Wolf Home: Paranormal Werewolf Romance Read Free Page B

novels?” He was cute. She wanted to want this. It would be easier if she could want this.
    “By the dozen.” He laughed, too, chest rumbling against her cheek. “I thought it would be a little more dramatic, though.”
    “Just wait until we're both shifted,” Nicole said teasingly, and reluctantly pulled out of his arms. She had so little touch when she was away. She felt like she was starved and someone had set a feast in front of her. “We should go sit down, I bet everyone's waiting on us. Aren't you hungry?” There hadn't been time to hunt like they usually did today.
    “Starved,” Adam said, licking his lips and staring at her pointedly. Nicole felt herself blush, and turned her back pointedly to walk into the restaurant before they got distracted again.
    The restaurant was a steakhouse and grill, the kind of thing that focused on quantity over quality. It was almost always the choice for pack meetings that included meals if they weren't hunting, because wolves ate a lot and liked most of it to be meat. The owners were humans, but over time had become accustomed to the way that there would sometimes be huge, wolflike “dogs” coming in with customers, the occasional howling, and infrequent bite marks. The wolves didn't quite make up a majority of the scattered population of the county, but they were close. The humans were used to it.
    Two of the bigger tables had been pushed together, and much of the Blackwood and Fannon packs were either seated around the result, or hanging out at the bar watching the football game playing. Nicole tugged Adam over to sit by her father and the empty seat reserved for her mother.
    “So I sit with you guys, huh?” he said.
    “Yeah. I mean, nothing's set in stone yet, but that's sort of the idea of introducing us.” She smiled at him, and breathed in, trying to gauge if he was nervous.
    A little, she decided, but mostly confident. That was good, if she had to do this. She could mate a beta guy, but it would leave her managing the pack by herself when her parents died, and a single alpha was never competitive.
    There was also the fact that she really preferred guys who didn't need her to tell them what to do in her personal life. Especially in bed. Nicole much preferred being caught to doing the catching.
    Adam slid out a chair and sat down, then tugged on her waist. She yelped and tumbled into his lap. “Hey!” Was he feeling her thoughts already?
    “Just wanted to save you a spot,” he said, the innocence of his tone ruined by his smirk, and twanged one of her curls.
    “Uh huh, sure.” She elbowed him into shifting so she could settle herself between his legs on the chair, but didn't get out of his lap. This was plenty comfortable.
    “Having fun, there?” Katherine MacCrae called, sitting down. She had a toddler in her lap and a slightly older child on her shoulders, and looked heavily pregnant as well – she and whichever Fannon she'd married had been busy.
    Trying to be bitter about Adam was like trying to grip water in her fingers, but everyone else was fair game. Nicole bared her teeth at Katherine in response to the taunt, and added a slight growl when it just touched off laughter. She felt Adam's hands tight on her hips and snuggled back into him, then directed another warning to the table in general. Mine .
    “Isn't that kind of rude?” Adam breathed in her ear. “Sheila told me not to do stuff like that around the other pack.”
    “You were an outsider,” Nicole murmured back. “If you didn't behave someone would smack you into line. I am the future alpha of Blackwood pack.” She'd just been thinking about falling into old patterns, hadn't she. “And if you marry me, you're the other one.”
    “Oh, well, in that case.” Adam nuzzled her hair, then lifted his head. His growl reverberated through the room, making several of the wolves at the bar startle. Nicole's cousin, Alex, fell off the stool, to general entertainment.
    “They're cute,” Mary