The Werewolf’s Bride: The Pack Rules #1 Read Online Free PDF

protected and honored as living werewolves.
    “We’ll go in my car,” said Aunt Lila, jolting me out of my thoughts. She tugged me forward. “Neela will follow us there. Grey has sent his best enforcer to guard you, Belle, and that shows how much he values you.”
    I swear I heard a low growl—a short, ugly burst of werewolf fury. But I didn’t know for sure, and I didn’t look back.
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    “ N EELA DOESN’T LIKE me ,” I said, as we drove down the packed-dirt road. On either side were towering red rock cliffs.
    “Neela doesn’t like anyone,” said Aunt Lila. “And she thinks more of herself than she should.”
    “Because she was his once.” I glanced at Aunt Lila, who hesitated—and then gave a brief, sharp nod.
    “They were lovers before Grey became the alpha. After he took leadership, Neela assumed that she would become his mate, but she was wrong. Grey ended their sexual relationship and offered her command of the enforcers. If she wanted to stay in the Shadow Pack, she had no choice but to accept his decisions.”
    I sat with her words, looking out my window. Stone reached out to the blue sky like a child’s fingers trying to grasp the color. Scrub brush littered the desert sand, which made the landscape feel surreal, as though it were the hiding place of monsters.
    The Choosing was held in a space sacred to werewolves, located far within the twisty, maze-like canyons, in an area no uninvited human dared to tread. Grey had said that the Choosing was our ceremony—and while that was true, werewolves had a deeply entrenched sense of honor and duty. In the pack, there was no such thing as an individual. You worked with the pack for the pack. If you didn’t, you became a scruffer—or you got your head removed and your heart ripped out.
    Tourists often stopped to take pictures of the towering red-stoned cliffs and to look at the petroglyphs that had been carved into walls more than 10,000 years ago. What tourists had never seen—and would never lay eyes on as far as werewolves were concerned—was the ancient rock art left by their shape-shifting ancestors. Their carvings offered evidence that werewolves had long lived with—and bred with—humans. Bleed City was not the first human settlement to intertwine its fate with shifters.
    I had never been to the ceremonial grounds. Only the eldest daughters and their families were allowed the privilege—and the previous Choosing happened when I was a toddler. Aunt Lila, as the town’s werewolf liaison and our elder, walked between our worlds holding the trust of both wolf and man. She had been to the Choosing twice before.
    “Why didn’t Grey take Neela for a mate? She’s a female werewolf… And those are rare. It would seem a perfect match.”
    Aunt Lila squinted at the road. She slowed down and made a careful left onto a narrow lane, this one far less defined. She kept the Jeep at twenty miles an hour. As we hit pot holes and loose sand, I understood why.
    “Neela has a chip on her shoulder,” said Aunt Lila. “She was raised by a father who had no other heirs. Most shifters feel honored by the arrival of a daughter, but Kelt was disappointed she wasn’t a son. Neela’s birth was complicated and as a result, her mother had to have emergency surgery. She couldn’t have any more pups after that. Kelt was hard on Neela, determined to make her stronger than any male in the pack. Neela became a great warrior. Yet, no matter how many trophies she takes or honors she receives, she’s unable to win his approval.”
    “Because she’ll never be the son he wanted.”
    Aunt Lila glanced at me. “You’re wise for someone so young. That’s good.” She nodded approvingly. “You’re right to worry about Neela. She’s too often ruled by her temper. She keeps control—mostly.”
    “She’s a time bomb.”
    “Looking for a target,” agreed Aunt Lila. She slowed and made another turn. Now, there was no road, and we crushed our way through sand and