Shelter Me (Sawtooth Shifters, #6) Read Online Free PDF Page B

it were the other way around.”
    The room spun. “I can’t, because we never had mates. Every woman in the world is off-limits, remember? Although, the more I think about it, I can imagine how I’d feel—I’ve wanted Lyssie, but I’ve stayed away because unlike the two of you idiots, I knew it was a disaster. Now it’s worse. I don’t know this she-wolf. We have no bond. That’s the thing, right? We mate for love. The wound will heal, and the whole ridiculous thing will fade back to the nothing it should be. We won’t let this change the course of our pack. ”
    Shadow shook his head. “Fuck no. But she tasted your blood, her life flows through your veins now. It’s not that simple.”
    I ran my hand hard over my face. My brother knew what I wasn’t telling him. “Chandra said it was curable.”
    “Who the fuck is Chandra, anyway?” Baron sat on the desk, putting a level of separation between me and Shadow. Of all of us, Baron was the one who’d remained true to tradition. He’d do anything to keep peace. “She showed up out of nowhere—what does she know about our packs? Where do her loyalties lie? Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled we’ve got someone here that understands werewolf medicine, or whatever voodoo spell she’s got going on. You might like what she has to say, but Shadow’s been here his whole life, and he’s our alpha. He’s not blowing smoke up your ass. He’s telling you the thing you don’t want to hear so you can fucking deal with it.”
    My gaze locked with Shadow’s. All my life I’d looked up to my brother. I fought with him and for him. I would’ve done anything to make him our alpha, and now that he was, I questioned every decision he made. He’d changed, paying the highest price for our freedom—murder. Still, I would’ve followed him blindly into battle. As wolves, that’s what we did. Until now.
    “She’s not my mate. I won’t live a lie.” I’d never wanted my brother to be wrong before. “And Lyssie—“
    “Lyssie’s what got you into this mess in the first place. Those wolves didn’t come in here blind. They watched us. I didn’t get bit, neither did Baron. Because we committed. That’s what having a mate means. The good and the bad. Not just when it’s convenient.”
    Lyssie’s voice echoed in my brain, like a wind chime banging against the wall in the storm. Every person I’ve ever trusted has left me. I can’t trust you. I know how this ends. My own voice thundered in response: Let’s write a new story. It’s what we had to do. Smash the rules to pieces, and make them apply to us. I rubbed the sweat from my brow. I’d probably lost my mind; the first step in the sickness, the inability to tell reality from fever dreams. I wouldn’t break that promise to her. We’d both had our doubts about each other, but we kept coming back because we needed more. Something about us made sense.
    Her touch cooled me. It had to mean something.
    “You taught me being in this pack meant being loyal to those who fought for you. If it wasn’t for Lyssie, I’d be dead. And you know what? Fuck tradition. Where was tradition when our true mates were sold off? Nowhere. We were left to take care of ourselves. And that’s what I’m going to do.”
    Shadow leaned back in his chair. “You’ll start a war.”
    “You don’t want those wolves here. If I turn my back on Lyssie, I may as well turn my back on you. Yeah, we’ll have to fight, what else is new? You know one thing, Shadow. I have your back. No matter what. Do you have mine?”
    “Of course,” he said without any hesitation.
    I needed to get back to Lyssie. Not only because we needed to fix whatever was broken between us, we need to fix whatever had been broken in Sawtooth Forest.
    It was time to write a new story.

Chapter Seven
    L yssie
    After Kiera shared her story, I knew my best friend was invincible. If she could survive a bomb blast and still start every day with a smile on her face, after