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

Princess.”
    If it was a compliment, it was a strange one. I didn’t know what to say in response, so I just waited.
    “I’ll send Leah with some more normal clothes for you to wear. You must be ready to move soon.”
    “Move?”
    “Our pack moves towards your territory today and tomorrow. Do what I say and cleave close to me. Don’t try to escape, Princess. And if you try to ally with my sisters, know that they’ll be happy to cut your throat once they’ve finished with you.” He raised one finger in warning.
    “And you won’t?”
    It wasn’t a question to be answered, but Alekk leaned toward me anyway.
    “This morning… in front of the guards,” he said. “You did well.”
    Blood rushed to my face and I felt beads of sweat on my temple.
    “I was tempted, and I couldn’t resist the temptation,” he said. “I will repay you the kindness sometime, I promise.”
    My jaw dropped, and I couldn’t so much as put together a single word to respond to him. His eyes swept down my scantily clothed body, and I saw another flash of something—desire?—before he shut it away.
    He stood up straight, his face turning blank.
    “I’ve said too much already,” he said. “I’ll nap in my main tent.” He turned and opened the tent flap, throwing a single order back over his shoulder.
    “Get ready to leave.”

Chapter Six
    It was only a hour or so before Leah leaned in through the tent flaps and tossed an armful of clothes at my feet.
    “Get dressed,” she said. “We’ll be traveling shortly and it will be colder in the wind.”
    “Are you… will you shift?” I asked. “When you travel?”
    “You’ll see, human,” she said.
    “Wait!”
    She stopped in the doorway of the tent. Her long black braids swayed between her breasts. She was beautiful, and I wondered if she was jealous that the prince had chosen me. For some reason, the thought gave me a measure of comfort.
    “What is it?” she asked.
    “How long will it take us to reach… to reach the other territory?” I had almost slipped and called it my territory. Well, she might think I was a slave there, anyway. But she did not answer my question.
    “You’re too curious,” she said instead. “Stop thinking so much. That’s the job of the soldiers. It’s your job to please them, and you’ll do it in whichever territory we’re in.”
    “But—”
    “ I gave you a chance, ” she hissed, leaning into the tent. “I risked my life and gave you a chance. And you didn’t take it. So now you’ll follow orders. I don’t care what happens to you. You’ve brought it all on yourself.”
    She turned on her heel and left without a goodbye.
    “Thank you,” I murmured to nobody in particular, pulling the clothes toward me. There were leather moccasins, and a furred pelt sewn into a kind of baggy sack dress. It would cover me only a bit more than I was covered now, but it seemed as though that was all I would get to wear. The other women here—Leah, the sisters—could shift into wolf form to keep themselves warm.
    Nevertheless, I pulled the clothes over my skimpy pelts. It felt warmer already.
    A sound came from outside. It was a few short barks, and then a murmur rose.
    When I opened up the tent to see what was going on, I was shocked to see that the rest of the camp had already been dismantled almost completely. There were only a few tents left standing, and those were being taken down quickly. Wolves were trotting through the camp with packs bundled to their backs. One of them growled at me until I stepped back out of his way.
    From the sky, a sprinkling of snow fell. On the ground, wolf prints had already darkened the fallen snow with mud and leaves.
    “Alekk?” I called out. I didn’t know if I would recognize him in wolf form. “Leah?”
    Behind me, two soldiers were dismantling Alekk’s personal tent and packing it up. They ignored me as they worked. I suppose they thought that a human prisoner was nothing to worry about. I couldn’t