Masquerade Read Online Free PDF

“Without me, the town will of course choose to forgo your lil’ shindig.”
    “Really?” Tempest drawled. “It seems all the ones who called to RSVP yes may not have been privileged to that information. Lorna, why do you want to come to my home? We’ve never been friends or even civil to each other. It’s like you’re in high school again and you want what you can’t have. You are not stepping across the threshold of my home.”
    “Listen to you, trying to be fancy. You can’t make a purse out of a sow’s ear. We all know your upbringing. You ain’t special because you got two men in your bed.” Lorna’s voice took on a nasty tone.
    Tempest sighed. “Lorna, I never claimed to be. I’m proud of my upbringing just like I’m sure your daddy loved knowing that you spent your teenage and, well, most of your life with your legs behind your ears.”
    “Bitch, I’m going to make you suffer,” Lorna yelled. “You’re just mad because I got what you can’t have. Bubba never wanted you.”
    “Right, and you’re still not coming to my home,” Tempest said. “Have a fabulous Halloween.”
    “Oh, I’m going to be there,” Lorna snapped. “You can’t stop me.”
    Tempest laughed. “And you’ll get a surprise you never expected.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “It means show up at your own risk,” Tempest said. “Goodbye, Lorna.”
    She hung up the phone just as Alex and Dominic walked into the kitchen.
    “Who was that?” Dominic asked as he opened the fridge. He threw a bottle of Brisk Iced Tea to Alex who caught it easily.
    “Lorna threatening to come to the Halloween party and said that if she can’t none of the town will,” Tempest replied.
    Alex laughed. “Does she know that even her father is coming?”
    Tempest grinned. “It’s killing her that she’s not a part of it.”
    “You’re getting some kind of perverse pleasure out of her misery, aren’t you?” Alex said.
    “Me? Oh, no.” Tempest smiled and then held up her fingers. “Well, maybe this much.”
    “We came in for a bit of a break and some lunch. The west wall is completely done and the gates are working just fine,” Dominic said.
    “I had another call. A male with a snarly voice threatening me and both of you. I’ve been slated for breeding it seems,” Tempest said as mildly as possible, yet both Dominic and Alex’s heads snapped up.
    “What?” Dominic’s voice was low. Alex growled and bared his teeth.
    “I think it was one of the guys from that pack,” she explained. “They’re going after Acadia, aren’t they?”
    “They will not be here,” Alex said harshly. “The one that called to threaten you, he’s going to be dead.”
    “Oh, Alex, no, I don’t want to ever see you hurt again.”
    He slammed his drink on the counter and looked up at her. His eyes had become the wolf. “So you want me to lay down for those fuckers, let them threaten you, Dominic and our home?”
    “No, baby, I’m not saying that.” Tempest moved toward him and put her hand on his heaving chest. “Calm down. I’m just scared…of losing you both.”
    He cupped her cheek and kissed her hard. “You won’t lose us, but don’t try to collar us either. If we have to fight, we fight. This will not end with us playing peacemaker or being passive.”
    “I understand. I just want you to be safe,” she whispered.
    He rested his forehead against hers. “We will, I promise.”
    Dominic came up behind her and she was sandwiched between their warmth. “There’s nothing that would keep us from coming home to you. The devil himself couldn’t hold me in hell.”
    She reached back and cupped his neck. “He’d have me kicking in his door to come get you.”
    “We still have the pumpkin bouncy house and all those inflatable things to put up.” Alex’s hand ran down her legs before he pulled her to him. “Maybe we can have a small break.”
    “Nothing about you is small, Alex Wakefield,” Tempest replied and moaned when Dominic