White Wolf 2: The Call of a Soul Read Free Page B

knowledge she could bump into him rattled her composure. The Melanie who reputedly possessed nerves of steel, the one everyone counted on to be calm in a panic. The practical Melanie who never lost track of reality, never daydreamed, never protested, but knuckled under and did what had to be done. The agreeable, always smiling Melanie Frances White who had a hard time saying no to anyone.
    That Melanie warped into a frazzled idiot who snuck about trying to catch glimpses of her Prince Charming. And then relived every stolen moment long into the wee hours of the morning. That Melanie was never going to resurface. No siree.
    “I’ll get my purse.” She threw open the desk drawer, grabbed her keys, and propelled herself out of the chair. The two men didn’t even flick an eyelid her way. She banged the drawer shut.
    Both men shot her what’s-with-the-attitude puzzled frowns. Doc G. sent her a narrow-eyed glance. “Something wrong, hon?”
    “Course not. Are we ready?” She busied herself, putting the keys into a pocket of the purse, then reorganized her wallet, the two extra hair clips, and the carefully clipped stack of coupons from Sunday’s newspaper. As soon as Doc G. locked the front door, she moved out from behind the desk.
    “Mind going out the back, Mike? Easier that way.”
    “Makes no difference to me.” One second Mike faced Doc G., the next he’d grabbed her coat from the stand and held it open for her.
    All she needed. More up close and personal time with the man of her fantasies. The man whose mother detested every single member of the White family.
    Melanie tried to keep as far away as possible. To not be aware of that sexy smell of his, to not feel the palpable heat radiating from him, to not shiver when his hand brushed her nape as he flicked the collar of her coat after she’d shrugged into the arms. Every nerve in her body crackled like a live electric wire.
    Taking two hurried steps, she put Doc G. between them.
    “Great seeing you again, Mike. Now that you’re back for good, there’re a few things I want to discuss with you.” Doc draped an arm around Mike’s shoulder, and both men headed for the back doorway. Neither man noticed Melanie picking her jaw up from the floor.
    God definitely had gone on a hiatus. Mike Dorland was back in town for good. She’d just made the biggest ass out of herself in forever. And somehow he knew her most dangerous secrets.

Chapter Two
    “Why’re you home so late?”
    Melanie straightened from her bent-over tiptoe creep. Even in the dark, she could make out her sister, sitting against the headboard. Melanie heard a soft click and blinked when a muted stream of light illuminated Susie’s high cheekbones. The bulb in the lamp between the two twin beds didn’t quite have the wattage to reach the shadowed corners.
    The room smelled of chocolate. Both sisters had serious chocolate issues. But because Susie had actually grown instead of remaining short like Melanie, the fattening delicacy didn’t sit on her hips and thighs. Susie was also the star of the local community college’s track team, and that meant she could eat a dozen chocolate bars and never gain a pound. “How many bars did you eat?”
    Susie had the grace to blush. “Doesn’t matter.”
    “What’re you doing up so late?” Melanie closed the door and set her shoes down at the foot of her bed. She stretched, arms high above her head, and arched her back.
    “Started that journal I found at the bottom of Mama’s trunk yesterday. I couldn’t put it down.” Susie switched on the alarm clock radio. Classical music filled the cozy room like a murmur of rippling water. Melanie recognized the tinkling melody of Vivaldi’s “Spring.” The cottage’s thin walls afforded little privacy, but the two sisters had learned that once a constant background played, their brother, Gray, and their mother, Kitchi, would sleep through the sisters talking into the wee hours of the morning.
    “Susie, I told