Bear Necessities (Bad Boy Alphas): A Post-Apocalyptic Bear Shifter Romance Read Online Free PDF Page A

and tethered his stallion to a nearby tree, urging her to stay back.
     
    Even the seasoned war horse backed away from the pacing, snarling wolf, but Sibyl was too entranced to keep her distance. The wolf was snow white with silver streaks, the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen in her life. She wanted to reach out and touch it, but she wasn’t that foolish. Its canines were long and impossibly sharp, still bared at them as Alistair grabbed Sibyl by the elbow and pulled her safely back against him.
     
    “Are ye scared, lass?” He had trapped her in his arms. She struggled against his hold, but he had her held quite fast, and his grip only grew tighter as she squirmed to get free. The truth was, she wasn’t afraid of it—she was in awe. “Ye know, wolves’re ferocious animals. Man-eaters.”
     
    She stopped wriggling in his arms, listening to him speak, her gaze locked with the wolf. It was such a beautiful creature and, looking into its eyes, she saw a sadness there that was quite human. It knew it was trapped, doomed to die, and was desperate to escape. The animal had stopped pacing. It stood facing them, head lowered, eyes fixed on them, black lips lifted to reveal two rows of sharp incisors and pink gums. A thick, low growl came from its throat.
     
    “How did it get here?” she asked softly, although she had a feeling she already knew.
     
    “Our huntsman baits ‘em.” His hands moved over her dress, no longer holding her arms clasped against her middle. They moved slowly down her hips as he talked. “Makes ‘em groggy enough t’move ‘em. If he finds a wolf afore the hunt, he pens it up ‘ere fer ‘is laird.”
     
    “Do you release it then?” She stiffened, breath caught, as she felt him slowly hiking up her dress in front. The satchel, heavy against her thigh, was still pinned there. “For the hunt?”
     
    “Nuh, lass. Did ye forget, I’m laird?” He chuckled. She’d never heard him quite so smug. There was something gleeful and almost sinister in his voice. “Tis my kill. My conquest.”
     
    “Your… conquest?” She swallowed as she felt the cool forest air against her shins, her garters and hose little protection. He had lifted her skirt to her knees now. Her heart hammered hard in her chest. She was far more afraid of Alistair finding her satchel than she was of the enormous wolf baring its teeth at them. “You mean to kill it now, like this? In a cage?”
     
    “Aye.” He hiked her skirt up a little higher, making Sibyl gasp aloud. The wolf snarled, snapping at the air, shaking its big white head from side to side, spraying her legs with froth. “And drag it out behind me horse.”
     
    “But… she’s with pup,” Sibyl whispered with dawning horror. The animal’s belly was swollen and distended. It wasn’t just horrifying that his men would lock up an animal, let him shoot it in a cage, and then pretend their laird had done something courageous by “hunting” it—but that they would do so while it was breeding? That was beyond the pale.
     
    “Aye, she is.” Alistair chuckled. “We’ll rid the woods of more than one wolf today.”
     
    Sibyl felt her cheeks flush hot with rage. Her heart had previously been filled to the brim with disdain for this man, but now it overflowed completely. She couldn’t hide her derision and was glad he couldn’t see the contemptuous look burning in her eyes. The wolf, who had been growling and pawing at the bottom of the cage as if it could manipulate the latch, suddenly stopped, cocking its head to the side like it was listening for something.
     
    Alistair, of course, hadn’t noticed. He was too interested in getting under Sibyl’s dress to pay any attention to the animal he had imprisoned, and Sibyl trembled, terrified he might actually discover what was beneath the cover of her skirts. He mistook her quivering for excitement, exhaling hot against her neck with breath that reeked of alcohol and tobacco, slobbering against her