Bitten By Deceit Read Online Free PDF

kicking up dirt along the gravel road. He had an easy lilt to his step that she followed. How long had it been since they walked together like this? Would it ever happen again?
    Emma spoke first. “After you left, Meg asked about you often.”
    He smiled softly. “How is she?”
    She wasn’t sure how he’d react to hearing about Hadley. “She’s still picking out a college. I don’t want her to live there anymore, pining for Liam.”
    He merely grunted.
    They brushed against each other.
    A question bubbled on her lips. “Where did you go after you left? Stone Ridge couldn’t have been your first stop.”
    She wanted to ask him if he’d met anyone else. But this initial question would do.
    “You’re right. I wound up in Stone Ridge, but first, I’d headed west.” He kicked up a bit of gravel. “The desert is a great place to gather your thoughts. By the time I healed, I realized I had to find my own way, my own place somewhere else. Without a pack.”
    Without me . Emma winced at the thought. “Did you ever want to come back?”
    He stopped in the middle of the road. “Why would I?”
    “To claim the pack as your own! We need your strength.”
    “That rat bastard drove me out of town.   I have no plans to return to people who didn’t need or want me.”
    She covered her arms as a chill passed over her. “But I wanted you. I needed you.”
    “It’s not that simple, Em. Why don’t you ask yourself how come you didn’t leave with me?”
    She turned away from his gaze. She’d made a choice, albeit not the best one, but she couldn’t leave her sister behind. Not with Liam or the men under his command. She had a life and a home with her pack. Hell, she had a job and mortgage. Not many sane folks packed up overnight to walk away from their obligations just because of love. Even with those things she valued, why did she feel so empty inside after he’d left?
    “You could’ve taken Meg and come with me,” he blurted.
    Yes, she could have, but she hadn’t. She continued to walk down the road, leaving him behind.
    “Why did you stay?” he asked, not far behind. Slowly, he caught up with her, casting a moonlit shadow. “And don’t give me that excuse of your sister. Tell me.”
    Frantic butterflies fluttered in her stomach, and she didn’t want to speak the words on the edge of her lips. “I was scared.”
    He reached her side but didn’t look her way.  
    Oh, God. Why did it hurt so damn much to admit the truth? To take a step into the place where deep wounds waited to be reopened.
    “Everyone told me I was meant to be alpha female. You the pack alpha male. Everything fell into place when I fell in love with you also, but once you decided to leave after you lost the fight, I questioned whether you really loved me back.”
    Her stomach clenched painfully.
    No pause or reaction. He kept walking with a face carved in stone.  
    Initially, she’d even made plans to follow him. Even after Meg had kept asking her, “Are you sure you want to head off with someone who lost to the pack leader?” Emma suspected all those months before the fight that Meg desired Liam—always following him with dreamy eyes. The man who stood next to her had left Hadley. Yet in these few hours they’d been together, he’d protected her with his life. Even with the animosities of the past.
    Finally, he broke the silence. “Did anyone claim you after I left?”
    “Meg never knew, but Liam tried. And I refused.”
    Their arms brushed twice. By the third time, she noticed he’d drifted closer. So close that he caught her off-guard when he whipped her around and took her in his arms.
    “Kyle.”
    His mouth captured hers—determined and bold. She leaned into his hard body and momentarily wondered if he’d release her and end a beautiful moment where the only thing that existed was the hands that roamed from the small of her back to grasp her thick curls. Those deft fingers of his caressed the sensitive spot at the nape of