The Liger's Mark Read Free Page B

knew each other fairly well. That bond had only grown as they’d discovered a deeper connection—many of them were shifters. She could have confided in Reno, but it wasn’t what she wanted right now. She told him she was exhausted and went to her room. She curled into herself atop her bed and cried the tears she’d held back from her mate. He’d left. Gabriel had really left her. What did it say that even her mate didn’t want her? As her heart broke, there was a change inside, and the cautious press of the beast she’d always known rested within her.
    Kenzie concentrated on what she was feeling, not on the pain of losing her mate but toward the new sensations taking hold inside her. There was curiosity held in check, almost akin to fear—and hunger, a deep, abiding hunger. As if creeping gingerly through the doors of a suddenly opened cage, Kenzie felt her beast. Felt it nudging at her senses, a mere whisper against her skin. That was when she remembered the words spoken before…before her world had changed.
    We’ve found her. The mark is on her hip exactly where we left it.
    She left the bed and moved into the bathroom, stripping her clothes as she moved. She turned, staring at her hip, at the brown mark she’d had her whole life. She’d always thought it was a funny birthmark. Now, she wondered if it was something more.
    We’ve found her.
    He’d been speaking of her. There was no other answer that made sense. Why? What was so important about her? In that moment, she knew two things for certain. She couldn’t stay with Tah, Abby and the pride. The hunter had been on the phone, telling someone he’d found her, which meant someone knew she was here. If they’d been looking for her, it wouldn’t be safe for her to stay.
    The second thing she knew was that she needed answers. Who was she, and why was she important enough for hunters to be searching for her? There was only one place she could go. Back to where it all began, and the people who had first turned her away. She needed to head home.
    She flipped on the shower then doubled over as a hard pain hit her womb. Was it her body going into heat? The desire for Gabriel’s touch? Or something to do with the emerging animal inside her? She had no choice other than to lay low for a few days, stick to her room and keep herself away from the too-keen senses of those around her until she knew what was going on with her body.
    It was almost funny. The shifter who couldn’t shift. The child no one wanted. The woman rejected by her mate. So why was it there had been excitement in the hunter’s voice when he’d stated they’d found her? Why did she matter to a group of hunters? More importantly, why had one of them been willing to fight the other to protect her?

 
    Chapter Two
     
     
     
    Kenzie was pissed. It had been just over a week since she and her best friend, Holt, had left Colorado, and they’d made no progress. Every lead Kenzie found hadn’t panned out. Added to that frustration was the fact her phone constantly rang with people checking in on her, seeing when she was planning to head to Oklahoma. Then when they didn’t get the answers they wanted from her, Holt’s phone would ring as if she wasn’t fucking sitting right beside him.
    She knew they cared. She’d even accepted that with them, she really did have a family, which only cemented the fact she needed to stay away until she found what she needed. The hunters were after her, wanted her enough to leave without trying to get to Tah, Abby or anyone else. That spoke volumes to Kenzie and made her more adamant to get the truth she was searching for.
    She’d expected to find something from the family who’d adopted her, but they’d disappeared without a trace. The neighbor said they’d left shortly after Kenzie had joined the Marines and headed to boot camp. So she’d gone to the foster care system, hoping to track something down on her birth parents or even her social worker, Ms. Karsey,