Read Online Formidable: Shifters Forever Worlds (Ever After Dark Book 1) by Elle Thorne - Free Book Online

“It's—difficult.”
    “I understand. What if you tell me a secret, something you’ve never shared with anyone?”
    He paused, as if thinking. “Sometimes I wish I wasn't firstborn and required to uphold antiquated customs I'm not even sure I believe in. Tell me one of yours?”
    “That doesn’t seem fair. You were supposed to tell me yours in exchange for my helping you.”
    “Understood.” He fidgeted, his fingers moving restlessly.
    She reached out and placed her hands on his. He was holding a blade of grass, strong hands wrapping the greenery around his index finger.
    She relented. “I’ve had issues with my tigress.”
    “Define issues.”
    “In my teens, we had a falling out. She refused to return. She was there, but she wouldn’t come back in a shift. Would hardly communicate with me either.”
    “What did you do?”
    “My parents sent me to a counselor.”
    “A shifter shrink?”
    She could hear the smile in his voice, as if a counselor for shifters was farfetched in his mind.
    “Guess he served in that capacity. He was a shifter and a doctor, in the final years of his residency, an American who was returning to his country the next year. I saw Dr. Evans for a full year before he left.”
    “Did he help you?”
    “He said he wasn’t very familiar with cases like mine, that they weren’t common. His advice was to immerse myself in something I was passionate about and wait for my tigress to return.”
    “So you did? What is it you were passionate about?”
    “Ballet. And, yes. Now I give private lessons.”
    “And clearly your tigress returned.”
    “She did. Not right away, but she did.”
    “No explanation?”
    “I didn’t need any, I knew why she left. I had met a young man—I mean we were teenagers; it wasn’t a big deal—but she was unhappy because she knew he wasn’t my fated mate. She wasn’t okay with our dating.”
    “She’s a headstrong one, isn’t she?” He took her hand. “I can see where she gets it from.”
    “Ha. You know it doesn’t work that way.” But she did appreciate the teasing tone and the levity. Thinking about the time without her tigress was unpleasant.
    She lowered her lids, then opened them slowly to see if there was a difference. Was that a glimmer of light she could see? She didn’t want to get her hopes up.
    “Tell me about the tigress. You’ve seen her, right? Who is she?”
    Another breath hitch.
    He definitely knew something about the tigress.
    “It’s…” He exhaled softly, but to her supernatural shifter hearing, she could tell it was laden with consternation.
    “You’ve seen her, right?”
    “Not exactly.” He adjusted, moving slightly, repositioning her against his chest. “I think it’s my children’s mother—her tigress.”
    Like a ghost? Isabel didn’t want to ask something so naïve. But what else could it be?
    Time for her to mind her own business. “That must be difficult,” she murmured, allowing the subject to drop. She didn’t need to be bringing up painful memories.
    “Mhmmm.” The sound of his agreement was drawn out and low, his heartbeat against her back was even, almost lulling. “Rest,” he said. “I’ll shift if needed.”
    “Your strength is back? You can shift?”
    “Yes, my tiger’s been pushing for it, angry at the experience, seeking revenge.”
    Not good. The last thing she or anyone else needed was Giovanni Tiero seeking revenge.
    In Isabel’s head, her tigress roared agreement, though still inclined to want a measure of retribution for the pain they’d been through. Her eyesight loss. Her head’s aching had lessened, no longer searing its way across her brain; now it was a throbbing uncomfortable sensation.

16
    G io breathed Isabel in . His mate. He knew this now, with a certainty he’d never felt before.
    Not ever.
    Her scent infiltrated his system, coursing through his veins like it was his own life source.
    Her body, soft and curvy, with a layer of muscle beneath, from her years of