Read Sworn to the Wolf for Free Online

moment when he’d asked. She was hiding something. What he didn’t know but he’d find out, help her through whatever it was that made her afraid. For the time being he’d let her hold back. Trust, he knew, had to be earned.
    “Andreas and I have been best friends since I was eleven and he was thirteen. His family took me in and raised me.”
    “Why? That is, if you don’t mind talking about it.”
    Later he could tell her about the more specific reasons, but until she knew he was a werewolf, it was better to be general. “My mother died and my father didn’t feel he could raise me on his own. My mother and Andreas’s mother were like sisters so my father brought me to them, to be raised in a family setting. And that’s what they did. Treated me like one of their own children. My working for Andreas sort of grew from that. Back to you though. Do you have any family?”
    “I’m, um, estranged from them. I still communicate with my mother on occasion but I haven’t spoken to my father in a year.”
    “Why?” Laurent turned her hand over in his. She made no move to take it back so he kept it there, her warmth bleeding into him.
    “He wanted me to be something that I couldn’t be. I...we couldn’t come to any agreement about my life so...” She shrugged but he saw the shimmer of unshed tears in her eyes.
    Still, family was so important. He couldn’t understand how any man could turn away from his own child. “Have you tried to work it out? How does your mother feel about it all?”
    She sighed. “My mother feels however she’s told to feel. No, that’s unfair really. She’s a loving woman but the world she lives in isn’t made for women who are strong and opinionated. She helped me es...er, leave home last year. She has to keep my contact with her a secret. My father of course thinks I’ll come back when I need money. And that’s really all I want to talk about that subject.”
    Laurent wished she’d lighten her burden and share with him but he understood. The need to comfort was so complete it was only the decades of training to keep his control that enabled him to keep his shit together.
    “Would you like to come back to my apartment and watch the ferries on the water?” The apartment was in the Harbor Steps complex and overlooked Puget Sound.
    She hesitated a moment, clearly thinking. “Sure. That would be nice.” Her voice was soft but free of doubt. He relaxed a bit.
    They walked back to the car and Laurent moved it the few blocks to the building and took her up. Among the little touches he’d made earlier that day had been to put new sheets on his bed. They were silky soft with a bit of flannel for warmth. He sincerely hoped she’d let him make love to her that night. Between Mates, the first time making love would create binding ties between them—he wanted to brand her in some way.
    Another part of him wanted to fuck her hard and fast.
    “This is a beautiful place,” she murmured as she looked around, her hands trailing over the spines of books, the curves of vases. Each touch a caress that incited his senses. She seemed to soak in everything she looked at. Examined. Sampled.
    It seemed impossible for her to be a hedonist but also so shy and hesitant. But it was there. Another thing about her he ferreted away.
    She looked back over her shoulder. “Do you mind if I take these heels off? They’re beginning to kill me.”
    He shook his head no and watched as she sat and pulled off the pumps, exposing bright pink toenails.
    The sound she made as she wriggled her toes and stretched her calves a little made him suck in air like a drowning man.
    “So much better. Of course now I’ll never have the courage to put them back on because it’ll hurt even more.” And frankly, the way he looked at her made her weak in the knees and she had to sit down before they buckled. The whole evening had set her off balance. She’d never been so attracted and attuned to anyone in her life. It felt so