Bride to the Alpha (The Wolf's Pet Book Two) Read Online Free PDF Page A

was.
    I had never felt so alone. Tears stung the backs of my eyes.
    “Did Leah leave any salve here?” he asked.
    I nodded and pointed at the small pot of salve, wiping a tear away. He noticed it and his face softened.
    “Good,” he said. “Come here and turn around.”
    I sat in front of him, my hands trembling as I held out the pot for him to take. He took it from my hands without touching my fingers. The pressure inside me ached. I needed his touch. Needed it! I hated myself for that need.
    “I’m going to take this bandage off,” he said. “I don’t know if we have another new one for you to use, but it should be alright for another day.”
    As he spoke, his fingers brushed the back of my neck. It was a shock of sensation, but I knew that only I felt it, and I sat very still, trying not to let him see how his touch affected me. Immediately, the pain on the back of my neck eased. He was putting salve on the blisters.
    “Is the skin peeling?” I asked softly.
    “No. Only red. It doesn’t look infected. You’ll be fine.”
    Fine. I was a slave in a pack of shifters determined to invade my territory. Fine was the last word I would have used to describe my condition. And yet, as his strong fingers soothed my burn with salve, I felt better. More at ease.
    I’d heard of prisoners who fell in love with their captives. Was that what was happening to me? I shook my head. Alekk was an enemy. If I could sacrifice myself to him so that my pack might live, I would do that.
    “Why did you lie?” I asked.
    “What?”
    “Before. When we were in front of your sisters. Why did you lie to them?”
    “I don’t remember lying,” Alekk said coldly. His hands plastered the bandage down over my brand. It hurt, but not nearly as much as before.
    “You don’t want them to know that I can shift,” I said. “Isn’t that—”
    “Listen to me,” Alekk said, coming around and kneeling on the ground in front of me. He gripped me by my shoulders. I cried out in shock, but the feeling of his hands on my skin warmed me immensely. I calmed down and looked up at his blazing blue eyes.
    “Yes?” I asked.
    “My sisters are very powerful in this pack,” he said.
    “But… aren’t you the alpha?”
    “It’s not that simple. They gained control over our Council after my father died. They are older than I am, and the Council leans on them to make decisions.”
    “What about you?”
    “I was not smart enough to build power when I was young. They had a head start. They’ve influenced just about everyone who holds sway in this pack. So they wield all the power.”
    He stared at me for a moment more, then narrowed his eyes. His hands fell away from my shoulders.
    “For now,” he added. “For now.”
    My eyes dropped to his neck. I could see the beginning of the scar peeking up through his clothes. Were the rumors true? When he caught my eye, I looked away quickly. I didn’t want to talk about his scars. Not yet. I asked another question instead to fill the silence.
    “Is that why you were the one sent as a messenger to our pack?”
    “Very likely. They might have thought they’d get rid of me easily that way. But I wasn’t too afraid to go. I’d heard your pack was weak.”
    "Why didn't you escape?"
    "Escape?"
    "When they sent you away. You could have just run away anywhere you wanted.”
    “It’s my pack,” Alekk snapped at me. His blue eyes blazed with anger. “I won’t abandon them. As corrupt as the Council is, they are not the whole pack.”
    “Your pack is immoral,” I said boldly. To my surprise, he didn’t disagree with me. Instead, he shook his head sadly.
    “We used to be warriors,” he said. “Now we are brutes.”
    “Because your sisters want it that way?”
    “They are as traditionalist as my father was. And they go even further. I’d hoped to be able to change some things when my father died. And they changed, alright. Things changed for the worse. We began the branding. And the mutilation of