Healing the Clan: Alaskan Tigers: Book Ten Read Free Page B

doubts. As his mate, she’d know the truth, and she was always well liked within the clan.”
    “Sounds like there are going to be many battles ahead.” Heidi twisted her wedding ring. “Brad would have loved to be a part of the changes, to see the clan rise above Frank’s control.”
    “He’s a part of this through us. He’ll never be forgotten, and there is no better way to honor his memory than with you helping the clan through this difficult time,” David reassured her.
    Brad wasn’t the only one who would have enjoyed seeing the clan move out of the shadows and into the sunlight. He’d have been leading the pack if he was here, making sure everyone was adjusting well. Without him, David hoped he’d be able to manage the job. The cost to overpower Frank had been great, and he’d make sure no one had died in vain. Whether they had been a supporter of Frank’s or against him, none of that mattered now. The new clan would be united in the memory of those who were no longer with them.
    For Shelly and Brad.

2
    Chapter Two
    W ithout thinking of the personal consequences, Victoria jumped into her car and drove from Birmingham, Alabama, to the clan’s compound in Connecticut, only stopping for a few hours to sleep at a roadside motel. A day and a half later, she was speeding through the main part of town and wondering if she’d made the worst decision of her life.
    Three years ago, she’d just barely escaped Frank’s clutches. It had cost her the clan and her family, but it would have cost her a lot more if she had stayed. Now, with the news traveling through the shifter population of the new Alpha and Frank’s demise, it might be her chance to regain some of what she’d lost. She was tired of living in hiding in the middle of nowhere. She missed contact with people, especially other tiger shifters. After all this time, she was willing to risk everything to see her family and possibly regain her place within the clan’s community. To her, it was worth the risk because she didn’t want to live like she had been any longer.
    Heading home had been a spur of the moment decision, an act of desperation, but she’d be damned if she’d walk away without a fight. She couldn’t go back to her one-room cabin and face another day alone. She needed companionship and to be surrounded by her own clan again. No matter the cost, she wasn’t sure she could face another day of self-induced confinement. You must risk much to achieve great things. Or at least that’s what her mother had always said. Mom… was she even alive? Many had died in the battle that eliminated Frank, but she had no names of the survivors.
    She turned onto the road that would lead up the small hill to the clan’s compound, and her chest tightened. What if she had come all this way and was turned away at the gate? Would that be worse than being admitted and finding out those she cared about were dead? If she turned around now, she could pretend that everyone was living happily with the new Alpha.
    The gate came into view, and she slowed the car to a crawl. Am I really about to do this? She tried to calm the racing beat of her heart. Fear rose within like a tide waiting to consume her. Thirty-six hours after she hit the road, she was having her first doubts.
    A knock on her window pulled a scream from deep within her as she pulled away from the glass. Her doors were locked, but a shifter could easily pull it from the hinges and snatch her out of the car if he wanted. Had a supporter of Frank’s taken over the clan? If he remembered her sneaking away, there might be a bounty on her head. After all this time, she was going to die at their hands. She wanted to throw the car in reverse and tear out of there at breakneck speed.
    “Miss…” the man on the other side of the door called to her.
    Now that she had been seen, she had no other option but to put down her window and follow through. If she was turned away, at least she tried, and if the Alpha