Awakening: Montana Wolves, Book 2 Read Free Page A

hunter would’ve assumed that a single, well-placed bullet would have killed a regular wolf Sara’s size. Maybe two. By the time the pack reached her, she’d been shot eighteen times. To Chandra’s mind, the only reason he would have kept reloading and shooting, ruining the prized, lily-white pelt in the process was if he knew one bullet wasn’t going to cut it.
    No, Chandra, along with most of the wolves of Pray, felt like this man knew what he was doing. That he had somehow figured out, or at least had a hunch, that Sara was a werewolf.
    While this terrible, life-changing tragedy played out, Jax had been out of town. He had known instantly due to his bond with his mate that she was no longer alive and had rushed back. Ryan had been there with Sara and, at his mother’s desperate urgings, had managed to get away when the shooting began. But in the end, Jax’s wife was dead, and she still hadn’t been avenged.
    “I failed my mate,” he’d said to Chandra earlier.
    She shook her head briskly to ward off the ghosts of the past, focusing once again on the present.
    And presently, Jax was probably still tangled beneath the sheets with that woman.
    Chandra swung her legs over the side of the bed and hoisted her still weary body up. She brushed her teeth and took a few angry swipes at her hair with a comb before pulling it into a loose knot on top of her head. Maybe a run would clear her head. She quickly changed into workout gear and headed for the stairs, but a woman’s tinny voice sounded from behind her, assaulting her eardrums and stalling her in her tracks.
    “Hey, there, Red, whatcha doing?”
    Chandra sucked in a breath and bit her lip hard. She so didn’t need this shit right now.
    “Hello there,” she said, pasting on a smile on before turning to face a disheveled Amber. “Aren’t you looking lovely this morning?” She attempted to cut their interaction short by turning back toward the stairs.
    “Thanks.” Amber didn’t cooperate and stepped back into view. “Jax just buzzed my cab through the gates so I’m heading out.” She slid her arms into the coat that she’d been holding and hoisted her purse back onto her shoulder. “He was exhausted so he went back to bed.”
    Fan-fucking-tastic.
    “Nice place you have here,” she drawled, glancing around at the art decorating the hallway walls with an appreciative nod. “Kinda weird all of you living together though. I mean, the house is big enough and all, and I know Jax said the bunch of you are partners and run the business out of the house and whatnot, but still…kinda weird having seven roommates, isn’t it?” Amber’s gaze stayed on Chandra’s face longer than was comfortable.
    Spidey senses tingling, she manufactured a laugh and replied, “Yeah, more than a little weird. But our boss, Liam, is what you might call eccentric. He feels like the partners that play together will stay together. And—” she lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, glancing around as if to make sure no one was listening “—he’s a slave driver to boot. He loves to call meetings on a Saturday afternoon or some nonsense just to make sure we’re all eating, sleeping and breathing real estate, you know?”
    A horn blared, and Chandra said a little prayer of thanks to the cab company for their impeccable timing.
    “Well, it was nice talking to you.” With that and a breezy wave, she turned on the balls of her feet and jogged lightly down the stairs, replaying their conversation over in her head. She hoped she’d added enough detail to make their odd living arrangement plausible, but not too much that it had sounded forced. Amber didn’t exactly seem like the brightest star in the sky, but she might be ambitious and that could be just as dangerous.
    Once Chandra was alone in the kitchen, she made for the window and watched Amber get into the taxi with a sigh of relief.
    This was why they didn’t bring humans home to play with.
    It wasn’t expressly