Read Temptation (Journal of the Wolves of Spruce Hollow) for Free Online Page B

about picking her up, I didn’t want her any closer than she had to be.
    I put her back down once she had drank her fill and she looked at me shyly and said “Thank you”. I felt like a weirdo but I had to know more before she took off back towards the pool and I missed my chance entirely.
    I quickly asked her how old she was and she proudly held up five fingers. “You’re five?” She looked at her fingers and then popped up one more. “Oh, I forgot, I just had my birthday,” she giggled shyly.
    Then she asked, “How old are you?” as she danced and bopped around in the way that six year olds do. “Much too old for you,” I replied teasingly. She cocked her head at me, not really understanding my answer.
    I plied her for as much information as I could get out of her before she ran off. But it was pretty easy because she was so friendly with me. Much too friendly for a little girl speaking to a complete stranger.
    She told me pretty much enough information that had I been some sort of pedophile looking to kidnap her, I would have had all the information I needed to go looking for her later on. Her name was Aspen Greystone. Her Mommy and Daddy were in heaven. She lived in a foster home. She was in the first grade and went to Morningside Elementary school. She liked dogs and her favorite color was pink.
    The concept of stranger danger certainly seemed to be completely lost on her; I could have picked her up and walked right out of the pool area with her, if I wanted to. That worried me because if she would innocently tell me everything about her, chances are she’d tell any other random stranger out there too.
    I kneeled down, to her level, and smiled at her. “Nice to meet you Aspen Greystone, my name is Roan Sabre,” I said as I reached out to shake her little hand. She shot me a gamine grin and as my bigger hand clasped her little one, I was immediately struck by a painless electric current extending from our clasped hands, right up my entire arm. The scenes of our future life together sped through my consciousness and I watched them play out in fast forward hyperspeed in my head until she let go of my hand and it abruptly stopped.
    If I was looking for a sign that she was truly my mate, that was certainly it.
    There was no more doubt in my mind after that happened. This was my mate…and she was six years old?
    How in the hell had that happened?
    Aspen zipped back towards the pool and I walked back over to my buddies and sat down, completely dazed. I told them what had happened and we all sat on our towels and watched her like a hawk for the rest of the afternoon, speculating on what could have gone wrong.
    The topic of mates was a very serious one among Weres and no one poked fun or made jokes about the situation. This was no laughing matter to any of us.
    I called the Alpha on Griff’s, cell phone and made him aware of the situation. He was just as surprised as I was to hear about my mate but in true Alpha fashion, told me not to worry because he would figure it out. I relayed him the information little Aspen had told me and he hung up with the promise that he would start making phone calls.
    When the group of foster kids was rounded up a few hours later and it was time for them to leave, I phased in the parking lot and followed Aspen home like a crazed stalker.
    I didn’t want to let her out of my sight.
    What if I couldn’t find her again or what if something happened to her? She was my mate and I was supposed to care for and protect her, whether she was six years old or twenty-six.
    It took the pack eight months of wrangling in the legal system and calling in favors from our contacts, until we got Aspen to Spruce Hollow.
    I was an emotional wreck the entire time, as I was still a teenager and not really equipped with enough life experiences to help me deal with something of this magnitude.
    Even so, I still couldn’t resist the biological urge to protect my mate and I spent most of my time ditching my