The Liger's Mark Read Online Free PDF Page B

Gabriel. Not knowing it would only be temporary, and he’d eventually walk away again.
    “His life is not his own,” she whispered, too low for Holt to hear. The words weren’t meant for him. They were meant for her. A reminder of who her mate was, and the fact she couldn’t have him.

 
    Chapter Three
     
     
     
    Gabriel flung the phone away from him, a snarl ripping from his lips.
    “Damn, she’s got you twisted in knots,” Laura said.
    He bit back the comment lingering on his tongue as the scent of her pain filled the car. Getting to her hadn’t been easy, and the time he’d spent rescuing his mate and fighting his need to stay with her could have cost Laura her life. He’d almost been too late. Any further delay and she would have been just another dead shifter. If he needed anything to drive home the fact he couldn’t have a mate that was it.
    “Tell me again why you found it so important to leave before I returned,” Gabriel snapped.
    “Those reasons are personal,” she whispered and looked away from him to stare out the windshield.
    He knew something had happened when Laura had discovered a team of hunters in New Mexico and methodically taken them out. She was good. He’d trained her himself, as had his brother. There had been a change in her since she’d returned, and when she spoke of the carnage she’d left behind, he always had the impression there was more she wasn’t saying.
    “Those reasons almost got you killed,” he said. “Daniel has been going crazy.”
    Gabriel ignored her weary sigh though he understood it. His brother Daniel had fancied himself in love with Laura since she’d followed Gabriel home and wormed her way into staying. She and Daniel weren’t mates though, and Laura refused to claim a lover until the one person meant for her arrived. His thoughts drifted back to his mate and a growl sounded in his chest before he could stop it. Kenzie was traveling with the man he’d smelled on her skin. Staying with him, allowing him to touch and protect her. Gabriel had no one to blame but himself.
    “We should be going after your mate,” Laura told him again. She’d been saying it since he’d found her, and she’d smelled the change in him. She’d been furious when he’d admitted he’d met his mate and left her behind to go after Laura. Though she’d understood the reasons, she’d still called bullshit and told him he was fucking stupid almost hourly.
    “I can’t have a mate,” he replied.
    “Your life is not your own,” she intoned, deepening her voice. Then she snorted. “I still call bullshit. Can’t no longer applies. You do have a mate.” Her tone softened then. “You can’t keep living your life for him, Gabe. He’s going to get you killed.”
    “My father has nothing to do with this.”
    She snorted again. “That self-righteous prick has everything to do with this, and we both know it. Him and his push to make Daniel the next Angel if you ever decide to have a life.”
    Gabriel ignored her comment, reaching for his phone as it rang and sparing a glance at the ID, which flashed on the screen. Not his mate, but someone else he could take his anger out on.
    “Tah,” Gabriel answered, not bothering to mask the deep displeasure from his voice. He was livid the other man had let Kenzie slip away and not immediately sent someone after her to bring her back.
    “I’m going to kill Isaac,” Tah stated without preamble. “Or one of the others will.”
    “What’s my father done now?” Gabriel demanded, barely containing a weary sigh.
    “He challenged a wolf shifter sent to me with a message,” Tah growled. “I’m sure the bastard would have killed the poor guy if Reno hadn’t been there.”
    “Is the shifter okay?” Gabriel asked.
    “Reno was there,” Tah stated again as if that meant something.
    “Did you call Daniel?”
    “No offense, Gabriel,” Tah began. “Your brother has no backbone when it comes to your father. He consoles and