Free Haunted Sanctuary by Moira Rogers

wolves in need could take shelter.
    More would come—provided he could hold the line and keep other alphas out of Clover.
    Eden pushed up on one elbow and studied him. “You thought of something.” She placed her hand on his chest. “Something that made your heart beat faster.”
    She’d be in for the long haul, even if she had no idea what they were in for, and it was his job to teach her. “Do you know what sanctuary means?”
    Her eyebrows drew together. “Only in a human context. Does it mean something special for werewolves?”
    “It means everything.” He settled his head on the extra pillow and let his hand rest on her hip. “The cities are bad, like Zack said. Most of them have alphas who take what they want and don’t really give a damn about anything else. Sanctuaries are different. They’re about safety.”
    After a moment she stretched out to face him, her hand tucked under her chin. “Is that what we’re going to do? Turn the farm into some sort of sanctuary?”
    “If I don’t, the wolves from Memphis will keep coming after Zack and the others.”
    “Oh.” A moment’s silence as her gaze roamed over his face. “And they’ll respect that? It seems too easy. Why wouldn’t everyone do it?”
    “They’ll respect it because they have to. Because we’ll kill them if they don’t.”
    Her breathing hitched, and she squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m still not used to how good that feels to hear.”
    He wouldn’t start any fights, but he damn sure wouldn’t sit by and let others get hurt or killed by his inaction. “We’ll do what it takes, Eden. I promised you—if your cousin came here in need, we’d help him, right?”
    “You did.” When she opened her eyes again, the blue was lost to glowing gold. “Do you know what scares me most?”
    Likely an intangible, something he couldn’t wrestle into submission with his bare hands. “Tell me.”
    “I want to hurt them.” The words were barely a whisper, a rasped confession. “All those years of watching helplessly, but now I feel strong. And I want to find the men who harmed Zack and tear out their throats.”
    A woman like her, who abhorred violence and had never lifted a hand to another in her life—no wonder it confused her. “Protection, Eden, not vengeance. Don’t do yourself the disservice of confusing them, okay?”
    “It feels the same. It feels…vicious.”
    Only time would teach her the visceral and very real difference between the impulses twisting her and wanton anger. For now, he pulled her tighter, tucked her face against his neck. “Sleep, and trust me. Just for now.”
    The tension bled from her body a bit at a time until she was soft and pliable, cuddled up as close as she could be. Her breath tickled his throat as she sighed. “I do, you know. I trust you. Not just for now.”
    “Good.” Trust, first, and then no more words. He’d show her, instead—what it meant to be a wolf, to be alpha.
    What it meant to belong to him.

Chapter Five
    Jay set the cardboard tray of coffee cups on the rickety table and stepped back. “Thanks for coming in so quickly. I’d say I owe you, but I think we already know that’s true from way back.”
    “We all owe each other,” Colin drawled lazily as he claimed a cup. “No one keeps track except Shane, and he can’t help himself.”
    “I keep track of plenty of things,” Shane retorted, his fingers still clicking on the keys of his laptop. “But not that.” He stopped typing and closed the machine. “You said this had to do with Memphis.”
    “Memphis.” Jay took his own seat in the tiny kitchen. The smaller house on the farm was just that—small—but it was the only place where any privacy could be found, and they needed it for the discussion they were about to have. “Turns out, the rumors are true.”
    Colin’s expression hardened into one of dark fury. “All of them?”
    “Near as I can tell. A handful of enforcers got together, overthrew their alpha, and now