Guardian Wolf Read Online Free PDF Page A

once they discovered the sheer difficulty of life as a rogue. Even so, most were still cast back out. The streak of rebellion and individuality ran too deep in most true rogues to ever adapt well to Pack life.
    For sheer survival, most rogues created mini-Packs of their own, ones that were not formally recognized by the regional Pack Councils. They simply banded together and existed in a slipshod gathering of loose rules, poor morals, and generally dissolute lifestyle. Kieran knew he looked down at rogues. Their outright dismissal of the Pack life that defined his very being disturbed him. They suffered hardscrabble lives, most of them, and died far before the centuries of life most wolf shifters enjoyed. It seemed an unfathomable concept when all they had to do was swear loyalty to a Pack, any Pack, and enjoy a hell of a better life.
    But these rogues...something about them prickled the fine hairs on Kieran’s body, spurred his own hunter lust along with wary realization. They seemed alert. Healthy. Strong.
    The speaker, who seemed to be channeling a Sturgis bike rally persona, was their pseudo-alpha. His very stance screamed stature, dominance, leadership. What the hell was such a wolf doing as a rogue?
    Before Kieran could wonder more, he noticed the wolf’s brazenly possessive, appreciative gaze...on Lily. Bright blue eyes, ice chip cold, took in her every inch with bold arrogance. Kieran’s wolf reared up in fury, pushing to be loosed. No other wolf looked at his mate that way.
    His mate? Kieran didn’t pause to analyze the thought now. Focus.
    The rogue wolf spoke with an unconcerned tumble of words that belied a cold calculation. “Seems like you don’t want to share your women. Too bad about that. We need a few.”
    Sara sucked in a gasp at the sheer audacity of the challenge, then snarled. Kieran sensed Lily holding her Packmate back from lunging.
    “Feisty,” the rogue leader murmured, slicing his eyes toward Sara. “Now, you could be fun. Darlin’.” He drawled the word in a mocking tone that elicited laughter from his crew, ranged behind him in menacing, if slightly desperate, rogue fashion.
    Kieran’s wolf bared its teeth in his mind. Kieran did too, letting his lip curl up over his human canines. A snarling shifter in human form was an oddly menacing sight because of the animal self lurking just beneath the surface. He leaned forward a bit, trusting himself to dominate these rogues—and stopped.
    Lily, bold and unhesitating, had stepped forward. Her entire being radiated anger as she pinpointed the rogue leader with a calculating gaze of her own. Not a shred of fear leaked through, if she even felt any. Forcing himself to stay back, Kieran admired his tough she-wolf more and more.
    “Who the hell do you think you are, coming into our territory? And levying fighting words like that? If you want Pack re-induction, that’s not the way to go about it. At all.” A ripple of scorn underlined her clipped words. A Pack Guardian, through and through. Kieran wondered if Lily realized she was slipping back into her natural mode.
    The rogue leader stared at Lily for a long moment. His expression teetered between amusement and primal desire. Again, Kieran’s wolf snarled.
    Finally, the rogue laughed, which his followers naturally echoed. Lily straightened in surprise.
    “Oh, now, that’s funny.” Again, the rogue’s eyes made a leisurely journey of Lily’s form, taking in Sara’s as well. The rude stare bristled all three Pack wolves, although Lily stared the rogue back down, not giving an inch. Damn, she was going to make a fine alpha mate.
    “What makes you think we want Pack re-induction?”
    Before Lily could answer, Sara snapped, “Why the hell else would you come here looking for females? You want to breed. You need a Pack for that.”
    Rogue wolves sometimes mated with human women, but offspring never happened. Human women couldn’t carry wolf shifters to term, so nature in all her