Shifters of Silver Peak: Mate For A Month Read Online Free PDF

to throw temper tantrums – she was female, after all – so she did, and it worked very well.
    “They don’t even sell these shoes here! And now my outfit! Ruined!” That came out as a scream, a very high-pitched one, which had all the shifters within earshot rubbing their ears in pain.
    Verity winced. She muttered, “Congratulations to the, er, happy couple,” and turned and hurried off towards her car, with her advisors following her. Then she paused, turned around and stalked back. She stared at Eileen’s neck.
    “Wait a minute. Where’s your Mate Mark?”
    “Skin allergies,” Marcus growled, at the same time Eileen said, “My pack doesn’t Mate-Mark.”
    “What?” Verity’s eyes narrowed. “Which is it?”
    “Both,” Eileen said quickly. “I have skin allergies, and the doctor recommended no Mate Mark until they’re cleared up. And my people do not believe in Mate-Marking, so we may not do it at all.”
    “Everyone Mate-Marks, except for certain New York and Connecticut shifters.” Verity’s tone was skeptical.
    “Yes. I’m Eileen Pennyroyal. We do not Mate-Mark.”
    “You’re a Pennyroyal?” Verity raked Eileen’s mud-spattered outfit with a look of scorn.
    “ Excuse me?” Eileen drew herself up to her full height, and her offended gaze bored holes into Verity. “Did you just question my lineage?”
    Roman, Marcus, and several other shifters who’d wandered up, all stopped short and stared at her in surprise. Eileen had channeled her elegant, aristocratic mother just then, and she’d done it well.
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any offense,” Verity said hastily. Then she hesitated. “I will need to verify this with your family.”
    Brief panic clutched at Eileen’s throat, and then it faded. If her father thought she was mated, married, or whatever he cared to call it, he couldn’t make her go back home to New York. He couldn’t try to force her to marry Beacham.
    And Roman would agree to the road being built on his pack’s property, so she could rub that in her father’s face.
    “Please, go ahead,” she replied coolly. “Daddy doesn’t approve of the mating, mind you, but he’ll come around. Or not. He has no say in it.”
    Verity nodded, looking suspicious but much more respectful now.
    “Did you do a formal ceremony?” she asked Roman. “Do you have the certificate?”
    “Oh, for God’s sake,” Roman growled. “I told you, we’re not big on formality here.”
    “No Mate Mark and no certificate?” Verity’s voice rose in indignation, and her perfectly plucked eyebrows climbed towards her forehead.
    Roman rolled his eyes, then turned to face Eileen and Marcus. “I, Roman Kincaid, pack Alpha, do approve this match and I bless and sanctify the union of Marcus Wright and Eileen Pennyroyal,” he pronounced in loud, ringing tones. “They are now life-mates. May their union be long and fruitful, and blessed by many cubs. May they serve their pack well. God bless us everyone. Happy?” At those last couple of sentences, Verity shot him a dirty look.
    “Well, you are pack Alpha, so it’s official,” she said doubtfully. “They are now life-mates. Can’t argue with that.”
    Wait, what? Eileen felt the blood drain from her face.
    She and Marcus were really life-mates? Or, as her father would put it, married?
    The pack Alpha had just said they were mates. That was as official as a Mate Mark. Or a traditional wedding ceremony in front of a priest.
    She waited until Verity and her two big, hulking bodyguards had left before she dared to sneak a peek at Marcus – the man she’d met yesterday. The sexy, sullen man who couldn’t stand her. The man she’d just been mated to.
    * * * * *
    Marcus pulled to a stop by his cabin, and Eileen parked next to him. It was at the end of a dirt and gravel road, tucked away in a small clearing among the fir trees. He hadn’t done much in the way of clearing out the underbrush, but Eileen liked it. The setting was beautiful.