Read To the Edge and Back [The Royal Wolves] (Siren Publishing Allure) for Free Online Page A

had all the clothes packed in the washers, sadly mixing some of hers with her landlady’s because, again, the woman forgot to add the roll of quarters for her, and taking a seat in one of the hard plastic seats near the back, she picked up the 1987 issue of Cosmo that had been there for the last two years that Mina had been coming here. At least it made her look like she was busy.
    Again the young man’s words swirled in her mind, but it wasn’t long enough before the first washing machine needed to be changed to the dryer. Feeding two precious quarters into the dryer, she leaned her forehead against the warm glass and, for the hundredth time in an hour, thought of him.

Chapter 8
     
    “Full Moon, Janos speaking,” he muttered into the phone as he propped it between his shoulder and ear as he dug out two longnecks and cracked them open before setting them on the waitress’s tray. Moving to the hard liquor, he barely registered that it was his eldest brother, Laszlo, calling or what he was saying.
    But when he heard that there was a pack rumbling about a prince finding his mate, he stopped cold in his tracks. “What?” he asked, stunned, wondering who had found the one woman meant for him.
    “Apparently there are rumors floating around that you’ve found your mate,” Laszlo repeated patiently, knowing his brother was working the bar because of problems at Edge, the same way he knew about the rumors. Laszlo cultivated humans and Wolves alike to sell him news, any news.
    “I’ve found my mate?” Janos asked, confused and then, after a second, he said in stunned horror, “No.”
    “Apparently you didn’t know?” Laszlo asked in a dry tone.
    Shaking his head even though his brother couldn’t see him, Janos braced a hand to the bar, his knees feeling weak. “Fuck me,” he breathed out, and then another piece of the puzzle clicked. “Mina,” he murmured her name aloud for the first time. “Wait.” He frowned suddenly as another piece clicked. “If the packs know…”
    “She’s in danger, Janos,” Laszlo said softly. “The disgruntled packs will do anything to keep our line from reproducing and possibly reclaiming the throne, you know that.” Not that they’d actually ever lost it. Since the five brothers were still the only remaining living members of the Royal family, if they chose to reinstitute their rule, they could. They had more than enough supporters to take it all back. But there would be a bloody war with those that wanted the current democracy to continue even though there were more deaths and problems under the reigning Council than there had ever been under Royal rule.
    “If they know about her”—Janos tried to work it out in his head—“then they’ve seen her.”
    “If they’ve seen her, baby brother, they likely will find where she lives and she’s as good as dead. You need to find and protect her. The new laws state that your mate is to be protected against all others, but until you mark her as yours she’s vulnerable and you can’t demand retribution if they do kill her.”
    Sometimes he really hated his levelheaded and much-too-cool older brother. Now was one of those times. “She’s not exactly going to be thrilled about this.” Hello! There was the understatement of the century. “She’s got a very distinct and likely justified hate for males.”
    “Does she have a justified hate for you?” Laszlo asked, and if Janos hadn’t known his brother so well, he’d swear he was laughing at him.
    “No. Well”—he winced—“none that I can figure out. I tried to be nice to her, do something out of the goodness of my heart, and she went loco on me.” Not entirely the truth, but some things no man was willing to admit to another male. “In time she might tolerate me,” he grumbled, hating to even give that out.
    “Time is not something either of you have. You need to mark her as yours and soon. If you don’t and they harm her, you’re screwed. Get to her, mark