Wolf's Holiday by Rebecca Royce Read Free Book Online

it. “We’re not exactly friends, which is probably my fault.”
    Ryker’s mate sighed, no offense in her expression. “I didn’t seek you out either.”
    “I owe Drew a lot of apologies. I ran my mouth about things I shouldn’t have. Questioned some things. Mostly, I was wrong. I need to eat crow later and I’m obsessing over it a little bit.”
    Quiet for several long moments, Saja secured a string of lights before shaking her head. “The thing about living with these very powerful men is they actually need us to question them. Otherwise, they get the idea they know everything when they really don’t.”
    “He’s my Alpha.”She wondered how much the humans really felt that relationship. Or if they were only as attached as their wolf mates needed them to be.
    “Even at home?”
    Betty let out a breath she held. “No.”
    “See? There you go.”
    A scent wafted past Betty’s nose, and she immediately lost track of her conversation. She scanned the area until she spotted a figure she’d never thought to lay eyes on again in her lifetime quietly walking down the street as though he didn’t have a care in the world.
    “I’m sorry, Saja. I have to go.”
    A warm hand touched her arm. “All okay?”
    “No.”
    Betty walked away from the warmth of the humans toward the cold misery of a figure who’d made her adolescence so awful she placed him only below Magnum on the list of people to detest. Archie Bevin. The schoolteacher had managed ages twelve to fourteen when she’d been those ages.
    Trailing him, she kept her distance by remaining downwind. She didn’t want him to see her yet. First, she had to find her footing. What was he doing there, and why was he wandering around as though he had every right to?
    He’d been banished.
    She stopped walking abruptly as the reason for his presence slammed into her. He’d come back. Drew must have welcomed to the pack again. He was a returned wolf.
    Betty had to make sure. Turning on her heel, she ran to Drew’s office. No one was there when she arrived. Where had they all gone for the day? Rummaging through the papers, she finally found the folder she’d been looking for. The new pack mates. Sometime that morning, Drew had scribbled in his chicken scratch Stewart’s name on the paper.
    She looked over the others—recognizing several, including Roland, August, and Meyers—each name eliciting a memory. Most were benign, but the one she hadn’t wanted to find rested beneath the others. Worse, a nightmare who should never have been welcomed home. Archie.
    Violent sickness curdled her stomach, and Betty doubled over, her wolf threatening to force a shift to make her better. She held off the change. She needed her human self for a while. Otherwise, she might give in to the need to run and never return.
    Reaching out, she gripped the edge of Drew’s desk. She couldn’t even blame her mate, considering he didn’t know her history with the man. Quite simply, she’d pushed it out of her mind to the point she simply never thought about it.
    Magnum’s hand on the side of her face. “I got rid of the man, Elizabeth. I did it for you. My son’s wolf has noticed you. And your family would be a good combination with mine. I know you love him. Don’t tell him, not ever. Unless you want your mating not to be about your strong wolf and instead about him feeling sorry for you.”
    Betty stood. The need to run wasn’t her way anymore. She’d been young, hadn’t the skills or the ability to know better.
    She wasn’t that wolf anymore. Only Magnum had known. Archie had vanished. Ryker, in retrospect, had already started keeping to himself to avoid the Alpha’s moods. As much as she disliked the Enforcer, she didn’t doubt he’d have killed Archie if he’d known. If not then, then when he returned. If Magnum hadn’t told Gee, he wouldn’t have any more information than the rest of them.
    Her own parents were never informed. By herself or Magnum.
    Betty walked out