Desired by the Alpha (Wolf Destiny Book 1) Read Free

least come up with a plan for a time like this?
    He didn’t take his eyes off her, but he didn’t seem to be in an attack posture of any kind. All of a sudden, the wolf turned his back on Olivia, breaking out into a run, disappearing into the darkness.
    Turning her head around to make sure there were no other wolves around, Olivia turned around, walking back the way she had come from.  
    Every muscle in her body ached to run away, fast, but she didn’t want to attract attention and make herself look like even more like prey.  
    Walking as fast as she could while still trying to stay quiet, heart thumping so loudly she was afraid it could be heard, Olivia forced herself to go slowly.
    When the edge the woods finally came into sight, Olivia took off like a shot. Climbing back up the tree in record time, she pulled the window shut behind her, jamming the lock into place.
    Shucking her clothes, she dove into bed, still shaking with fear. It took awhile before she calmed down enough to fall asleep. Just before she drifted off, a smile crossed her face. She was safe, and now she had finally seen for herself what lived in out the woods. No risk, no reward.

Chapter 1
    Unlocking the door of her childhood home, Olivia was greeted by silence. The emptiness in the house was like a haunting presence. Nothing was different from her last visit, or even since she was a child. But everything else had changed.  
    Olivia’s mother had moved in with her older sister, both widows now and happy to head down south to the warmth of Florida, even though they were only in their fifties and too young to retire.
    “I can’t stay at home any longer,” Mom had told Olivia when she came to visit, the two of them sitting in her tiny, cramped living room in her Brooklyn apartment. “There’s just too many memories. It’s too lonely now. If you want the house, it’s yours. If not, I’ll put it up for sale. But either way, I’m moving in with your Aunt Audrey.”  
    “I want it,” Olivia said immediately.  
    “You should think seriously about it before you give me an answer, darling,” Mom said. “Are you sure you want to leave New York? You’d have to give up your career.”
    “It’s already over,” Olivia said, more to herself than her mother.  
    “Don’t say that. You just have to take a break for awhile, but it’s too soon to give up now.”
    Staring down into her cup of strong black coffee, Olivia didn’t reply. Usually she loved her mother’s optimism, but for the first time it was making her feel worse.
    On the brink of Olivia’s growing success turning into international renown, everything had fallen apart.  
    She had been rehearsing for her first tour with Ballet Manhattan, having landed a prime lead role in a modern ballet that had been on fire since it debuted last year.  
    Just days before the company was scheduled to start the tour, Olivia had been dancing in the final dress rehearsal. Everything was flowing together and it all felt so right. Flying across the stage in her signature jete, she couldn’t have felt better.  
    Seconds later, she was in a crumpled heap, the tiniest error in timing causing her to crash to the ground.  
    Olivia still didn’t understand exactly how it had happened, but she couldn’t forget how it felt. Two surgeries later and nothing had changed. She was haunted by a twisting, aching pain in her leg that kept her awake at night and never let her forget what she had lost, everything broken in a single moment.  
    After weeks of physiotherapy, Olivia had been able to leave the crutches behind. For the most part, she could walk normally again. It only hurt when she danced. Her body might recover from the fall, but her career couldn’t.

    Propping her suitcases by the door, she went to sit in the living room.  
    Her mother had left everything behind for her. The house was filled with the same furniture that she had grown up with, all aged wood covered with worn cloth cushions. It was