Read Taken by the Pack for Free Online

she flushed. Did he know what he did to her? She’d bet he did. There had always been something knowing about Jackson’s eyes and he’d earned his reputation as the bayou’s bad boy. Thinking about Jackson Breaux and second chances in the same sentence was painfully stupid.
    She’d thought about their date more times than she cared to admit. She’d promised herself that his allure hadn’t been personal—he’d loved half the bayou, or so the stories went, and she’d been curious. Her attraction hadn’t been to the man, but to the fantasy. Fantasies she could accept. The flesh-and-blood man? Well, yeah, that might turn out to be a little too real.
    “You’re thinkin’ too much,” he drawled.
    “Maybe you don’t think enough,” she accused.
    He shrugged. “I act on instinct, shug .”
    Right. Because he was a wolf. If she hadn’t seen him shift, she would have called them both crazy. People simply didn’t turn into wolves. She was a veterinarian and she knew how biology worked. Jackson, however, was just one impossible thing after another. The bottom line, though, was that any thoughts she might have had of dating him and making him a part of her life were equally impossible. He wasn’t the kind of man a woman kept, any more than she could keep a wolf as a pet.
    She jumped to her feet, anxious to put some distance between them. He smelled like the outdoors, a woodsy scent, part pine and sage and something else uniquely Jackson. Nervously, she wondered what she smelled like to him. He was the one with the wolf nose after all.
    “There’s no way we’re dating.” There. A strong statement. Her words contained none of the ambivalent, waffle-y, oh-God-he’s-sexy thoughts her girly bits were telegraphing frantically to her brain.
    The look on his dark face was positively wicked. “You sure about that, shug ?”
    No . “Yes.”
    “Uh-huh.” Shoving away from the counter, he padded toward her. “There’s something you should know about us wolves.”
    “What’s that?” When his gaze dropped to her mouth, she realized she’d reverted to her nervous habit of chewing on her lower lip. Darn it. He was a bad influence. She should be deciding between the front door and the one in the back, because an exit plan seemed key right now. Instead, her girly bits demanded Head for his arms , but they didn’t get a vote today. How wet he made her, just standing there, smiling? Well, that was going to be her little secret.
    “Our wolves, they can scent real well. There’s not too much they miss.”
    He padded closer, his eyes wicked and knowing . Oh, no. She drops her gaze to his thighs. Powerful. Jackson liked to laugh, loved to play, and made a body forget he was a deadly predator. Plus, bare feet shouldn’t be so sexy. Or his honey-colored skin, because the man had clearly spent hours outside in the sun. Was he the same delicious color all over?
    She wasn’t finding out, she told herself firmly. Not today. Not ever. Jackson Breaux had had his chance and he’d blown it.
    When she stepped left, he moved fluidly with her, matching the angle of her body. He wasn’t touching her— yet , her girly bits insisted—but he’d effectively cut off her access to the back door. So she’d use the front one. She could be flexible. It made her head mad, though, the way he played her. She glared at him — only to make a point, those traitorous parts insisted — and went right. He followed effortlessly with a low chuckle.
    “It’s time for you to go.”
    “You sure about that, shug ?” he asked softly.
    One hundred percent certain. She propped her hands on her hips and planted her feet. No more running. This was her office. Her place. He needed to be the one that went. “Out,” she repeated.
    “You don’ wan’ to ask me somethin’ else?” The warm laughter crept back in his eyes. He wasn’t laughing at her, but that heat was an invitation to do all sorts of wicked things. With him, to him. God. Her brain just