Protective Instinct Read Free Page A

headed straight for the main house only to find it empty. Next he went to December and Liam’s home. And hit the jackpot.
    Ana and a very pregnant December sat at the center island, mugs of tea in their hands.
    “Hey, Ryan.” December smiled warmly. What people said about pregnant females was definitely true because she was glowing. One hand rested gently on her protruding stomach. “Lucas isn’t here right now. He and Vivian headed over to Kat and Jayce’s. To bother Leila, I’m certain.”
    He nodded politely at the female, simply unable to be rude to her. The human-turned-shifter because of her relationship with Liam was sweet and she liked to bake something fierce. He never wanted to get on her bad side. Ana, however, was on his shit list.
    “I’m not here for him,” he murmured, shooting a dark glare at Ana.
    Who studiously looked down into her mug.
    “Damn it, Ana. Where is she?” he demanded.
    “Where’s who?” December asked.
    “Teresa.”
    “Oh, she’s—”
    Ana’s gaze snapped up and she glared at her sister-in-law. “Don’t tell him.” Then she focused on Ryan. “She needs some space from you. You’re making her crazy, Ryan. Either man up or give her the space she needs. It’s hurting her wolf right now. She just needs to find balance and she can’t do that with you around.” The truth rolling off her was sharp. Even without his empath senses, he could scent Ana’s concern. She was worried about her cousin.
    It was all his fault too. He opened his mouth once, as he tried to find a response, but couldn’t come up with anything. Shit. He was hurting his future mate. Something he never, ever wanted to do. Hell, it was something he’d sworn never to do. He’d rather lose a limb. Feeling numb, he took a step back from the island. “Can you keep Lucas tonight?” he rasped out. The cub he’d adopted would gladly stay at Ana and Connor’s tonight because he’d get to play with Vivian. Those two were practically inseparable.
    When Ana nodded he left, unable to stop the panic thrumming through him. In his quest to make certain he didn’t hurt a female the way his father had inadvertently hurt his mother, he was pushing away the one female who meant everything to him.
    He’d almost lost Teresa once when she’d been poisoned with silver. He couldn’t lose her because of the past that had haunted him his entire life.
    * * *
    Natalia put her feet in Aldric’s lap as he sat on the couch next to her. The small fire started to blaze. Even though it was May, tonight was supposed to be cold and while they had higher body temperatures than humans, she’d never say no to a warm fire. It made her want to shift, curl up in front of it and sleep.
    He took one of her feet in his hand and held it up a fraction. “Am I your footrest now?”
    She had on black socks with pink flamingos wearing Christmas wreaths around their necks. It wasn’t even close to the holiday but she loved fun socks. She wiggled her toes. “No, but you ruined my fun with Ryan so you’re rubbing my feet.”
    His dark eyebrows raised and she sensed something from him she couldn’t quite define. The male was alpha in nature, just like her, but he was a lot stronger and a bit more dominant. Definitely of the warrior class. And whenever she bossed him around he got this strange look on his face. She couldn’t quite place what it was, but she liked it.
    “It’s cruel to mess with a male like that,” he murmured, picking up one foot and expertly starting to massage the arch.
    “Then he shouldn’t be messing with my sister,” she snapped, a little harder than she’d intended. Okay, Ryan wasn’t actually messing with her in the sense that he was intentionally trying to hurt Teresa, but Natalia didn’t care. Teresa was her big sister and had been looking out for all of them forever, especially since their parents had been killed. No one upset her and got away with it. That was sister code 101.
    “You know he’s not. Not