Human Shifter (Book Three: A Werewolf BBW Shifter Romance) Read Free Page B

is an ache in you," Dee finished.
    "Yes," Julia said, "It's important, and so is school. I can do both." She realized that she was sitting up straight in her chair, every muscle tensed. She'd dreamed about going to college for so long that it didn't seem right to let family become the overriding factor in her life. But now that she'd met Damien, she understood what it was to want a family—not just to want this as an intellectual desire, but to long for a child that was both of theirs and to feel that longing in her entire body. She didn't know how that fit into her plans for attending college, but she knew that she wasn't ready to give up her old dream for the sake of her new one.
    "You said that I was hypnotized," Julia said.
    Dee brushed her long white hair back and knotted it at the base of her neck.
    "That was a long time ago," she said.
    "Would the werewitch know?"
    "You don't want to go back there," Dee said. Her eyes glowed white at the edges of the irises as she spoke. "It's dangerous."
    "But if it's the only way to find out how I can shift—"
    "It's not, my dear," Dee said. "And even if you did go back, there's no guarantee the werewitch would still be there."
    "She is."
    Julia and Dee both turned to the source of the voice in the doorway. Mara stood there, arms crossed. Her dark hair, almost purple in its darkness, hung loosely over her muscled shoulders. A thin white tank top clung to her body, curving around her chest and showing off her toned arms to the greatest extent.
    "There's no need to interrupt our conversation," Dee said, her voice icy. "I would have stopped talking if I'd known you would intrude."
    "I'm just trying to help," Mara said. "If you'd rather I not—"
    "The werewitch is there?" Julia asked, a note of desperation stretching out of her stomach and into her voice. "Where?"
    "Where she's lived for ages, before even this old one was a pup," Mara said, tensing her muscles as she looked at Dee.
    "Which old one?" Dee said, the white lines of her eyebrows lifting only slightly. "You mean your pack elder? I'd be careful speaking so carelessly if I were you."
    "Is this your pack?" Mara's mouth twisted upward into a barely-veiled sneer. "I thought you were all just a bunch of wolves thrown together."
    "Wolves thrown together can form the strongest pack," Dee said.
    "Oh? How does that work?" Mara said, cocking her head as though she was speaking to a pup.
    "Have you never seen a beaver's dam?" Granny Dee said. "Or a nest in the hook of a pine branch? The twigs that snag in each other's bends, those are the ones which truly hold fast."
    "I wasn't informed that we were in the business of building nests ," Mara said, obvious contempt dribbling from her words. "I was part of a pack that ran smooth as metal. We fight . We win ."
    "That is a sweet sentiment, my dear," Dee said. "Except the last time, you lost."
    Mara winced, and underneath her cool exterior Julia saw a flash of pain, true pain. Was she so committed to her previous pack? They had treated Julia like an object. She couldn't imagine that Mara had been treated much differently.
    "I did not lose," Mara said, but her voice had lost much of its sharp edge. "Trax lost."
    "True," Dee said. "A pack is only as strong as its leader."
    "We say that the pack is as strong as its weakest pup."
    "That seems to place a lot of pressure on a pup," Dee said. She glossed over Mara's use of the word we , but Julia saw her eyes track Mara's lips when she spoke about her previous pack. Mara noticed it too.
    "Trax's pack was all strong," Mara said.
    "Because you abandon wolves when they are weak. Or is that not what happened with Kyle when he was young?"
    "There's no other way!" Mara said. Her eyes darted from Julia to Dee, as though she was a cornered animal seeking an exit. "If you're weak, you risk the pack."
    "Those who would turn their back on a helpless pup—"
    "Don't quote scripture to me, old woman!" Mara cried. Her hands trembled in fists at her sides. "I'm