Found in Flames Read Online Free PDF

middle. Your choice, but don’t get too close to the bushes, they’re a real pain in the ass.”
    Mouth falling open in horror, Joella shifted and angled her stare up at his profile. “You can’t be serious.”
    “What,” he said. “You expected a toilet and running water out here?”
    Well, when you phrase it like that…. Groaning now, Joella squeezed her eyes shut and dropped her forehead into his shoulder. “How long until I can go home? Maybe I can just hold it.”
    “Sorry, Ella,” he said, “but I can’t make you any promises there.”
    She wasn’t sure what to say to that. On one hand his response made sense, she supposed, but she was stuck on the dumbest thing. Ella. Since her mother’s death, and her subsequent loss of the good friend she’d had in her youth, no one had called her that. It was what she called herself most of the time, but only in her head. “Are you a mind-reader?” she asked suddenly. “Can all werewolves read minds, or is it a special-to-you kind of thing?”
    His eyebrow was going to get stuck unnaturally high on his forehead if he kept giving her the look that followed that question. “No to both,” he replied after a long second. This time his lips did twitch and he added, “But your scent generally gives away your mood, so it doesn’t take a lot of effort to guess most things.”
    Well that’s embarrassing. But it didn’t explain the name thing.
    “Like embarrassment,” Luka offered teasingly when she didn’t say anything.
    Biting back another groan, Joella smacked him lightly in the side and stepped back. “Could you pretend not to know everything I’m feeling? And go back to the cave or something. You do not get to watch me pee.”
    She swore she could see him swallow his laughter as he inclined his head. “Watch out for snakes,” he said helpfully as he strode back toward the cave.
    Jerk. There weren’t any snakes out this time of year. She hoped.
     
    Having lingered long enough to sort out her scattered, confused thoughts, Joella decided she was due a few more answers. At the very least, some more thorough explanations, not the least of which had to include why Luka seemed to think she could just not show up for her regularly scheduled life without repercussion. Whether or not she liked it, after all, she still needed her job. So, as she returned to the small cave where she presumed Luka was waiting for her, she steeled herself for another argument.
    She just wasn’t expecting it to have started without her.
    “I won’t say it again,” Luka declared, his usually gruff voice just above a growl. “We stick to the plan.”
    Joella came up short, one hand landing on the outer stone wall of the cave. She couldn’t be positive, given that it had been dark when she’d been brought there and she’d never been properly introduced to Luka’s group, but she was fairly sure that was the dead man’s brother Luka was talking to.
    The smaller man flinched and Joella got the distinct impression he wasn’t usually comfortable arguing. Still, he tried. “But Justin—!”
    “Wouldn’t want you throwing your life away for revenge,” Luka said sharply. “We will get vengeance,” he added, “but I won’t tolerate you running off half-cocked.”
    Head hanging, the man clenched shaking fists and said, “Yes, Alpha.”
    Luka watched him trudge back toward the clearing where the rest had previously been gathered in silence and for a moment Joella wondered if he’d even realized she was there. He answered that unspoken question when he said, “I see you survived.”
    Biting her lip as she briefly reconsidered her earlier intent, Joella stepped forward. “Somehow,” she replied. Come on, Ella, you have to do this. Taking a breath, she added, “Listen, I understand your point, but I can’t just disappear from my life. I have a job, and I need to keep it to pay my bills.”
    During her little speech Luka had turned, frowning at her, and when she was done, he