Read Winter (Rise of the Pride, Book 2) for Free Online Page B

nostrils
flaring.
    “Rest,” he ordered, walking toward the door,
not looking back. “And eat.” He growled as he closed the door to
her room, leaving Nova with more questions than she’d had before
he’d walked into the room.

    Winter stormed out of the house. He couldn’t
tell her. He couldn’t let Nova know her sister had screamed in pain
for those days she was going through the change, accepting the
panther inside her body. He wouldn’t bring anymore sadness to her
life. She’d been attacked for fuck’s sake! If he’d even given in
upstairs in that bedroom and touched her, and they’d been
mates…Winter would have never forgiven himself for the sudden need
to claim her body. He could’ve hurt her.
    The mated males in the pride occasionally
mentioned the moment they’d found their mates. One couple had
touched by accident in the alpha’s house and when they realized
they were mates, they had solidified their mating in the tool shed
out behind the barn.
    If Winter had touched Nova, and then taken
her like an animal while she was recovering from her injuries, he
would’ve hated himself forever. He was too much of a gentleman to
rut into her with the bruises still healing.
    It was Monday and he wasn’t expected into
the office until the next morning, because Talon had told him to
take the day off to help bring Nova home from the hospital. He
needed to lose himself for a few hours. It was early afternoon, and
he had plenty of time to let his panther free. When he was human,
he’d always wished there’d been a way to escape his thoughts for a
short period of time. One of the perks of becoming a panther was
the fact that he could, in fact, let his human side take a
break.
    Not wanting to leave his truck at the main
house, Winter drove to his cabin, parking in front of his garage.
He shut the door to his truck and made his way to the porch, not
even caring about throwing his things inside. He stripped right
there on the steps, dropping to his hands and knees as soon as he
felt his panther push forward.
    The panther stretched lazily, his lethal
claws digging into dirt as he took his first step off the porch.
The cool air was nothing to his thick, black coat. Noises were more
defined as he trekked off into the surrounding woods. The scent of
his family…his pride, surrounded him as he moved silently through
the thicker part of the land, keeping a steady trot on his hunt for
something that wasn’t human.
    A rabbit scurried out from under a fallen
log, but the panther had no desire to feed. Winter’s beast had his
own objective, and that was to find Nova. Winter tried to calm his
panther when it turned for the alpha’s house, demanding to taste
the scent of the human female. He wanted to be close to her…she was
injured. A mournful cry escaped as the panther felt anger at the
male who’d hurt Nova.
    “ No ,” Winter warned inside the
panther’s mind, but he wasn’t listening, fighting the human side
who wanted out.
    Two of the pride’s females moved to the side
as he leapt onto the back porch of the main house. Evie’s mother,
Marie, held the door open, a soft smile on her face. No one said
anything to the panther as he prowled slowly through the living
room, turning for the stairs. The panther purred softly as he
caught scent of the human female. He turned left at the top of the
stairs and followed the sound of her gentle breathing, knowing she
was asleep in the room that held her scent. The panther curled up
outside the door, closing his eyes and falling into a contented
slumber.

Chapter Four

    Nova wanted to go home. Her heart was aching
along with her arm. She leaned over, reaching for her bag from the
hospital. After digging around, she pulled out the bottle of pain
pills, shaking one into her palm. She needed to rest just another
day or two and she’d be good as new. After that, she could go back
to work and back to her pathetic life.
    It had been two days since she came to stay
with her