Dire Desires: A Novel of the Eternal Wolf Clan Read Online Free PDF Page B

her, Jinx will flay you.
    Message received, because Stray and Kill both gave him a warm greeting but stayed by his side when looking at Gillian.
    “Do you recognize her?” Jinx asked.
    “She’s got to be from the Greenland pack but I don’t recognize anything about her,” Stray said tightly. “Then again, if she’s not immortal, I might not ever have known her.”
    They both knew Stray wouldn’t have known her at all, the way he’d been caged and isolated by his family in Greenland. There was no love lost for that pack from anyone in this household.
    Kill walked to the end of the table and uncovered Gillian’s feet. Gently, he lifted the left and checked the heel, nodded as though he’d found what he expected. “There’s a marking here. A brand given at birth to everyone born to the Greenland pack, for tracking purposes.”
    Stray went to look at his own heel but Kill said quietly, “You weren’t given one. It’s a good thing, brother.”
    Stray’s brow furrowed. “I guess it is.”
    Kill recovered Gillian’s feet. “She looks like Arrow’s family,” Kill said decisively. “Are her eyes blue? Aqua?”
    “Yes,” Jinx confirmed.
    “That’s their signature. Never seen a color quite like it before. Arrow’s one of the nobility—their family’s been running the pack since forever. But this doesn’t make sense. She’d have been too young for any of them to detect powers. No prophecy on her. Why would they let her go like that?”
    “Stolen?” Jinx suggested.
    “Could’ve been,” Stray muttered. He had his laptop open and went to the corner where Gwen had a small desk set up. “Let me get on her records.”
    Jinx stroked the hair from Gillian’s face. Gwen had given a quick sponge bath to the unconscious Dire, so now her golden skin seemed to glimmer under the lights. She’d also brushed Gillian’s hair so it shone with health. But despite how healthy she looked, this would still be a rough road for her.
    “I’ve got to go,” Jinx told Gwen.
    “Rifter’s on his way,” she started but he shook his head. This was too hard—leaving her—without seeing his king again. He wasn’t ready, wasn’t accepted back and none of this was right.
    “Just take care of her. And keep me up-to-date.”
    “I will, Jinx.” She turned to the vampire. “You take good care of him or I’ll kill you myself.”
    “Impossible, but point taken,” Jez said dryly.

Chapter5
    T he truck was halfway down the driveway when Jinx slammed out of the moving vehicle, ignoring Jez’s cursing. He was halfway across the yard in the dusk at record speed until he stood directly in front of his brother.
    “You’re not a fucking ghost, are you?” he breathed and Rogue shook his head, which was shaved and covered in markings on the left side of his skull and cheek. He wore a black wife beater and old jeans and he looked nothing like the wolf he’d grown up with.
    Everything about Rogue had changed, and Jinx didn’t know how he’d failed to notice the transformation over the past six months.
    Because you didn’t want to.
    “I’m very much alive,” Rogue said finally, his voice a rasp.
    “Vice said . . . he said you’d call. But you didn’t.”
    Rogue didn’t look surprised. “No, I didn’t.”
    “I didn’t feel you,” Jinx confessed.
    “It took for you to be close to the house before you were on my radar,” Rogue told him. “Maybe it’ll never come back for you. Maybe it’s not meant to.”
    “Right. Because I’d corrupt you and your gift.” Jinx didn’t mean to sound so bitter but Rogue was acting like he was a perfect goddamned stranger. Granted, he hadn’t exactly rolled out the welcome wagon or raced over here when Vice filled him in, but he’d convinced himself that he was helping Rogue, keeping his secret until he was ready for his big reveal to King Rifter and the others.
    But it wasn’t that at all. He was scared to see Rogue, and he still wasn’t exactly sure why. As he scanned