Read Online Rebel's Claw by Afton Locke - Free Book Online Page A

tricks on me during those flashes of light.”
    Her tale sounded like something out of a horror movie. Jared must have shifted when rigor mortis began to pass. The timing might be a little off, but adrenaline, the weather—a lot of factors could have contributed. Either way, Roark wasn’t about to explain Wolves to her. Even though each word shredded his guts, he needed to hear every one.
    “But I can’t believe that explanation anymore.” Her face flushed and tears spilled over her fingers. “Now I’ve seen his picture and know he’s real.”
    Holy buffalo crap. The urge to comfort her rushed through him, as if she were the victim here. He stared at the ceiling instead, struggling to breathe slowly. “Did you call the authorities?”
    She shook her head. “I thought about it, but Daddy wouldn’t let me.”
    “Your father was still alive at the time?” If so, why had he sent his daughter outside in the rain to investigate a noise?
    “No, but he still talked to me sometimes in spirit.” She sniffed. “I wouldn’t have gotten through the night if he hadn’t been with me, telling me what to do.”
    He spread his hands on the table to steady his voice. “So, you ignored what you saw and finished burying what you’d assumed was a dead wolf?”
    She nodded and hiccupped. “Took me the whole night. I got so soaked from the rain I almost died myself the week after from influenza. I wished I had.”
    He crossed his arms, refusing to feel sympathetic. The old man had done the pack a favor. If the police had gotten their hands on a shifter corpse, the secrecy of Wolves would be jeopardized.
    “I added the wolf deterrents so it could never happen again.”
    “Where is he?” he whispered.
    “Out in the field, behind the barn.” She slumped over the back of her chair. “Oh, Roark. I’m so sorry!”
    Paralyzed, he watched her narrow shoulders shake and her hair tumble over the table, dragging through the spilled coffee. He bolted out of his seat and grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to look up.
    Raw energy shot through his limbs at the sight of her red, tear-stained face. His fingers convulsed around the bones of her arms. The primal animal in him howled, needing to destroy her the way she’d destroyed his best friend.
    At the same time, arousal bolted through his cock because the mate in him needed to love her….
    “Damn you, Carrie. Damn you!”
    “I said I was sorry.” Her face crumpled. “I never would have shot a man. If I could bring him back, I would.”
    The revenge he’d chased for three years was finally in his grasp. Every muscle in his body coiled with superhuman restraint. A single breath blown the wrong way might send him over the edge. What would he do to her then?
    “I ought to snap you in half,” he said in a voice as raw and hoarse as hers.
    “Do it!”
    He gripped both sides of her face and pulled her quivering lips too close to his mouth. Half of him wanted to bite them. Make them bleed. The other half needed to get lost in her kiss. Instead, they stared into each other’s eyes. Breathed each other’s air with gasping, lung-scraping breaths.
    When he released her with a jerk, she darted away, slipping and falling to her knees in the coffee. Her shirt was already stained from when she’d spilled it earlier. He couldn’t believe she’d dug a grave by herself. Did her clothes have brown stains that night, too—not from coffee but mud?
    Hairs prickled on the back of his neck when she headed to the phone. “What are you doing?”
    “I’m going to turn myself in.” She picked up the receiver. “Should’ve done it a long time ago.”
    He crossed the kitchen in three strides. “No way.”
    “But it’s the only way I can make things right.” Her index finger shook as it hovered over the keypad. “I deserve to go to jail and a whole lot more for what I’ve done.”
    “You can’t.” The phone was so slick with her sweat it almost slipped from his hand when he grabbed