Free Wolf’s Princess by Maddy Barone Page A

University.
    “Yes. It’s a permit issued by the city. Everyone in Omaha has to have papers they can produce on demand. Since we didn’t have anyone in the City to vouch for us, we were given a week to find jobs. But there weren’t any jobs. No one else would hire us for anything. We had no money, so we had nothing to eat and nowhere to sleep. If we left the city to let our wolves hunt we wouldn’t be allowed back in.” He smiled, a rueful twitch of his lips. “And I was too proud to give up and come back here like a puppy with its tail between its legs.”
    She was quiet for a moment. “We were both young back then, and maybe a little stupid. I was scared and grieving, and I handled everything wrong.”
    “No.” He took her dirty hand again and lifted it to his lips. The warmth of his kiss on her fingers made her swallow. “I was too excited to have found a mate to give you the time you needed to adjust to your new life.”
    “See?” She was much too aware of his lean, alluring body beside her. She took her hand back and picked up the trowel to continue work. “We were both young. That doesn’t tell me how you came to be the owner of a house.”
    From the corner of her eye she could see him reach for a weed. “Quill and I were going from business to business in Omaha, looking for work or even just a handout of food, when we saw a woman in an alley with three large men. They were pushing her from one to another and punching her. Quill and I stopped them.”
    His prim tone made her laugh. “Did you kill them?”
    “No. We broke a couple of jaws and dislocated some shoulders, but they ran off, still breathing. The woman was Ms. Mary, owner of one of the business establishments in Omaha. She took us home with her, gave us a hot lunch, and offered us each a freebie in gratitude.”
    “A freebie?” She could guess what a freebie at a whorehouse would be. A slender snake of jealousy uncurled in her belly. “Did you accept?”
    “No. Be careful with that claw thing. You could hurt somebody.”
    Rose sent the claw thudding deep into the earth and glared at him. “I bet you wanted to.”
    He raised his hands. “I was a seventeen-year-old boy. Of course I wanted to. But even if I had tried to go through with it, my wolf wouldn’t have let me. You were the only one he would accept, and you were the only one I wanted.”
    Mollified, she nodded and shifted a few feet down the pumpkin patch to continue weeding. When he followed her, she moved a little more so he could work beside her. “Good. I’ve never been within five feet of a man outside the Packs until yesterday.”
    “You’re a virgin, then.”
    She spun on her knees to stare at him. Her teeth were clenched so tightly her jaw hurt. “What do you think?”
    “I think I’m glad we’re both virgins. We can learn how to please each other together with no memories of other partners between us.”
    How could she hold on to her anger when he gave such a soft answer? “Go on with your story about how you got to be the owner of a house.”
    “Ms. Mary made Quill and I house monitors. Bouncers. We made sure none of the patrons became abusive with the women. The longer I was in Omaha, the more I wanted to help the women there. All the women. The mayor instituted the Women Acts about fifteen years ago. The Acts reduced women to a means of income for the city and especially the men who ran it. I decided I had to stay and work to change things.”
    Rose tried to reason it out. “Why didn’t the people in Omaha vote him out? Or change the laws? Or rebel and kill him?”
    “I’m sure they wanted to. There are no elections in Omaha. Mayor McGrath is guarded by a handpicked group of soldiers. Besides his personal bodyguard, there’s the Omaha City Guard. The City Guard is seven hundred men strong, and most of them are fanatically loyal to him. Rewards are offered for any information about discontent. Any hint of rebellion is punished. Fatally. All a man has to