Read Online Compelled by Shawntelle Madison - Free Book Online

animal. In this case, enough werewolves had marked their territory here to create a billboard a mile high. Not that anyone took a real piss, but it was close enough.
    It was overwhelming enough to kick me in the knees and tug me down a peg or two. This territory wasn’t my own. A door opened as we walked down and an older woman peered out. Once she spotted me, she averted her eyes and closed the door again. As we passed more doors, more curious eyes took me in. I was an alpha female with an unfamiliar scent. Before we reached my family’s door, another door opened, and the man who opened it stepped into the hallway, blocking our path.
    “Who the hell are you?” he snapped in Russian. “Did Albert send you?”
    “Who is Albert?” My words didn’t have the kind of bite I’d like, but it was good enough to keep my back straight.
    “You don’t smell local.” His gaze rolled from my forehead, lingered on my breasts and then stopped at my knees. “You’re mated.”
    He crossed his arms and continued to block our path.
    “What’s going on, Nat?” Raj asked. He understood everything the guy said, like I had, but both of us were confused.
    “He thinks we’re here from a rival pack.” I glanced at the man. “I’m here to see the Lasovskayas down the hall.”
    The man snorted. “Oh, those deadbeats.”
    “Eh-excuse me?” I might’ve been a hoarding loser back home, but one thing you didn’t do was say bad things about my family.
    “They never pay their rent on time and their rank has fallen for the past couple of years. I suggest you visit, but don’t stay long if you know what I mean.”
    Channeling Aggie at that very moment came unexpectedly. “Look, I don’t know when you caught that asshole disease that’s been going around, but no matter how much your shit stinks less than everybody else’s, you don’t bad mouth my family. Got it?” The growl in the back of my throat came out of nowhere, too.
    The man’s jaw twitched. He shuffled a bit forward and my heartbeat quickened. There were certain things you just didn’t do to werewolves. Had my bold attitude gotten me into trouble?
    “Natalya? Is that you?” The door at the end of the hall opened and a full-figured, dark-headed woman peered out. The voice was familiar from long-distance phone conversations. “What are you doing here?” she asked in Russian.
    “Cousin Inna. It’s me.” All the while, I kept my gaze locked on the werewolf with a bad attitude. Our staring match continued until my cousin stormed down the hall and smacked the guy on the back of the head.
    “You buffoon,” she snapped in Russian. She added a bunch of other words, far too crass for even my vocabulary. “This is my kin from overseas and you greet her like a nipping puppy that can’t piss on a tree right.”
    Tyler cringed as my cousin slapped the man in the head again.
    “Move!” She used her wide hips to shove him out of the way.
    He complied and sulked away as if this had happened before. If there was a pack hierarchy on this floor, it was a weird one.
    She herded us to the apartment and we ambled inside. I smiled as I took in her neat, narrow hallway leading to her living room. My second cousin had an eye for cleanliness that I appreciated. That smile died when I saw who sat in the living room.
    “Hey, Lilith,” Raj said. “What are you doing here?”
    A familiar couple sat on the couch. There was Yuri and the woman sitting on his left smiled brightly, her garish red lipstick-covered lips parting to reveal teeth smeared with makeup. She crossed her bony legs, causing her kneecaps to poke out of her floral shift. You couldn’t miss the unfortunate succubus from my therapy group.
    Lilith’s stomach extended as far as Yuri’s beer belly. Why yes, she was knocked up. Yuri rubbed a balding spot on his head. The four brown hairs stubbornly pointed right.
    “This my daughter-in-law,” Inna exclaimed with pride in broken English.
    “I see…,” Raj