Free Hot for the Holidays by Lora Leigh Page B

actually glad to see Ashley now that she wasn’t her bodyguard.
    “Most male Breeds are.” Ashley sighed with exaggerated patience. “We put up with them the best we can.”
    “Be good brat, or I’ll have a talk with your alpha about giving in on those spa treatments,” Hawke warned her. “I hear you got the full go-round today.”
    Ashley’s smile brightened as she fluffed a head full of multihued blonde curls and flashed a perfect set of nails. “Del-Rey does so enjoy spoiling me, Hawke. He won’t listen to you.”
    “Brat.” Hawke laughed again.
    “Always,” Ashley agreed. “Now, go find Wolfe. He was asking where you were a little while ago. I’m off to find more punch.”
    She sped away on heels that should have been impossible to stand on.
    “That woman is a menace,” Hawke muttered as they continued through the throng of guests.
    “She’s nice though.” Ashley, her sisters Sharone and Emma, and the Coyote’s mate and Coya, the female Coyote alpha, Anya, had always been kind to her. She’d appreciated that, even as she had chafed under their protection.
    “She’s hell. A prissy little diva by day and when night falls, I swear, one of the sharpest, most lethal Coyote Breeds ever created.”
    But wasn’t that what all Breeds were created to be? They were trained to fit in when they had to, and to kill perfectly, efficiently, when they were ordered to.
    Moving to the tree, Hawke sat their large bag of gifts among the others before straightening and drawing Jessica to where Wolfe and Hope Gunnar and Jacob and Faith Arlington stood.
    “Wolfe, Hope, Jacob, Faith.” He nodded to the four as he drew Jessica closer. “May I present my mate and soon-to-be wife, Jessica Raines.”
    Jessica almost froze in shock as everyone around them became quiet. Dread began to fill her as Wolfe’s black gaze flickered over her. He was imposing, showing little emotion, no acceptance or rejection. His nostril’s flared and he drew in her scent.
    She knew he could smell the combination of her scent and Hawke’s as it merged in the mating heat. He would also smell her fear. But would he know her regret, her pain, and the wish that she had known what her parents were doing, how they had wanted to destroy the Breeds? Did all that come across in a scent? She highly doubted it.
    “You’ve chosen well, Hawke Esteban.” Wolfe’s arm moved from his mate’s shoulder so he could clasp Hawke’s hand. “A beautiful and loyal mate, and one I’m pleased to accept into our pack.”
    Jessica blinked. He couldn’t have been speaking of her, could he?
    “Jessica, had we not doubted that you could betray us, then you would have died before Hawke had time to declare you as his mate,” Wolfe told her softly as she stared back at him. “Questions needed answers, and your loyalty had to be proven rather than simply believed in despite the evidence. We thank you for your patience, and above all, for the grace you showed during your confinement to give us the time to prove your innocence, as well as your bond to your mate.”
    She shook her head slowly. “What grace, Alpha Gunnar?” she whispered in disbelief.
    A smile tugged at his lips. “You didn’t throw anything at us, despite months upon months of questioning. You never threatened to call in a representative, though you could have. And not once did you demand rights that were due you. The right of Tribunal rather than confinement during your interrogation. That was grace.”
    She shook her head again. “It was guilt,” she whispered back. “How could I deny what I had done, even though I couldn’t explain why I had done it, or stop the actions even as they happened?”
    “You saved my mate, as well as Jacob’s, despite the drug that enforced your will,” he said gently. “That was courage, and it was strength. We need that strength to survive our future. You’re part of Hawke’s future, and therefore, part of our own. Welcome to our pack.”
    He nodded with a