Read Online Lone Wolf's Captive (novella) by Sherilee Gray - Free Book Online Page B

his body around her warmth and buried his nose in her hair, letting her scent soothe him. Calm him.
    No one knew where his cabin was. She was safe here. Delaney was his and, despite what he’d said, she wasn’t going anywhere—not until he’d figured out the best way to reunite her with her pack and at the same time keep her safe from her asshole father.
    ***
    Laney’s eyes snapped open, heart racing at a frantic pace, palms sticky. She blinked into the darkness, not sure why she’d woken. Then the dream came flooding back. The same dream that plagued her nearly every night since Fletch disappeared. She relived that day each night in her sleep, a Technicolor kind of hell, accompanied by a full kaleidoscope of dark and painful emotions.
    Why the hell is this still happening?
    The heat from Fletch’s body pressed against her. His reassuring weight, his scent, all helped to settle her nerves. She tightened her fingers around her mate’s wrist which was wrapped protectively around her waist. Fletch was back, the dreams should have stopped.
    God, she needed them to stop.
    That dreadful day was still so vivid in her mind. She had waited for him, but he hadn’t shown. In her gut she’d known something was terribly wrong. Had run to his quarters and discovered what little he’d owned was missing from his room. Still, she refused to believe he would leave her like that and searched for him. She’d run the surrounding woods until she collapsed with exhaustion.
    Her father had found her—a broken, inconsolable mess a few miles from home. He’d picked her up and carried her home. He’d wiped her tears, sympathised, all the while pretending to be concerned over Fletch’s whereabouts.
    “I’m sorry, sweetheart. In time you’ll feel better, I promise. This was the way it was always going to be. Fletch is a lone wolf. He could never truly belong here. It just isn’t in him.”
    “But he was my mate.”
    “You didn’t…has he marked you?”
    She shook her head. “No.”
    “Thank God for that.”
    “But we love each other…he wouldn’t just leave me.”
    “I know his rejection hurts, but the sooner you accept the fact that he didn’t return your feelings, the better.”
    Those final words from her father had cut like a blade. He’d lied to her face.
    The dreams started that first night.
    Until she confronted him, she couldn’t move on with her life and those nightmares would continue to haunt her.
    Fletch wanted her to wait. She understood where he was coming from. She also knew as a newly-mated male, his instincts to protect and keep her close would cloud his judgement, at least until he grew accustomed to their new connection. She’d seen it many times among the males in her pack. Growling, scowling males acting like overbearing asshats with their females. Ready to maim any male stupid enough to come anywhere near their mates. It was the only reason she hadn’t put Fletch in his place the minute he told her she couldn’t go alone. Right now it would be a waste of breath.
    Her father was many things, and a saint wasn’t one of them. But she couldn’t believe he would hurt her like that, not intentionally. She needed to hear it from him, had to believe that no matter how incredibly wrong he’d been, his actions had been the result of some misconceived notion about Fletch, that someone had fed him a pack of lies.
    If not? She squeezed her eyes shut, unable to think about what that might mean. That level of betrayal would tear her apart, would mean the one relationship she’d trusted in when everything had gone to hell and her world had fallen down round her, was nothing but a lie.
    Lifting Fletch’s heavy arm from around her body, she slid from beneath the covers. He growled low in his sleep and reached for her.
    Shit, shit, shit .
    Grabbing her pillow, she thrust it down beside him. He immediately dragged it against his big body, growled again softly then drifted back to sleep. His fierce expression