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

night and found her missing, but she managed to leave a trail for him. He went to the caves to search for her, hearing her echoing cries. When he couldn’t find her, he pleaded with the gods to help him and they turned the lovers into wolves so they would have the strength and senses to find each other. But they were still lost to each other. The chief begged for more time, but the gods wouldn’t let him abandon his people so he had to return to human form in the morning.
    “He returned to search for his mate every night as a wolf and had to turn back into a human every morning. He became the first werewolf. That’s why we can only transform at night. We have to return to our humanity during the day. And we have to turn into a wolf at every full moon as a symbol of the first night the chief turned into a wolf and searched for his lover, his other half.
    “They say you can still hear the their lonely howls if you’re near the falls during a full moon as they still search for each other.”
    She took a shaky breath and then looked away, wrapping her arms around herself.
    He studied her for a few moments before moving closer. “You’re not alone, Phoebe. I don’t know what happened to you or what it was like where you came from, but when you came to Echo Falls, you became one of us. You’re under my protection now. Under the pack’s protection. If you need anything and I’m not around, you can go to Will. He’s my second in command and -”
    Her eyes widened. “Will?”
    He rubbed the back of his neck.
    “But Elle…”
    He nodded. “Elle, too.”
    Her mouth opened before she managed to get her mind going enough to remember to close it. Elle? A werewolf? Was everyone in Echo Falls a wolf and she didn’t know it? She hadn’t just had one bad night; she’d gotten herself firmly mixed up in the very center of the pack. Elle, her first client here who happened to be married to the alpha’s second in command. The alpha who had just so happened to be in the right place at the right time to save her life.
    Her heart began to pound. Echo Falls could really be the werewolf paradise that she’d been envisioning in the back of her mind. So many werewolves living in safety. A chill ran down her spine. Safety until now. Her breathing started becoming more difficult as the dark realization she’d dismissed so easily before it came slamming back to her mind with stark clarity.
    “Huh.”
    He smirked. “Welcome to Echo Falls.”
    “Are you all…?”
    “All? No. Echo Falls is just a good place for us. It’s a big enough town with plenty of hills, mountains, forests and lakes around it. Plenty of space to run. The pack is family. We don’t have a lot of big problems come up.” He frowned. “We didn’t.”
    “Until the murders.” She swallowed hard, gasping as tears began to fill her eyes. “All of you.”
    “Are you so scared of us?” he asked, placing his hand on her thigh.
    She sniffed, the first tears falling onto her cheeks and glistening into the moonlight.
    “No,” she whispered, shaking her head. “Scared for you.”
    He didn’t appear to understand at all, but he drew her close and held her. Though she still kept her arms wrapped around herself, she leaned into him, pressing her face against his chest. Slowly he pulled her legs up and over his thighs so he could hug her fully.
    She gasped and sobbed, her human mind retreating and letting her wolf forward to accept the comfort of a bigger, stronger wolf. He wasn’t in his wolf form, but he didn’t need to be. Her wolf knew him in almost every way – had known him from the night he saved her – as a leader and source of strength. As much as her human side feared her wolf, the wolf now saved her from drowning in the darkness. Her wolf knew how to accept Aidan into her life in basic ways she needed and wanted. For now, at least, she could finally rest.
    He rocked her slowly and ran his hands through her hair. She finally cried herself out and