Read Quest (Shifter Island Book 4) for Free Online

run to her, to seize her and sweep her around in a circle the way he had four years ago, their bodies hungry and demanding, the two of them sharing each other’s breath as they kissed, each other’s heartbeat. But he was so numb with shock that he couldn’t force himself to take even a single step, so he had to wait and watch as she came closer, praying that she was glad to see him and not displeased.
    She didn’t seem displeased. Did she?
    “Luca.”
    She was only a few steps away now, at the edge of the property. Her mouth was open a little. She was surprised. Unsure what to think, how to react. But… pleased. Yes? She was, wasn’t she?
    Gods who made our father the first wolf, let her be pleased.
    “This is… I didn’t expect to see you here,” she said.
    Slowly, carefully, he made his way back down the walkway to join her. He left a little bit of distance between them, a little more than arm’s reach. He would let her decide, he told the wolf. Even now, he would let her decide—even though he was sure it would kill him if she turned and walked away.
    “I arrived this morning,” he murmured.
    “Oh. Then you don’t live here any more, either? Did you go back to your island?”
    Her tone was light. Very… what did the humans call it? Conversational. As if she were talking to an acquaintance, or a stranger. But he was no acquaintance. He knew how soft her skin was in her most private of places. Knew the full, heady scent of that place. Knew what her voice sounded like, whispering to him in the deep shadows of the night.
    He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
    “I wanted to see you again,” he said quietly. “I looked this morning, to see if I could find your address.”
    “I moved out of state. A few months after graduation.” She waited, and when he didn’t respond, she went on. “I got a really good job offer. Like, the kind of offer you dream about. I didn’t really want to leave home, but I couldn’t turn it down. I mean, I thought about it, then I said, ‘If you don’t at least try this, you’re crazy.’ You know? You always wonder what would have happened.”
    “Yes,” he said. “I do wonder that.”
    “You look good, Luca.”
    And Allison? She wasn’t quite the girl he had known. She seemed more… completed now, more fully an adult. She was wearing the same type of clothing she’d always preferred, jeans and a simple shirt, but her hair seemed to be a slightly richer, deeper red. Her fingernails weren’t ragged, as they’d sometimes been years ago. When she was nervous, she’d chewed them until her fingertips were raw—and he’d always licked them gently to soothe them, something she’d seemed to enjoy.
    “Are you all right?” she asked. “You look a little stressed.”
    “It’s been a… troublesome day.”
    She looked around for a moment, then sat down on the top step and patted the concrete beside her. “Here, sit down. I’m sure whoever lives here won’t mind. If there’s even anybody living here right now.”
    Then she smiled up at him, waiting for him to accept the invitation—and still acting as if they were nothing more than two people who occasionally crossed paths.
    He heard his brother’s voice say, She may not even want to see you.
    But she did. She was here, asking him to sit beside her so they could talk. She hadn’t run away.
    Not yet.
    “Will you…” he started.
    The wolf was struggling to break free, to howl its delight over having finally found its mate, and part of Luca was willing to let it do that. He would have howled himself, he thought, if he’d been on the island, surrounded by others who had known this same surge of pleasure. His brother, for instance, who was probably busy turning a plain, small cabin into a comfortable home for himself and his bride.
    But here there was nothing but humans. He could see several of them from where he was standing: a man with a dog, a couple of young females carrying boxes out of a truck, a woman