Read Ever After for Free Online

contacts to protect their secret. Though Leslie’s eyes were more brown than gold or yellow because she wasn’t as dominate as Hunter and the like, she still wore them in public. She never knew if something were to anger her wolf or cause her to want to shift.
    It had never happened before, but she wasn’t about to take the chance.
    “Why are you so nervous around me?” Fawkes asked. “Do I scare you in some way? I promise I won’t hurt you or change my mind about the choice I made.”
    She shook her head. “I’m not afraid you’ll hurt me.” Well, that wasn’t quite true. She was terrified he didn’t think she was his true half and she’d end up alone forever.
    Wow. Dramatic much?
    “Then why do you keep to yourself?”
    “I thought you were the one doing it. You’ve stayed away since that first night we met, barely saying one word to me.”
    “I…I thought because you were submissive that I had to be careful around you.”
    She blinked, hurt arching through her body like a painful caress. “What?”
    “Hunter said you need time so I was staying away so I wouldn’t make you nervous.”
    The hurt intensified, but this time laced with anger. “He said what?”
    “He said you’d been hurt so I stayed away, making sure I didn’t do anything to scare you. I know I’m new to the Pack, so I didn’t want to invade your territory.”
    “You think that because I’m a submissive wolf that I need to be held with kids’ gloves or something?”
    “No, I mean, I don’t know. No one will tell me how to act around you,” he blurted then shut his eyes. “Hell, now I sound like an idiot. I swear I know how to talk around people but you make me nervous.”
    All at once that hurt and anger went away, something much warmer replacing it. “You make me nervous to but not in a bad way,” she added on at the end as something like pain crossed his features.
    “How do I make you nervous?” he asked.
    She took a deep breath and took the plunge. “You feel it don’t you? That connection?” Her wolf pranced around, beyond joyed that she’d finally voiced their feelings—or at least started to.
    Fawkes smiled and her wolf fell in love. Leslie, however, was a bit slower. She barely knew the demon—something she’d have to change soon. It wasn’t as if the human part of her would fall in love at first sight.
    Okay, maybe lust at first sight, but that was a whole other matter.
    He reached out and cupped her cheek and she froze before leaning into his touch—his first touch. He smelled of fire and brimstone, but with that scent of man that could be hers. Her nipples pebbled and her stomach clenched.
    “How about we start over?” he asked and she nodded, his calloused fingertips brushing against her face.
    “I’d love that though I might have to kick Hunter for making you think you had to stay away from me.”
    Fawkes grinned. “Well, Leslie, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Fawkes, a demon who’s about to get a little testy because I’m not taking souls.”
    She nodded knowing what he was doing was harder than anything she’d ever faced—even her brother.
    “I’m Leslie, a submissive wolf who’s trying to figure out what to do next.”
    “What do you want to do next?”
    “Find my own way,” she said honestly, surprised she’d even voiced that thought at all.
    He pulled his hand away and before she could feel the loss he ran his palm down her arm, then tangled their fingers together.
    “How are you going to do that?” he asked, looking genuinely interested.
    “I haven’t the first clue.” She laughed as she said it and Fawkes smiled.
    “Well, okay then. I’m sort of on the same path. I haven’t the faintest idea what I’m going to do with the rest of my life. I mean, I spent the first part of it thinking I’d be a warrior demon and follow my father’s footsteps.”
    “Your father being Lucifer.” She’d heard the rumors around the Pack that he was the son of the Devil. While most people