Kissing the Werewolf - An Izzy Cooper Novel Read Online Free PDF

as normal as possible in Ayden’s eyes. He didn’t exactly embrace the high strangeness of Storm Cove, or my family background.
    Ayden nodded. “The Simmons family belongs to the Storm Cove pack.”
    Nodding, I fought off the urge to fill in the blanks for him. “What about the other pack?”
    “Well that would be the Gypsy pack, from on the other side of the island.”
    My mouth dropped. “No kidding?”
    Roseland was a little settlement on the west side of the island, known to locals as Gypsy Camp. They called it that because that’s exactly what Roseland started out as. The people who settled Roseland weren’t descended from the original shipwreck, but from a band of roving Gypsies.
    In the early 1900s, a group of gypsies arrived on the island. The townspeople ran them out of Storm Cove. With nowhere else to go, they set up camp on the other side of Mystique Island, and had been there since.
    The Gypsies mostly kept to themselves, but they did have run-ins with the townspeople every now and again.
    “What are you thinking?” I asked, though I already had a pretty good idea what he was going to say, and I was dreading it.
    “Pack war. We have two packs on this island, and it has always been an uncomfortable truce. Maybe the Gypsy pack has decided to declare war,” he suggested.
    That’s exactly what I was afraid he would say. “But why after a hundred years would they all the sudden decide they want control of the entire island?”
    “They have a new alpha,” he sighed and got to his feet. “I think we need to pay a visit to Elias Moreland.”
    I couldn’t breathe.
    There was a lump in my throat the size of a baseball, and it was doing a damn good job of choking me to death.
    “Not a good idea,” I croaked, when I could finally draw in enough air to utter anything but gurgling sounds.
    Arching his brow, he asked, “Why not?”
    I was drawing a blank. Not a single excuse would present itself, so I groped for the first thing that came to mind.
    “I have a nail appointment this afternoon.”
    He wasn’t buying it.
    “Talk to me Izzy. Why don’t you want to question Elias?”
    It was time to fess up. After all, Ayden was my boss and could fire me if he wanted. I figured it probably wasn’t a good idea to lie to him.
    “Well I kind of had a thing for him back in high school,” I confessed.
    There wasn’t so much as a hint of a smile on his face, but his blue eyes were dancing with laughter. “Do you still have a thing for him?”
    I was mortified. “Of course not!”
    It was a total lie, but a girl has her limits, even with her boss.
    “Then let’s go.”
    I should have told Ayden about seeing Elias at the Bayside Grill, and how strange he’d been acting, but that would have only added to the problem.
    Of course I would have to mention it sooner or later, but not just yet. I would let the team in on that information once there was good reason to believe Elias was the perpetrator. As it was, I was fairly sure Ayden was jumping to conclusions.
     

Chapter Four
     
    It was only a short distance from the lighthouse to Roseland, but that was if you took the trail through the woods. If you drove, which is what we were doing, the only way to get there was by way of the Island Loop Highway. This was the little two-lane road that followed the coastline all the way around the island.
    Why they’d taken to calling it a highway, I had no clue.
    The entire island was beautiful, but I was especially fond of the area around Roseland. With its windswept pines, and sheer cliffs dropping right into the sea, the Roseland side of Mystique Island was like a masterpiece of natural beauty. I was especially fond of the wild roses that grew everywhere, which of course was how the settlement got its name.
    During my high school days, I’d spent nearly as much time creeping around Roseland, as I’d spent in Storm Cove. Always it was with the hope of running into Elias.
    I was fifteen the first time I saw him.
    Elias