The Wolfing Way (Lifting the Veil) Read Online Free PDF

sure you won’t turn into a Stepford wife. If you so much as lean precariously in that direction and suffer a sudden personality shift, I’ll be right there to smack you silly. Father’s promise, son.”
    That was what his dad always said when he was serious about a vow to his sons, Kris knew, and he smiled contentedly. Knowing he’d have his father’s backing if he decided to meet with Rafe was the kind of assurance he needed right now, feeling depressed and worried and aggravated all at the same time, emotions mixing in uncomfortable combinations.
    It had been two weeks since the phone call.
    Kris was less than a week away from graduation, and his nerve endings were frayed with the constant pressures and tensions of ending college. He’d scored a perfect 4.0, and with his extracurricular activities and hobbies, he was sure to get a scholarship to a university of his choice. In college, he’d gotten into football, and his attention had been split between his scholarly pursuit and his newfound interest in sports. By the end of the week, he’d know what kinds of scholarships he was going to have, and then he’d have to decide what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.
    Rafe’s existence complicated matters.
    One of the reasons for this conflict was the fact that despite not knowing if Kris would ultimately agree to meet with him or not, Rafe had sent over some of his blood via special courier to heal Kris’s mom’s leg. It was true that Rafe’s ulterior motives weren’t entirely 100 percent altruistic, but Rafe could not have been certain by any means that the outcome would work in his favor. And still he had done it.
    That more selfless than selfish and kind act that could’ve led to potential exposure—along with his dad’s backing of whatever decision Kris would make—had sealed the deal for Kris.
    Yeah, Kris was going to meet Rafe.
    He didn’t have a clue as to how exactly to do that without compromising his own self in the process, but he was determined to try. If not for the sake of Rafe, who’d been waiting for Kris for two centuries, then for himself, because despite his reluctance to submit to this prospect of mating with a virtual stranger, Kris wanted to find someone to love who’d love him back.
    Kris just had his doubts about whether this stranger—mate or no—could deliver. Or if Kris himself could deliver. His future had been such a clear path in front of him before all this, and now he worried if his frustration over his fate would just escalate things and make them worse.
    Praying, Kris hoped that the next week would go well.
     
     
    T HAT had been the agreement negotiated in good faith between his own family and his mate’s family—with the NFL serving as an intermediary. One week. That was how long Kris and his family would spend at Rafe’s family’s ranch in Wyoming. A ranch… in Wyoming… for breeding horses and raising cattle. Kris had been flabbergasted upon hearing a bit more of the specifics. It had turned out that Rafe’s family—the Kings—were very successful and wealthy, and the Howling Creek Ranch was renowned in certain parts of Wyoming. Kris had thought about all that, in dizzy confusion, for about a minute—and then he’d ran out of the conference room of the NFL branch office straight to the bathroom and thrown up his breakfast.
    Sitting in the luxurious white leather seat of the private jet Rafe’s family had sent to pick them up after he’d signed the nondisclosure agreement, Kris fidgeted in his seat, nervous to the point of screaming. They were about to land on a private airstrip, and Kris’s possible new life expanded before him like an inflated balloon—until it was in imminent danger of bursting with too much air. Did things like this really have a way of blowing up in your face, Kris pondered, or was that kind of thinking way too negative? God, I can’t breathe .
    “Calm down, son,” Dad said at his side, squeezing his shoulder in a