Read The Gift of My Mate (Siberian Volkov Pack Romance Book 9) for Free Online Page B

strong. We will stay here. I will protect your mother. My brother will not harm her. Only the amarok among us have the ability to live farther south. You and Cybille should have a pack to call home and a place to run free.”
    “How many amarok children reside here? Do they all need a safe refuge?” Margot asked.
    She looked at Mathis, her gaze worried. “Any child is welcome,” she sent telepathically. Inside, his heart warmed. His mate would save as many as she could. She continued to hold his mother, offering comfort.
    “I will ask around the village,” Taliriktug said. “We keep them well hidden for their own safety. I know of a few parents who might need their children adopted. Bless you for taking them, bless you both.”
    His family expanded faster than he could fathom, and he needed to keep them all safe. He never expected to be the Alpha of an amarok pack, but who better to raise these half lycan and half nanuk children? There was room on the mountain of the resort. Jared and his mate would welcome the children. He had money saved, and his mate was an heiress. Already possibilities shot through his mind.
    Nicole motioned the group to the table and served soup to Mathis and Margot before sitting with them. “I know you often feel like an outcast, Mathis,” she said her head bowed. “I want you to know that your father and I love you. We sent you to Jasha Wolfe so you could learn to control your shifting. You are Alpha and shifted from birth. Cybille is the same. She shifted hours after being born. Thank goodness no one was in the room except me. Sending you away was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and now, I have to send another child away. I don’t know how I will bear it.”
    “I’m so sorry,” Margot said reaching for Nicole’s hand. “I promise you, Cybille will lack for nothing money can buy. Mathis and I will give her a good home.”
    Nicole looked up, tears in her eyes. “I would expect nothing less from the mate of my son. You must be a strong woman to be chosen for him.”
    Margot laughed easing the tension in the room. “I don’t know how strong I am, but I will do my best for both of your children, regardless.” She looked at Mathis.
    He smiled at the look in her eyes. If he didn’t know better, he might think she loved him, even though it was probably only hero worship. Still, he hoped she would come to love him. He squeezed her knee under the table. He was proud of her, proud she was willing to take on these children and provide a good home for them.
    Sudden pounding on the front door made them all rush into the front room. Mathis’s father opened the door to find Itigaituk and two other men standing on the threshold.
    “How dare you take my prisoners? I demand you return him to me immediately!”
    “Do you not recognize your own nephew, brother?”
    “Nephew or not, he is a spy. I will take him in front of the angakkuq.”
    “Then let us all go. I am sure our angakkuq will want to welcome Mathis to the village.”
    “Where is the lycan that was with him? Where is the woman?”
    “She is here and will come with us. Nicole will escort her. Now, brother, let us see what the angakkuq has to say.”
    Mathis squeezed Margot’s hand and then released her, as Nicole came up beside her, coats in her hands. When his father took his arm, Mathis allowed himself to be guided out the door. Itigaituk stood fuming. He glared at his brother and then followed the men. The other two guards waited for the women to pass before bringing up the rear. Ujarak and Kumaglak came running to the group and then followed behind. Other members of the village joined until a whole procession made their way to the meeting hall where the angakkuq waited.
    They walked into the long building and to the other end where the angakkuq sat. As the crowd entered, groups broke off and took seats around the outside of the hall, until the original band stood before the angakkuq’s chair. The village elders sat in a