Beloved Wolf Read Online Free PDF

parents occupied a large suite in the south wing, Sophie’s and Amber’s bedrooms were also located there, with the north wing housing their brothers and foster siblings.
    A full house. A lovely house. Once a happy house.
    But not anymore.
    â€œLuckily you’ll have no stairs to navigate,” Joe Colton told his daughter as he stopped the car and turned off the ignition. “Even with the brace off, I think you’re going to have to get used to being called Gimpy for a while, at least by your brothers. Just remember, Sophie, it’s a measure of their affection.Everyone’s been worried sick about you. Boys just often don’t know how to say what’s really in their hearts.”
    Sophie smiled, shook her head at her father. “Senator, you know, you never cease to amaze me. How can you still be giving us all lessons? Did it ever occur to you that we might be grown up now?”
    â€œNever. Not in my wildest dreams,” Joe answered, reaching over to flick a fingertip against Sophie’s nose. She flinched at the near contact and turned her head, raising a hand to the scar on her left cheek.
    â€œBaby—”
    â€œNot now, Dad,” Sophie said tightly. She’d been nervous ever since they’d gotten within twenty miles of the ranch. Nervous about her welcome, who would be there to welcome her home, what they’d think when they saw her. “Let’s just get inside, okay?”
    Leaving the baggage in the trunk, Joe quickly came around and opened the car door for Sophie, then walked with her to the front door that stood open in welcome. Their housekeeper, Inez Ramirez, waited there, a broad smile on her wide, pleasant face. “Welcome home, Miss Sophie,” Inez said, holding out her arms, and Sophie gratefully walked into them, allowing the hug, needing the hug.
    Then it was time to pass into the large great room that made up the nerve center of the house, a huge room furnished well, but casually.
    The empty room.
    â€œDad?” Sophie asked, turning to her father, who then pointed toward the wall of glass doors leading out to the courtyard. Following his gesture, Sophiecould see Meredith Colton lounging on a chaise beside the pool, clad in a bra-like swim top and a long, filmy, patterned skirt, dark glasses shading her eyes.
    â€œI’ll go get her,” Joe offered, but Sophie shook her head and started for the doors. “Sophie, she couldn’t know the exact time we’d arrive,” he called after her, then swore under his breath and quickly turned his back on a scene he didn’t have the strength to witness.
    Sophie limped out onto the patio, slowly made her way down the steps and past the fountain. The beauty of the courtyard was lost to her, its sights, its sounds, its glorious smells. All she could see was her mother, the woman who had spoken to her on the telephone only a single time in the past six weeks, the woman who hadn’t had the time or the inclination to visit her in San Francisco.
    Sophie stood beside the chaise and looked down at the woman who had taught her how to tie her shoes, who had giggled with her when Sophie had tried on her very first training bra, who had put up her hair for her the night of the senior prom. The woman who had kissed her cuts and scrapes, hand sewn her Princess Leia Halloween costume, held her when she cried because River James was just the most awful, miserable, nasty boy in the whole entire world.
    Who are you? Sophie asked silently, gazing down at the sunscreen-slick woman with the bloodred fingernails, the perfectly coiffed golden-brown hair, the too-youthful swimsuit…the pitcher of martinis on the table beside her. Who are you? Because you aren’t my mother anymore. You can’t be my mother.
    â€œHello, Mother,” Sophie said at last, when Meredith Colton didn’t respond to her presence. “I’m home.”
    Meredith raised a hand, removed her sunglasses,