Wild Instinct by Sarah McCarty Read Free Book Online Page B

shoulder.
    “You’re just tiring yourself out.”
    She planted her feet. “Go away.”
    He stopped and arched a brow inquiringly. Behind him, she could see Cur getting something out of his backpack.
    “You should know I fully intend to contest your claim,” she challenged.
    “Uh-huh.”
    “There are probably a hundred women at Haven who want your attention.”
    “Probably.”
    She snorted. “You could’ve at least pretended modesty.”
    The corner of his mouth tipped up. “Probably. Where are you supposed to meet Rachel?”
    Her mouth worked. Her distrust burned deep.
    “Where?”
    He repeated the question with such calmness. In the end, she didn’t really have any other option but to tell him. “The south ridge. Are you happy now?”
    “Not by a long shot. I shouldn’t have had to ask twice.”
    Her head came up. Megan grunted, disturbed from her dozing by the sudden move.
    “You might want to save your claiming until later, hot stuff. When you have all the facts.”
    The “hot stuff” scraped across Garrett’s nerves. What the hell was the point in waiting? Did she have someone else in mind? “I never have been a man for taking chances, and waiting won’t get me anywhere but dead. Just like that useless human husband you mated up with. You’re a breeder, dammit.”
    She had to know what that meant. A woman who could produce children without a mating bond. Every werewolf alive would want to claim her.
    She glared at him. “Don’t you ever say that about him again. John was a good man who loved his children, and he was strong in ways you can never be.”
    “But you weren’t mated to him.” It was a shot in the dark.
    She blinked. Her face paled to a ghostly white. “How did you know?”
    Shit, that put a whole new spin on the situation. “I didn’t.”
    “Oh, God.”
    Oh, God, was right. “We wondered why the rogues came after you so aggressively.”
    Her chin came up. “Well, now you know.”
    Now he knew. “You should have told Wyatt.” The alpha wouldn’t have waited until a home was ready for the family before sending for them. But he had waited, knowing that transporting them would expose them to suspicion. Since they’d been hiding successfully for eight years, he hadn’t thought another couple months would matter. Of course, Sarah Anne hadn’t told him about the attack on Teri. And she hadn’t told him she was a breeder—a woman who could bear a wolf child outside a mating bond. A woman every werewolf would want because only the drive to mate was stronger in a wolf than the need to reproduce. Shit.
    “You kept a hell of a lot secret.”
    “With good reason.”
    Maybe. “Did your husband know you were a breeder?”
    “He didn’t even know I had wolf blood.”
    “He wasn’t worth much, was he?”
    She jerked back as if he’d struck her, and a terrible shadow of pain whipped around her. “I loved him.”
    But she hadn’t trusted him to handle the truth about her heritage. “Tell me, what were you going to do if your children showed signs of their mixed blood?”
    She took a step back. “Tell him the truth.”
    “And you think he would have accepted that?”
    She took another step back. Did she think it was that easy to run away from the truth?
    She glared at him, her brown eyes dark with the pain of what she didn’t want to admit. She might have loved her husband, but she hadn’t believed in his love for her.
    “He was five times the man you are.”
    He wasn’t going to argue that. A lot of men were better than him. Men who’d had the luxury of developing a love of rules while growing up, whereas he’d survived outside them. “Be that as it may, currently you and your children are at the mercy of whomever is strong enough to keep you. Right now I’m the one with the claim, so until you find someone stronger, running away ends now.”
    “No.”
    Another step and she’d be out of his reach. He grabbed her arm. An immediate awareness of her mixed heritage