Free Ride the Wicked Woodsman (A Night Falls Alpha Werebear Shapeshifter Romance) by Christa Wick Page A

I would ever eat again. He had healed the pain in my stomach, but my gut was still twisted in knots with everything that I faced. I was packless -- couldn't go back to mine, couldn't stick around Night Falls and make Taron an outcast with me.
    Shoulders sagging, he shook his head. "Suit yourself. I'm taking a shower."
    I wanted to reach out, to touch him as some tender of an apology I couldn't force into words. But I couldn't risk contact, not as fragile as I felt. It had been far too long since I'd had a comforting hug and I would surely break if he gave me one.
    "I'll start a fire," I offered in reconciliation. He'd already showered that morning, was only doing so again because he was pissed and didn't want to be around me even though I had only been defending myself and Clover.
    "Suit yourself," he answered curtly.
    I watched him disappear into the bathroom then sat on the rocker, my face buried in my hands. The shower started up, the faucets turned on one by one. As preoccupied as I was by what had transpired with Landa, I still groaned as a picture formed in my mind of his naked body beneath all that water pounding at his flesh.
    There had been good looking males in my father's pack, an even better looking human male on the street where we lived, but none of them compared to Taron. There wasn't an unkind angle to view him from. He was gorgeous and sexy under any light.
    His energy was amazing, too.
    I had felt it on the ride there and back, my arms around him for safety. I had been in the presence of other alphas, including other pack leaders and the leaders of both of Champaign's prides, but they possessed nothing like the glow of power and warmth he exuded.
    The Woodsmen would be worse off if they ejected him as president, no matter who replaced him.
    That was another reason I had to go. There would be those -- people like Braeden and Clover -- who would support Taron as pack leader. I had to think about what would happen to them within the pack if Taron was voted out.
    I had to go, with or without my car.
    The water cut off suddenly. I jumped up from the chair and hurried toward the fireplace as I tried to measure how much time I'd just lost agonizing about my situation. I could have sworn it was just a few minutes, less than a handful.
    The bathroom door banged open, Taron emerging wet and clothed only with a towel around his thick waist. He was marching straight at me, eyes blazing just as Landa's had done.
    I scrabbled backward, tripped over the corner of the fireplace and tumbled toward the floor. He caught me, scooped me up and walked me over to his bed, where he dumped me before returning to the fireplace with a harsh growl.
    He threw a log in, struck angrily at a match then glared at me over his shoulder.
    "I thought you would take longer...that I'd have more time to start it."
    Turning away, he finished building the fire. His shoulders shook as he worked and the reason for all the hate his eyes were throwing at me finally slammed into my chest.
    He had realized his mistake in claiming me, maybe even in protecting me in the first place. Now he was furious.
    Sitting up, I wrapped my arms around my legs and buried my face against my knees.
    "Stop it," he rasped, sneaking up on me and tugging at my arms until I let my hands fall limp against the mattress.
    When I continued to hide my gaze from him, he jerked my legs straight, tipped me onto my back and draped his big body over mine.
    "Give me your hand," he ordered.
    I did, surprise filling me when he interlaced his fingers through mine.
    Damn, why did it have to feel so good being touched by him, even when it was just my hand in his?
    "You keep wanting to run," he accused. "There's barely been a minute today I couldn't smell it on you. Even when I'm surrounded by water your desire to escape sneaks into the room and fills my snout."
    He shifted his weight, forcing my legs to part so his could fill the space between them. His grip on my hand tightened for a second