Read Her Wicked Wolf for Free Online

begin.
    “I’m a werewolf. And I’m very old,” he said.
    Brie tipped her chin down. “Old. Are we talking fifty years? A
hundred? Vampire old?”
    That made him laugh, a soft chuckle that helped a little with
the tension that hung heavy in the air, sexual and otherwise.
    “There are no vampires, only the werewolves. The legends seemed
to have gotten muddled together over the years, though. My kind lives for
centuries, sometimes even longer. It’s hard to know, with so many of the older
ones having died in battle before their time.”
    “And...you’re an older one.”
    Alistair frowned. “I think I’m more middle aged, honestly. I
was born in England in the year 1509,” he said, “during the reign of Henry VIII.
We were on the lower rungs of the nobility, but...isolated out of necessity. You
see, my family is one of a handful ever to have produced hereditary werewolves.
Not in every generation, but often enough that life at court would have been
impossible. My father was not a werewolf, but he seems to have been a strong
carrier of the genes required to create them. All four of my brothers, and three
sisters, manifested the trait. My parents were...we’ll say disappointed ...but they made do.” He smirked, remembering. “And our
woods were known to have some of the best hunting in the kingdom. Remarkably
free of predators.”
    Brie looked fascinated. “So you were actually born this way.
Your whole family.”
    He shrugged, unused to discussing it. It felt odd to remember
the earliest years of his life. “Yes, but we weren’t immune from the shortened
life expectancy of the time. Three brothers and two sisters never made it out of
the 16th century. Most were killed hunting, and one, Mary, turned out to be
susceptible to the English Sweat, a plague of the time. Catherine, Owain and I
survived. The wolf pack we founded remains one of the most respected in the
world. I’ve worked hard to build that.”
    “So you went from being human nobility to wolf nobility.”
    Alistair smirked. “Yes. Though we’re better at being wolves
than we ever were at being nobles. My situation is unique, even for a werewolf.
I’ve been able to personally oversee generations of wolves brought in, the first
either turned by or descended from Catherine and Owain.”
    “But not you.” It wasn’t a question. Somehow she knew. Sensed
it, the way only a woman so compatible with him would.
    “No.” He knew it sounded odd. “As the eldest, I took on most of
the responsibility. I didn’t have time to go hunting for a mate. Even if I had,
I’m not sure I would have stumbled upon one.” At Brie’s quizzical look, tried to
explain, worried that he would give too much away. “Wolves mate for life.
Werewolves are no different. The problem is that true wolf mates are rarer and
more...I’ll say combustible. It takes a certain chemistry, one that has to be
just so. When it’s right, we know it. When it isn’t, we tend not to bother, not
for long, anyway.”
    “Oh.” There was a wealth of meaning in that one word. He raised
an eyebrow.
    “I didn’t say we stayed celibate, Brie.” Her blush amused him.
It seemed to be her standard reaction to him.
    “I assumed that,” she said, sounding as flustered as she
looked.
    Alistair felt his lips curving into an unfamiliar smile,
relaxing into the comfort of conversation with her. It was nice to find he
enjoyed talking to Brie, though perhaps not quite as much as he enjoyed kissing
her.
    Thinking about it provoked a fair amount of heat in his own
cheeks, and he tried to get his story back on track before they moved further
into dangerous territory.
    “In any case, I’ve been busy dealing with Owain for most of my
life,” Alistair said quickly. “He and I are like night and day. It hasn’t been
pleasant. Roughly a century ago things got far less pleasant. Five years ago
what I thought was a meeting to finally make our peace nearly resulted in my
death. Which brings us to