Savage Seduction: A Dire Wolves Mission (The Devil's Dires Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

cross paths with psychopaths.
    She’d be dead as well.
    The clack of her heels on the stone floors was too much of a reminder of what had just happened in New York, of the fear and the running. Again. For years, Charmeine had lived on a never-ending loop of barely making it out alive whenever the Apex Hunters decided it was time to come after her again. And she was tired of it all.
    “Charmeine.”
    Finn’s voice behind her did nothing to slow her down. She knew he wanted to check on her, and she knew she’d need to talk about what happened eventually. But she wasn’t ready. Not even close. So she kept stalking through the halls of his home, avoiding the other shifters there and doing her best to keep from exploding. But Finn followed her, of course.
    Thank the fates she was with Finn when this silly mating happened, and that it was him tracking her down. He knew her, understood her in a way no one else did. He would let her come to grips in her own way and on her own timeline, even if he did refuse to let her be alone. His footsteps echoed just as much as hers in the empty halls, but he didn’t move closer. A testament to the man’s patience, really. He could have easily overtaken her—could have raced after her, caught her, and forced her to stop and face whatever he felt the need to say. Instead, he followed at a bit of a distance. Giving her the space to breathe. The opportunity to calm herself.
    Not that it was working.
    “How dare this happen now?” Charmeine asked as she reached a dead end in a dark and shadowed hallway. “I’m still not even able to walk outside alone, and we have all of these families converging on this town. A mating right now is the worst possible thing that could have happened.”
    “Not the worst.” Finn leaned against the wall, looking patient and steadfast as always. “We have no control over matings. Fate doesn’t ask our opinions.”
    Charmeine was not in the mood for that logic. “Well, fate can fuck right off.”
    Finn chuckled darkly. “Your father would be appalled at your language.”
    “No.” She growled, rage making her heart race and her nails curve into claws as her wolf began to take control. “My father is dead, and not even you have the right to use his memory against me.”
    Finn’s face fell, a look of pain streaking across his handsome features. “That wasn’t my intention. I’m simply trying to contain—”
    Charmeine’s growl grew to a snarl. Finn stopped speaking, frozen in midsentence. Knowing he’d just screwed up. That word, that statement, was the absolute wrong thing to say.
    “I will not be contained or controlled.” Charmeine growled again and fought back her shift. Her joints ached as her inner wolf waged war against her human body, but she resisted. Suffered and wanted to cry, but resisted. “I am not some prize to be won, and I will not allow myself to be claimed by some…some…”
    But the words wouldn’t come. She wanted to call him a cretin, a Neanderthal, something disgusting and insulting. But her soul wouldn’t allow it. He wasn’t disgusting. He was handsome in the most base and rough way. Tall and muscled, thicker than most shifters she knew, with dark brown hair and a wickedly naughty smirk that made every inch of her take notice. But what had stunned her, what had nearly stolen her breath, was the depth in his eyes. The honesty she could almost feel there. He had snagged her attention with that one look, made her practically shake with a need that pulsed and burned…and didn’t that just piss her off even more?
    Charmeine huffed and took off again, heading for the suite of rooms Finn had offered her when she’d arrived. He followed, of course, because he always followed. He never let her hide from the situations around her. A most irritating trait, but one that had kept her alive. So far.
    She stormed into her room but continued to pace, growling and snarling as her thoughts went from what her new mate was—handsome,