Keeper of the Alphas - Complete Read Online Free PDF

that was where the bear’s head had come from. Only it seemed so delicate, so precise, and so unlike this bull of a man at the table. “Where’d you learn to do that?” she asked, genuinely curious.
    He shrugged. “Taught myself.” His eyes were back on his plate, as though he was embarrassed about that fact.
    A grin lifted the edge of her lips. “And you couldn’t teach yourself to do anything about the roof?” For all that this place was beautiful on the inside, it looked like it was crumbling to pieces on the outside.
    That drew a wry smile from him. “I like the way it looks. Keeps people away.”
    “Uhuh,” she said, dubiously, and finished up her eggs. “What’s so bad about people?”
    His expression darkened again. “What is this, an interview?”
    “Yeah, maybe,” she said and picked up his plate and hers, dropping them both in the sink. “If I’m going to be living with you, I might as well get to know you.”
    “We’re not living together,” he said sternly. “You’re leaving—”
    “Yeah, after the service, I got it ,” she sighed and turned at the sink to face him. “Trust me, no one wants to leave this hellhole of a small town more than I do. But until then, this place belongs to me. You got a car?”
    He nodded, fingers curled around the coffee mug. “Out back.”
    “Where’re the keys?” He went silent when he started to see where this was going. She spotted a set hanging by the foyer and walked over, snatching them up and holding them up for him to see. “These the ones?”
    Begrudgingly, he said, “Yeah.”
    “Seeing as your car is parked at my place, I could have it towed, but I think I’ll take it for a spin instead. How does that sound?”
    His eyes could pierce through her. He growled, “Do what you want, you seem good at it.”
    “Great talk,” she said and snatched up her purse, leaving out the back door.
    “Be back before dark,” he warned, but she just flipped him the bird on her way out.
     

Chapter 7
    Stealing his car had been a great idea at first but the second she saw it she instantly regretted it. He drove a rusted-out red 1977 GMC pickup truck and it was as clunky on the road as it looked. She kept the beast under the speed limit and crawled it into to town, praying it didn’t fall to pieces on the road. By time she jerked it into a parking spot outside Peaches & Cream and killed the glugging engine, she was already fifteen minutes late.
    The small café was cute, faux vintage, with a kind of sophistication and bohemian style Cami wasn’t used to seeing around Tyburn. Jazz Age elevator music scatted from the covered hanging speakers as she glanced around the packed space.
    “Camilla, darling!” Aunt Sadie was easy to spot, even when she wasn’t wildly waving her arms around, shouting Cami’s name. The buxom older woman looked like a peacock, perpetually dressed for summer with reds, greens, and yellows splashed over her dress and continuing onto her floppy sun hat.
    Cami felt a weird press of emotion against her chest and suddenly wanted to turn around and bolt. Instead, she offered a smile and closed the gap between her and her aunt. “Good to see you,” she managed to squeeze out as Sadie pulled her into a bone-crushing hug.
    “Oh, sweetheart, it’s been too long. But I’d know that face anywhere.” Sadie already looked wet-eyed and her bare emotions made Cami uncomfortable.
    “Hey,” murmured Jenny, Cami’s cousin, who neither moved from her spot at the table nor lifted her eyes from her phone. Jenny was the yang to Sadie’s yin ; she had her mother’s dark black hair, bright eyes, and china-doll round face, but that was where the similarities stopped. Jenny—Cami’s junior by only a year—was a slim little thing made of sharp edges—sharp shoulders, sharp hips—and wore a permanent apathetic frown.
    Slightly more comfortable in the shadow of Jenny’s cold distance, Cami pulled up a chair beside her cousin and gave her