Read Online Wolver's Reward by Jacqueline Rhoades - Free Book Online Page A

So much for the meet and greet. They were
still in human form, but their movements were pure wolf.
    One pack milled about, always staying close
to one of their own. Their shoulders were relaxed, but not so much
that they appeared cowed in any way. They looked like any normal
pack of wolvers, but they weren't. Their heads hung low to avoid
direct eye contact, but their eyes were always watching, always
judging. They were doing exactly what River was doing. They were
sizing up the power and force of the competition. Neither River nor
his wolf liked this bunch. There was something about them that
raised his hackles, though they showed no sign of open
aggression.
    The second batch reminded him of Wolf's Head.
They wore designer jeans and shirts that looked too new to be
comfortable. They belonged in khakis and polo shirts. Their faces
and hands were soft, though their bodies looked strong and toned.
River's snort of derision was echoed by his wolf. Those bodies were
probably the result of workouts in the gym. That didn't mean they
couldn't fight. Wolf's Head certainly could. They were wolvers
after all, and a beast with sharp teeth and claws resided in each
one of them. But these looked like wolvers better suited to fight
financial battles than real ones, and they weren't much older than
River.
    The third group was mostly young, too, and
River felt immediately drawn to them. Okay, maybe it was the beat
up leather vests most of them were wearing along with their worn
jeans, or maybe the half dozen motorcycles he'd seen parked off to
one side, but River didn't think so. He knew better than to fall
for surface shit. No, when it came to shit, these wolvers had
theirs together. There was a wary tension in each one of them, like
they expected shit to follow them wherever they went, and this
place was no exception.
    And fuck-all if he didn't recognize them!
They were the wolvers from the bar. This was the mating chase they
were talking about. It crossed his mind that he could slink back
into the trees, get dressed, and come out and join them, but he
decided against it. There was trouble brewing here, and he wanted
no part of it.
    He wondered if this strange collection saw
each other as he did. River felt as if he'd entered a war zone
where someone had called a temporary truce that was about to break
wide open. He wondered why they weren't already fighting as
men.
    Primal Law forbade man to fight wolf, or wolf
to kill man. The ancestral memory of the Law was so strongly
imbedded in their genetics that the most hardened rogue would be
hesitant to break it. The Law however, said nothing about wolvers
tearing each other to pieces as long as they were all in the same
form. So, why weren't these wolvers going at it?
    River didn't care. If they were waiting for
the moon to do battle, more power to them. It wasn't his fight. As
far as he was concerned, the more they fucked up each other, the
fewer there'd be to fuck with him when he took back what was
his.
    He circled around, slinking like the thief he
wasn't, and spotted his truck. His tarp covered motorcycle was
still in place. It was just as he left it. He wanted to edge
closer, but the wolf refused his urging. The animal had interests
elsewhere. It raised its snout and sniffed the air. A deep thrum of
pleasure sounded in its throat.
    A group of females hovered around an old
recreational vehicle. They were all fully adult and ranged in age
from young to middle aged. The long-legged bitch was not among
them, but her scent wafted on the gentle breeze, though he couldn't
find those of her thieving companions.
    As his nose had noted before, the odor of
worry and fear tainted the normally pleasant scent of unmated
female. They were of different shapes and sizes, but all
well-built, healthy looking, and strong. Like the men, their
anxiety was exhibited in wolf behavior. Their postures were
submissive. Their heads were turned to the side and down as if they
expected chastisement. If they'd been in