A Summer in Paradise Read Online Free PDF Page B

career. She just couldn’t take the
chance that Glenn would find her here. Pearl wanted a life and
children, but she knew she couldn’t bring her troubles to them. She
would have to stick to her original plans. A summer in Paradise was
all she could manage.

Chapter Eight
     
     
    Jarrod plowed into the boar, his claws
digging into the other animal’s flesh. Death was on his beast’s
mind as it attacked the large boar that threatened his
mate.
    The other animal squealed when he bit
down on its neck and Jarrod came to his senses. He couldn’t kill
this animal for being hungry or just being itself. Perhaps Pearl
was near its home and he attacked to protect it. Jarrod knew little
about feral swine.
    The boar took advantage of his
hesitation and scrambled free of his hold. Jarrod gladly chased the
other animal through the woods. He wanted it away from Pearl. He
didn’t want to hurt the thing. He only wanted to scare it
off.
    It never crossed his mind that the boar
could be another shifter, until it reached the edge of a cliff and
leapt over the side. An animal would have felt cornered and turned
to fight.
    Running to the edge, Jarrod looked down
to see the large hog plunge into the river below. It surfaced as a
man and swam to the other side. The only distinguishing
characteristic he could see was that whoever it was had
light-colored hair.
    He snarled down at the man, his jaguar
pawing the ground. He would have leapt over the cliff as well, to
continue his pursuit, but his animal side fought him. It wanted to
return to its mate. Jarrod didn’t fight it. He wanted to make sure
Pearl was all right as well. Turning around, he headed back to the
cabin, sure that Duncan would already have her inside and
protected.
    He wanted to know who would do such a
thing and since when did they have shifters that could turn into
boars? Was it an all-shifter? They could turn into a person’s
living room sofa if they wanted to.
    One thing was certain, whoever Pearl’s
assailant was, he had a death wish, because no male would ever
touch his mate with malice and live.
    Jarrod made his way back to the cabin.
He used a longer circuitous route that spread his scent far and
wide. If another shifter wanted to come for his mate, he would damn
well be forewarned that she was protected and by what.
    After about an hour, he made his way to
the cabin door. His dinner would be cold and it would most likely
be dry, if Duncan didn’t eat it all. Still, it wasn’t the food that
drew him, but the scent of their mate.
    He didn’t bother to knock. Instead, he
opened the door and looked inside. What he saw, made him want to
laugh, to shout with joy. Their mate was there and she was safe.
Her luscious scent filled the room and made him feel
welcome.
    Fire burned in his gut as he looked at
her. Her scent nearly drove him wild. He burned for her in a way he
had never burned for another woman. What was it about mates that
cause such an intense reaction? He’d heard about it before. Others
had told him about how a mate could seemingly turn him inside
out.
    He never really believed it until
now.
    “ Don’t just stand there.
Come on in.” Pearl smiled at him. She sat at the table in front of
a clean plate.
    “ Why haven’t you eaten?” he
asked when he heard her stomach growl.
    He glared at Duncan. “Why haven’t you
taken care of her needs?”
    “ Don’t give me that look.”
Duncan returned his glare with one of his own. “She wouldn’t eat
without you.” He grinned. “She was worried.”
    Worried? What could she have been
worried about? That boar couldn’t hurt him, even if it was a
shifter—unless it was an all shifter. Then it could have changed
into anything and ripped him to shreds.
    Jarrod was leaning toward it being a
part of a species they didn’t know existed. Otherwise it would have
changed into something else to gain the advantage. Instead, it had
taken the cowardly way out and jumped over the cliff.
    Whoever the shifter was, Jarrod