cold?” he asked. “I haven’t seen anything to make me think you have electricity up here.”
    Aurelia laughed. “There’s a fresh-water stream that runs behind this place. It comes down from the top of the mountain, and it’s cold year round. I have a few well-placed baskets that hold anything I want kept cold.” Grabbing an opener from the counter, she flicked the top off a bottle and handed it to Zack.
    He touched his bottle to hers. “To a successful journey.”
    “To a successful journey.” Aurelia turned up her bottle and took a long drink.
    An hour later Zack pushed back from the table groaning. “That was delicious. You can’t get anything like that back home.”
    “Tell me about your home.”
    “The mountains back in Wyoming are beautiful, but nothing like here.”
    “No,” she said. “The climate’s different. I don’t imagine I’d run into the same animals on your mountain as you’re likely to find on mine.”
    “I’ve scented deer, raccoons, and even large cats. What other animals might I find if I took a walk through your woods?”
    “Well, first, I wouldn’t recommend it, unless you’re armed. You might see a few pumas or jaguars with the occasional spider monkey thrown in. Get a little closer to the Cartagena River and you might find a thirty-foot anaconda, condors with wing spans larger than ten feet, and even a herd of capybara.”
    “What are capybara?”
    “They’re like aquatic rats that live in herds on the banks of the rivers here. Pretty nasty creatures.”
    Zack shuddered and tried not to look sick. “You’d run into coyotes, deer, raccoons, and maybe a possum or two near my place. We’ve got wolves, bears, falcons, and a feline or two. Pretty tame stuff compared to your home here.”
    “How big is this place you live in? For coyotes, wolves, deer, and bears to all cohabitate together, there must be a lot of land. They don’t normally live so close to one another.”
    Zack cleared his throat. “Our family is a little different.”
    “Your family? I thought we were talking about wildlife.”
    “With my family, it’s one in the same.” He didn’t want to lie to her or start their relationship keeping secrets, so he decided he needed to be honest with her from the beginning. “You, of all people, should be able to understand having a supernatural gift that we feel the need to keep hidden from the world. My family has such a gift.”
    “Does this have something to do with the dual souls Abuela says you have?”
    “Yes, it does. My race is referred to as shape-shifters.”
    “Your race? You’re not human?”
    “It’s more like we’re more than just human. We carry a special gene or DNA marker in our system that allows us to change our physical form into the animals that share our soul.”
    Aurelia settled back in her chair and studied him carefully. “You’re telling me that you can change into an animal.”
    Zack nodded. “I can change into a coyote.”
    She bit her lip. “What about the rest of your family?”
    “Well, that gets a little complicated. I was adopted by a wonderful threesome that just wanted to share their love with children.”
    “Did you say threesome?”
    “Yeah, I did. Two brothers ended up mating the same female. They wanted children, and hadn’t been able to have any of their own, so they went to one of the National Council’s homes for children and picked out a few to take home.”
    Aurelia’s eyebrows rose. “How many is a few?”
    “I have four brothers and one sister. All the boys are adopted, and then out of the blue Kitania got pregnant and had my sister, Rennia.”
    “You said your family was complicated.”
    Zack nodded. “Yeah, we’re all pretty different. My brothers Eric and Synia are wolves. My brother David is a bear, while Macon is a falcon.”
    “What about your sister?”
    Zack laughed. “She’s very different. My adoptive fathers are wolves, while