Read Online Resisting The Alpha (Werebear Shifter Romance) (The Crane Curse) by Liliana Rhodes - Free Book Online

resist him.
    "Faith? Faith?" Erich said, bringing her back to reality, her skirt down and waving in the breeze. "Can I ask you something?"
    Blinking she pushed away her thoughts of him. She'd have to come back to that another time, when she was alone.
    His question was loaded. She couldn't say yes and then not answer him, but what if he asked her something she didn't want to talk about. She already said enough about herself and she was her least favorite topic. But looking up into his eyes she felt something she hadn't felt in years and knew it had nothing to do with the human attraction to a shifter.
    "Sure, what is it?" she said.
    "You're a witch, why didn't you just cast a spell to find out who your family is? Couldn't you do that with the necklace?"
    She shook her head. "I don't know. I really never thought about it. I'm an accidental witch I guess," she said then shrugged. "I might come from a family of witches but except for what Abel taught me, I know nothing."
    "What did he teach you?"
    She sighed. This wasn't something she wanted to talk about, but having Erich so close and feeling so safe, she told him everything.
    "He mostly concentrated on charming. He thought I could have something to do with the crane curse because of this stupid bird pendant. He got really angry when I could only charm Alphas. That's what those collars were for. You know, the ones the captured wolves had on. The collar not only kept them in a wolf state, but it also changed something to make them register as Alpha so I could charm and control them. It seems charming has more to do with biology than magic."
    "What happened though? We found so many that had gone insane."
    She looked down at the ground and shook her head. "I tried to stop him, I really did," she said her voice tight. "He wouldn't listen. Abel created those collars but if a wolf wore it for too long they lost their mind. There had even been several deaths. I was able to protect some people, but not all of them. I didn't even know how many he and his pack had captured. It was when I realized how completely out of control he was, that I reached out to the Council. It was the only thing I thought would stop him.
    "He's not the man I knew anymore," she said as she turned around and buried her head in Erich's chest. "I don't know who he is now."
    "Then why do you stay?"
    "Its not that easy you know. I've spent so long with him and I..." still love him. She was going to say but realized she wasn't sure it was true anymore. How could she love someone she didn't even recognize anymore. The man she loved as Abel was gone and had been gone for years.
    She pushed Erich away and climbed back down to the main floor, picked up her shoebox and jumped out of the doorway onto the broken sidewalk. As they sat in the car, Erich turned the key.
    "Did Abel tell you the truth about the Crane curse?" he asked.
    "The truth?"
    "Crane is a last name, not just a bird. Remember the girl that night when the Council captured Abel's pack? The one with the red hair?"
    "And my eyes," she whispered as she realized what Erich was going to say.
    "Her name is Hannah Crane."
    Faith felt a chill pass through her and even though she knew the answer, she still had to ask. "What's her mother's name?"
    "Eliza, why?"
    "Can you take me somewhere? I think its time I met them."
     
    ***
     
    Weeks had past since Erich first drove Faith past the small cottage at the end of the road where the Crane family lived. She just couldn't bring herself to knock on the door. What was she supposed to say? And why would they believe her anyway?
    Erich drove past the small cottage as he had been doing regularly since that day and turned around near the path that entered the forest. Faith rung her shaking hands together, her palms moist from nervousness. She had been carrying Miranda's ring with her for when she got the courage up to visit them, but each time she got close she backed away.
    With the his black Ford F-250 pickup truck idling,