Read Online Autumn Sacrifice by Bronwyn Green - Free Book Online

apologize to you? I did the best I could trying to raise you up right, but you’ve always been a miserable bitch.”
    “That’s it.” Caleb stepped between them. “I kept quiet so Brenna could say what she needed to say to you. But this is enough. You will not speak to your daughter like that.”
    “I’ll speak to her any damn way I want to.”
    “No. You won’t.”
    Joe stared at him in disbelief.
    “You need to leave now,” Caleb added, sliding his arm around Brenna’s waist.
    “After everything I’ve done for you and your brothers, you’re siding with her?”
    “Go.” Caleb let his wolf rise to the surface—let the other man get a good look at his barely contained rage. With the full moon rising, it was nearly impossible not to shift, but he clung to his humanity a while longer.
    Cursing under his breath, Joe got in his car and peeled out, kicking up gravel against the side of the house.
    Not bothering to watch the other man leave, Caleb pulled Brenna into his arms and held her. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry he’s a dick. I’m sorry we basically replaced you. I’m surprised you didn’t hate us.”
    She shook her head against his chest. “It was kinda hard to hate the guys who’d always looked out for me—especially when my own father wouldn’t. I was old enough to figure out that it had less to do with me and more to do with his own imagined failures.” Pulling away slightly, she shrugged. “I guess coming back for the wedding was a good thing all around. I don’t have to wonder anymore if I’d imagined things or blown them out of proportion.”
    “I hate that this is what you came home to, but I’m not going to lie. I’m so glad you came back.”
    He lowered his head to kiss her, but she looked away. A wall slammed between them, so tangible he could practically feel the individual bricks.
    “Bren?”
    She backed up a step. Her eyes filled with tears. “I can’t do this.”
    “You can’t do what?” Ice water replaced the blood in his veins.
    “I can’t stand here and let you think this whole mate thing has a chance in hell of working out for us.”
    He stared at her, his teeth aching to bite her—to claim her as his. To change her body chemistry by marking her—binding her to him forever.
    Her hands shook violently as she pushed them through her hair. “I can’t do it. I can’t let him get what he wants from me.”
    “Fuck him,” he snarled.
    Brenna jumped at his tone.
    “Fuck. Him,” he said again. “This isn’t about your father. What about what you want?”
    “What I want doesn’t matter,” she said bitterly. “It never has.”
    “Fine. What about what I want?”
    She stared at him, eyes wide.
    “I want you. I’ve always fucking wanted you. Christ, Brenna, I love you. And I think you love me. Doesn’t that count for anything?”
    She laughed. It was possibly the bitterest sound he’d ever heard. “No. It really doesn’t.”
    “How does love not count?” he demanded, prowling toward her, his anger pushing his wolf toward release.
    “It’s not love,” she snapped. “It’s biology. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
    “Bullshit.”
    She frowned at him. “Smelling like mating material doesn’t equal love.”
    Pure frustration combined with the intensifying need to shift, and a growl crawled up his throat. He couldn’t stifle the sound if he tried. “Yeah, I might have just realized that we’re biologically suited. But I realized something else, too. And that’s that I’ve been in love with you for a fuck of a long time. Years , brat.”
    He stalked toward her, backing her up against the side of the house. “Having you move across the country didn’t kill it and having you back…” He nipped at her lower lip. “Having you in my bed…” He trailed open-mouthed kisses along the side of her neck; the scent of her flesh was intoxicating. “Having my cock buried inside you…” He scraped her collarbone with his teeth drawn by the seductive pulse