Read Online Taken by Moonlight by Dorothy McFalls - Free Book Online Page B

offspring of creatures who are a mixture of wolf and human...like your true parents.” He glanced at Dimitri. “And like him as well?”
    Dimitri pushed the damp cloth aside and gingerly rose from the settee. He flashed Lia a blazing smile and paid for it with a sharp pain in his jaw. Though he might not have wanted to be the alpha of this motley pack, she clearly was born to be a leader.
    “Yes, I am wolf,” Dimitri said. He gestured toward his pack gathered behind him. “We all are.”
    “This is insanity.” Lettie stamped her foot. “I cannot believe you are even listening to this man’s twaddle. Can’t you see how this charlatan is spinning a yarn in hopes of stealing Lia away from us? You can’t let that happen. You simply cannot!”
    The earl sighed deeply. His shoulders drooped in defeat. “She was never truly ours to keep, Lettie,” he said.
    Dimitri’s heart went out to the earl and his wife who had started to quietly weep. The man Dimitri long considered an enemy was nothing like he’d imagined. He wasn’t anything like the blood-hungry hunters in the Russian countryside. This man, though wary of the wolves crowding the parlor, truly cared for Lia and wanted what was best for her. What Lia wanted or needed weren’t ideas that Vlad or Dimitri had even considered.
    Did that make the earl better than a wolf?
    No. That was impossible!
    “Hawthorn, I had lured you here this morning in the hopes of killing you for the crime of killing our alpha and stealing his daughter,” Dimitri admitted, even though his mind still whirled in light of what was happening. “It is a crime for which you had already been tried and convicted by the pack.”
    Many in the pack, eager for revenge, surged forward, their shapes changing to wolf form.
    “No!” Lia cried as she threw herself in front of the earl. “How can you do this to my family?”
    Lettie screamed.
    The earl bravely rose from the chair and stood his ground.
    Dimitri raised a steadying hand, which instantly stopped the pack in their tracks. “However,” he said, raising his voice, “after hearing how you saved Lia from the hunters, I suspect we misjudged you. We were wrong to want to harm you. Because of you, Lia has been returned to us. From this day forward you, Hawthorn, and your family, will be considered honorary members of our pack and, as such, under our protection.”
    “I am honored,” the earl said in a booming diplomatic tone. He stepped around Lia and reached out his hand to Dimitri. “For Lia’s sake, I had long hoped to meet someone such as yourself, someone who could teach Lia and guide her.” As soon as Dimitri accepted the earl’s handshake, the earl’s grip tightened and he pulled Dimitri close to his chest. What the earl said next was spoken so softly it could only be for Dimitri’s ears. “I am not pleased, however, that you have stolen my daughter’s virtue. You will pay for what you’ve done to her. And you will restore her honor.”
    “As I was telling the pack before you planted that facer, Hawthorn.” He rubbed the side of his face. “I plan to marry your daughter.”
    “In a church,” the earl demanded.
    Dimitri shrugged. “Wherever you want.”
    The earl scowled.
    “I love him, Papa,” Lia said.
    “You do?” Dimitri asked, stunned.
    “You are my mate,” she said, glancing shyly away before meeting his gaze again. “We belong together. Isn’t that how it works with our kind? We mate for love...and for life?”
    “We always hope to,” Dimitri said. A smile pulled at his lips.
    “For the last several years I have been restless, unsettled. The restlessness had grown more painful with the passing of every day. And I didn’t know why. But now I don’t feel that anymore.” She sounded truly surprised by this.
    “You have found your wolf. It had been begging to be freed. You did that, my cub. You freed yourself.” And he couldn’t be more proud of her for her strength. She was truly an amazing