Three’s a Clan by Roxy Mews Read Free Book Online Page A

fabric. “I love you, Mommy. Bye!”
    Her feet dug divots in the ground as she and a few of the local boys took off for the rows of apple trees. Their laughter drowned out any condescending chatter, and my heart ached. I wanted children of my own, but I couldn’t have them with any of the women here. I was born into a different world. Werewolves didn’t have the warmth Lily had. No one I had ever met before held that kind of light.
    A man entered the party. Fresh with sweat from the fields.
    A part of me hated this human. He was the reason I didn’t try harder with Lily. Not because she didn’t have room in her heart to come with me, but because she was human. I would never ask her to give that up. She needed to shine as the mother she was. Even those who disagreed with her could not deny the love she showed to all around her. Turning her would change that. I couldn’t risk her soft heart with such a harsh transition.
    And I watched that love flair with the arrival of her husband. Her human husband. As I had been doing for the past ten years, I faded into the background.
    A gust of wind and the smell of alcohol-coated coeds tore me from the vision. I rubbed a thumb over the leather pouch in my pocket. I missed Lily, but I honored her. I served the man she loved. I protected the daughter she treasured. I didn’t have as many moments as they did with her, but what she’d given me was the strength to leave a Pack that didn’t understand humans. She’d given enough love to propel those who survived her to greatness.
    If I was pushed, I would tell you that there was a revolution beginning. Understanding and equality had advanced more in the last hundred years than in any of the centuries before it put together. Humans weren’t the only ones who had to overcome prejudice. Amber and her father could lead the supernatural community forward. I just had to make sure they lived to do so.

Chapter Six
    Shelly
    Well, that explained a lot. Our Family had often wondered why the wolf who had changed Alpha and his daughter had become a Beta instead of their leader. He felt he owed them. Then again, Trevor wasn’t an Alpha. He had power. He just didn’t have the urge to use it like an Alpha would.
    My brain brought up pictures of the woman he and Rick had shared. It was obvious from his story and the fact that Richard wasn’t aware of any of it, that they never shared her together. Back then…well, it isn’t surprising. Would they share a woman now? They didn’t mind sleeping with the same one, obviously.
    Even though Amber’s mother was gone, they both still loved her.
    And why the hell was I thinking about love? Ugh. Petty human emotion was creeping into me. I was spending too much time with wolves and witches.
    Then I entered the mansion and it became clear to me why I was doing so.
    An argument was going on over who was going to drink from a thin-framed man. The morsel’s shirt was opened. His neck lay reclined on the back of the sofa and his legs moved restlessly. The human had fair freckled skin and bright red hair. Steven seemed to be partial to marking up porcelain skin. Drinking from him was not all they were doing. The young man had an impressive erection straining through his tight jeans.
    Steven and Matthew both enjoyed the taste and kiss of other men. They were a couple who had been together for one hundred and thirty-six years this December, but somehow I doubted it was love that kept them sharing partners. Both men, like most of our kind, were very attractive. Put that much sexy in front of a target—male or female—and the poor human stood no chance. The men were excellent at mind alteration, as well. I never had to clean up their mess. But a lovers’ spat was not what I wanted to witness. Particularly when it involved a ménage.
    “Leave now.”
    All three heads turned toward me. Although the human was enthralled, my command broke through that of my Family members’. The little redhead with twin sets of