Read Online Gray Bishop by Kelly Meade - Free Book Online Page B

staring at the same page for twenty minutes, rereading the same paragraph without understanding a single word. Normally she enjoyed Gregory Maguire, and she had been surprised to find several of his books tucked away in the large McQueen home library. Tonight her thoughts were elsewhere.
    Her thoughts were stuck in Springwell, in an empty house she no longer thought of as home. Not in the two years since her husband and unborn daughter died in a horrible car accident that she only vaguely recalled. All she really remembered from those first few days was lying in bed, collarbone shattered, right arm broken, unable to believe her father or doctor when they said Derek and little Elizabeth were dead. She’d barely had the sense or strength to shift and speed up the healing process. She had clung to her grief so strongly for so long.
    Seeing that child’s hand in today’s massacre had stirred up so many things. Half-breed or not, that child had been someone’s son or daughter. That child had lost a chance at a future. At happiness. No child deserved to die, much less be torn apart by monsters.
    She flung the paperback across the room. It hit the wall with an unsatisfying thud, then clattered to the floor in a flutter of paper. She felt no better. No calmer. No closer to sleep.
    The floor outside the library door creaked. She perked up, a tiny corner of her mind hoping it was Bishop. As furious as she still was at him for the remark against her late husband, she couldn’t deny her beast’s attraction to him. Or the attraction she felt as a woman toward a handsome, muscular male whose eyes always seemed to look right inside of her.
    The door opened, and Mason Anderson stepped in. Hope dashed, Jillian offered him a polite smile. She cared for Mason, but their friendship had been strained when she chose to marry Derek. He was a strong, loyal man, devoted to the run, and he’d do anything for her father. And even now that she was expected to find another husband—for the good of the run—she could not foresee a future with Mason as Springwell’s Alpha.
    His sharp gaze spotted the book. He picked it up and smoothed out the pages. “Didn’t like this one?”
    “Something like that.”
    “Uh-huh.” He sat in the middle of the leather couch she already occupied, close to invading her personal space. “What did you see out there?”
    “You read the same report as everyone else.”
    “Yeah, I did. Body parts, blood, and gore. But I see it in your eyes, Jill. Something’s got you thinking about them.”
    Her throat closed, tight with emotion. Damn him for knowing her so well. “I am thinking about them. A lot these last few weeks.” She exhaled hard through her nose, sickened by the memory of that awful smell. “They killed a small child.”
    His warm hand closed over her knee and Jillian didn’t push it away. She appreciated the contact. Needed someone’s touch when she was so turned around she didn’t know which way was up.
    “I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”
    The emotion shattered, and Jillian coughed out a soft sob. She covered her mouth with both hands, ashamed at losing it in front of Mason. He pulled her into a hug, and she let him. She melted against his broad, solid chest, taking the comfort he gave freely. Needing the familiarity of an old friend. He stroked her hair and her back, soothing and calming. Jillian worked through the grief, stemming her tears, balling it all up into a painful little heap that she shoved deep down where it had to stay. She was here representing Alpha Joseph Reynolds and the Springwell people. She could not cry in front of anyone else.
    Mason would take this weakness to the grave.
    “You don’t have to be strong for me,” he whispered. “Not about this.”
    She pulled back far enough to see his face. “I have to be strong for everyone. I’m the Alpha’s daughter. It’s expected.”
    “You have emotions, Jill. You lost two very precious,