Read Online Patrick's Heart by Stacey Espino - Free Book Online

showed up here last night looking for Cassidy. I figured if I introduced them, she’d see me in a favorable light.”
    “How do you even know it’s her brother?” asked Matthew. “Surely you didn’t just take his word on it.”
    Patrick shrugged. “Don’t judge me. Either of you would have done the same thing.”
    “Leave Cassidy alone with some stranger after everything that’s happened around town lately? I don’t think so.” Matthew clutched his radio, his knuckles turning white.
    “You’re the one that left her there alone! You couldn’t bring her along for the ride?”
    “She wanted a few minutes alone. How was I supposed to know you let a stranger on Cassidy’s property?” The two men started to butt chests, their feral nature emerging. The longer Garret put off the official mating, the harder it was to control his pack.
    “You’ll both pay if she’s hurt,” said Garret, his voice deceptively calm. On the inside he wanted to shred the sun right out of the sky. Cassie was the center of his universe now. Whether the mine passed the inspection or not wasn’t his main priority any more. She knew about Patrick, so they were one step closer to creating a pack with its own female.
    “Are we breaking out the fur?” asked Patrick.
    “You know, I expect this kind of fuckup from Travis, not you, Red. I can’t believe you’d bring a man to Cassie’s own house without checking him out.”
    “He asked for her by name. He even had a picture of her in his wallet. Do you think I want to be remembered as the man who ruined her chance to meet her brother? How the fuck did I know Matthew would bring her to her house? That’s the last place I’d expect her to be.”
    “And where’d he come from, this brother? Drop right out of the clouds?”
    “I–I don’t know. He didn’t have a car or truck that I could find.”
    Garret and Matthew locked eyes for a moment.
    “Did you scent wolves?” asked Matthew. “This could be a trick by the Rockfords. Corbin hasn’t made it a secret that he wants her for his pack.”
    “No wolves. His scent was unusual but it wasn’t wolf.”
    “Let’s go. Now, before the inspector notices I’m not running the mine like I should be.”
    Guilt welled up inside Garret as he boarded his pickup truck. If he wasn’t so obsessed with pleasing the inspector, he would have brought Cassidy to work as usual. His priorities were off. She would have been safe in the office or his personal trailer, and not alone with some man who may or may not be her missing kin.
    His mind wandered as he navigated the rough back roads at speeds far above the limit. The truck jostled and lurched but it didn’t faze him. What if this man was her missing half brother? Would she want to return to the city to be closer to him? Would he quench her need for acceptance and belonging, making his pack unnecessary and obsolete?
    He felt like an asshole. Cassidy’s happiness had to come first, regardless of her future choices. But as decent as he tried to be, wanted to be, he wasn’t a man. His wolfen heritage shone through, demanding he claim what was his under any circumstance. Cassie was his woman, the mate his pack all agreed on. But slaughtering a threat would not go over well, so he had to fight his natural tendencies.
    Garret parked the company truck at an odd angle in front of Cassie’s house. It was too quiet for his liking. He knew his two pack mates were itching to shift and prowl the area, but they needed to hold off until he knew what they were dealing with.
    “Did he even look like her?” asked Garret as they climbed the front steps to the porch, the old wooden boards creaking.
    “Not really. They’re nothing alike.”
    Garret knocked on the front door but got no response. “You sure you left her here?” he asked.
    “Yeah, and there was no car, no way for her to leave,” said Matthew.
    “Patrick, do what you have to do.” As he opened the door to enter the house, Patrick eagerly