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

 
    “He’s a coward,” Paige would tell her every single time she came over for another rescue mission, so many times it got embarrassing. “He doesn’t deserve your time or your thoughts. Leave it alone.”
    It was true, of course. But so, so much easier said than done.  

    With wounds gaping from lack of closure, coming home had seemed like a very good idea at the time.
    Now, stepping out into the cold evening air, Olivia wasn’t so sure. Flipping her collar up to guard against the icy reaches of the whipping wind, she plodded towards the woods, wincing as her injured leg protested the unfamiliar strain that walking through deep snow was putting on it.
    Olivia paused at the edge of the forest, leaning against a tree to take her weight off her right leg. She shouldn’t keep going. Just because nothing had happened to her before didn’t mean it was safe now.  
    Screw it. She was going in. She might have lost everything she had going for her, but not her spirit. At twenty four, she was far too young to start being cautious.  
    Trying to ignore the twinge of fear that reminded her she was a lot more vulnerable now, she plunged forward.  
    The woods were beautiful and peaceful, just the way she remembered them. Easily finding her way back to the circle, she was about to take a seat on a fallen log when she saw a swift movement out of the corner of her eye. Turning around too quickly, she took an involuntary step back and tripped, her knee giving way with an ominous pop.  
    A sharp spike of burning pain shot up and down her entire leg as she tumbled to the ground.  
    Her racing heart galloped at twice its speed when she heard footsteps crunching in the snow. They were too heavy to belong to an animal. Would someone other than her be crazy enough to venture in here at night?  
    With that thought, the gravity of her situation hit her with full force. She was completely vulnerable and alone. Coming here had been a very bad idea.

Chapter 2
    Blaize caught the scent long before he saw the person, recognition stopping him in his tracks. Unbelievable. But he couldn’t deny the evidence of his senses.  
    It was the human he had come face-to-face with back on his first night of solo patrol, the one who had been in the back of his mind in all the years since then.  
    No matter how hard he fought it, he was always pulled to her whenever she came back into his forest.  
    Like him, this human had grown up in the time that had passed, but her essence was unmistakable. Even after the change from child to adult, it was still fundamentally her.  
    She was enticing, and now it was time to make himself known to her. Although for some reason she hadn’t been afraid of him in wolf form, tonight he was going to approach her as a human.  
    Watching her walk into the forest, not a dozen feet from where he sat, he marvelled at the way she didn’t seem to pick up his scent. Maybe that was why she kept entering his territory without fear. She didn’t know what lay in store for her.
    Blaize circled around her as she walked, silently matching her pace, keeping out of sight until he made a decision.  
    He headed back to the cave he used to sleep in when he was on patrol, intending to shift into human form.
    Racing through the trees, running into branches and letting them snap against each other as he passed, Blaize purposely made as much noise as he could to either scare off or call out anything that might be hiding or lying in wait for him. If there was a conflict to be had or skirmish to be fought, he wanted to have it out now so he wouldn’t be interrupted later.  
    Ever since this human had been drawn to him too, compelled to brave the forest even as a child, he knew he had to find out if they were meant to be together. Tonight was his chance.
    She had disappeared for so long, he had started to think that he had imagined the connection between them. After all, he had been quite young as well, and still learning many things.