Read Online Echo Falls by Jaime McDougall - Free Book Online Page A

back at her.
    She shook her head, trying to think of anything but the feel of his hand in hers. “Not really. I got bit on a camping trip a little while after I graduated college. After I found out what I’d turned into, I moved up to the cabins my parents left me and my brother. When did you…?”
    “I was born this way. Two Were parents. Being a werewolf made high school hell, I can tell you. But Thomas, Will and me somehow found each other. A few years ago, I became the alpha, the leader, of the Echo Falls werewolves. I take care of the pack. Settle fights. Keep an eye on lone wolves. I help new pack members who haven’t turned before. I lead when we hunt during the full moon.”
    Aidan the alpha.
    She smiled faintly. Somehow, out of everything, that made sense. The way he spoke as if he carefully weighed each statement before it came out of his mouth. How in his eyes you could see his mind constantly going. 
    No wonder he made her feel safe just by being around. No wonder the wolf in her wanted to press up against him, feeling his warmth and taking in his scent.
    She cleared her throat and blushed.
    They walked out onto another flat and stopped. Aidan loosened his grip on her hand so she could wander forward, but she pulled him forward with her.
    Unlike the gravel area, this flat came purely made by nature and the occasional humans stomping around. The trees gave way to scrub, then dirt, then rock. They stood on a beautiful outcropping with nothing to disturb their view of the stars starting to sparkle above them and the forested valley below them.
    Directly to their right, a gorgeous waterfall spilled over the edge of the mountain into a glittering lake below. She shivered with excitement at the roar of the water and the spray cooling her skin.
    “It’s beautiful,” she said above the noise.
    He took a deep breath and then released it with a satisfied ‘ah’. “ The Echo Falls. I come here when I want to think.”
    She finally tore her eyes away from the waterfall and looked at him. “I can’t imagine many places being more private. For thinking.”
    He grinned at her. “Want to get closer?”
    She smiled and nodded. Her heart did a little flip when he squeezed her hand. He led the way back a few steps before taking a different path steeply upward. After a couple minutes of climbing through rocks and scrub, they came to another large outcropping above but in view of the falls.
    They sat down far enough away to watch the full glory of the falls but save themselves from most of the spray. The water glittered in the moonlight and the air around them seemed purified by its nearness to the falls. She pressed the tip of her thumb and then took a deep breath.
    “You were right.”
    “Hm?” He looked at her. “About what?”
    “I don’t trust myself around you.” She sighed. “After everything that has happened in my life in the past few months, I should know better. But you say that I can trust you, and I want to believe you.”
    He looked at her for a while, weighing what she said. His close scrutiny made her want to squirm, but she looked right back at him, determined to hold his gaze. Even in the poor light, she could see the corner of his mouth move up into a smile.
    “Do you know the legend of Echo Falls?” he asked.
    “No.”
    “When native tribes still lived in this area a long time ago, there was once a chief from one tribe and a young woman from another tribe who were going to be married. Their marriage was going to make an alliance between the tribes, but they were lucky enough to be in love, too.
    “A man from another tribe saw the alliance as a threat and he wanted the woman to marry him, but the woman turned him away. He wouldn’t accept her refusal. The night before the wedding, the night of the true full moon, he kidnapped her and brought her to these waterfalls. When she still refused to marry him, he hid her deep in the caves.
    “The chief went to meet his bride in secret that same