Read Online Down & Dirty (Bundle) by Moira Rogers - Free Book Online

the
front door. “Yell if you need anything.”
    “ Thanks, Ginny.”
    Ginny found Hazel shivering on the front
porch even in the warm early-morning sun, her arms wrapped tight
around her legs as she stared at nothing.
    “ I’m sorry about earlier,”
Ginny whispered as she slid down to sit next to her. “I didn’t know
Ollie would grab you like that. I don’t think he really planned on
it.”
    “ I was being stupid.”
Hazel’s voice sounded flat. “He didn’t mean anything by it. And I
know it. I know it.
But she wants him so much it scrambles my brains.”
    “ I know.” And she did. Even
now, with Hazel’s physical well-being confirmed, the animal inside
Ginny demanded that she go in search of Jack. “That’s the hell of
it, sweetie. He probably feels the same, but we’re not just the wolves. And Ollie
--” She broke off and scooted closer to Hazel. “Ollie’s been hurt
inside. And I don’t know if he’ll ever get over it.”
    Even scared and confused, Hazel had no
problem seeing to the heart of the matter. “You talking about
Oliver, or you?”
    “ Maybe both of us,” she
admitted. “I know what it’s like to not be sure if you want to risk
it.” She had to swallow past the lump in her throat, and her voice
still sounded ragged. “It’s no secret my parents weren’t happy. My
mother never got over the War and everything she lost, but my
father… He loved her, Hazel. More than anything, he loved her. He
always said she’d get better, but she never did. And when she died,
he gave up.”
    Memories assailed her, and Ginny closed her
eyes and leaned back against the house, folding her hands in her
lap to hide their shaking. “I don’t know what I’m more afraid of,
really. Loving someone as much as he loved her, or -- or
disappointing someone as much as Mom did him.”
    Hazel leaned into her side. “It was the War,
Gin. It fucked everyone up. Things may be harder now than they were
before, but Thomas says they’re a lot simpler, too. And you know
what else he says?”
    She drew in a calming breath and glanced at
Hazel. “No, what?”
    “ That werewolves aren’t
meant to be alone, and trying to live that way is like trying to
make water run uphill.”
    “ Thomas is a smart man.”
Ginny wrapped her arm around Hazel’s shoulders. “I don’t think we
were meant to be alone, either. But I think some of us have to be.”
    “ And I think you’re full of
shit.” She could almost hear the smile in Hazel’s voice. “I still
like you, though. I just can’t ever get within twenty feet of
Oliver ever again, so you might need to help me with
that.”
    “ I’ll think of
something.”
    Ginny heard Jack moving around inside, his
soft footfalls climbing the stairs, and she knew he’d head straight
for the bed. The kind of healing he’d done -- and still had to do
-- required enormous reserves of energy, and he probably wouldn’t
wake up until hunger drove him from the bed.
    She and Hazel sat in silence until they
heard hoof beats, and several riders appeared in the distance.
Ginny recognized Oliver and Lottie, as well as Thomas, the tall
beta who served as Jack’s second-in-command.
    Hazel’s nervous energy returned, magnified a
hundredfold as the girl’s gaze fixed on Oliver. A soft whimper
escaped her throat and her fingers tightened painfully on Ginny’s
arm. “Is it supposed to feel like this?”
    “ I don’t know,” she
whispered. “I’ll send him out to Dawson’s place, sweetie. He won’t
be around for long, all right?”
    “ Okay.”
    The newcomers were still twenty yards out
when Thomas held up his hand and said something too soft for Ginny
to hear. Lottie nodded, and Oliver tugged off his hat and glanced
toward the porch. They both pulled up their mounts and stayed
put.
    Thomas approached on his
own, stopping just short of the porch. His booted feet hit the
ground with a soft thud and he took the porch steps two at a time.
“Ginny?” He spoke to her, but his worried