Free Primal Heat 3 by A. C. Arthur Page A

saw a woman hit Nivea.
    He was in motion instantly, hearing bits of the conversation.
    “It’s all your fault! You ungrateful brat!” Michele Cannon was saying, both of her hands going around Nivea’s neck. “All we did for you, all we gave you and this is how you repay us! You’re nothing but a backstabbing whore!”
    Nivea had grabbed her mother’s wrists, not having to use much of the strength Eli knew she possessed to push the woman back against the truck. She pulled her mother’s hands away from her neck easily and stared into the woman’s face.
    “He’s an animal,” she told her in what to Eli sounded like a dangerously calm voice. “You chose to protect an animal over your own daughter.”
    “You’re the animal!” Michele spat back. “Wanting to run around with that whole tribe, changing into beasts and walking on all fours. You never wanted to stay in the place we made for you, never wanted to be what we were.”
    “You are what I am!” Nivea yelled back. “You are a Shadow Shifter just like me. We share the same blood!”
    Michele shook her head. “I don’t share anything with you, ungrateful bitch!”
    Michele lunged again but this time Nivea grabbed her arms, wrapping them behind the older woman and keeping her in a choke hold.
    “How is refusing to be abused by your father being ungrateful?” Nivea asked her. “How can you stand here and say these horrible things to me after all I sacrificed, all I did to keep you and them protected!”
    “Don’t … need … your … kind of protection,” Michele sputtered through the little bit of wind that Nivea was allowing to get through to her lungs. “Don’t … need … you.”
    Nivea’s entire body vibrated with those words, her eyes staring ahead, past Eli. She wasn’t seeing but she was definitely hearing and she was steadily choking the life out of her mother.
    “Let her go now,” Eli said, coming around to stand beside Nivea. He tapped her arms. “Let her go, Nivea.”
    “I needed protection,” she was saying. “I needed protection from him. My mother should have protected me.”
    “You’re right,” Eli said, still trying to unravel Nivea’s hold on Michele. “You are absolutely right, she should have protected you.”
    “I always had to fend for myself, always had to do whatever was necessary to make myself happy,” Nivea continued, her head shaking back and forth.
    “Baby, don’t do this,” Eli pleaded. “Let her go, Nivea. Please.”
    Her arms began to shake from holding so tight and Michele’s fighting began to cease.
    “Nivea!” Eli yelled. “Let. Her. Go!”
    He knew he was loud, knew that the fierce edge to his voice was enough to scare an entire forest of shifters. As for Nivea, she simply turned her head to face him, her eyes filled with tears that seemed to refuse to fall. “She didn’t protect me.”
    Eli nodded. “I know, baby,” he said slowly and caught Michele as Nivea abruptly let her go.
    She walked back to the second truck without saying another word and without turning back to see if Michele lived or died.
    *   *   *
    Eli put Michele Cannon into the truck and made sure the woman was still breathing normally. The sisters had looked shocked by what had taken place and when they tried to assist their mother, she’d pulled away from them, shrinking into the corner of the seat. With a shake of his head, Eli slammed the door and walked to the second truck, wondering how Nivea was doing. How she’d been able to keep all this bottled up inside over the years without completely breaking.
    They drove for about a half hour before Eli reached out a hand to touch Nivea’s leg. She pulled away so abruptly he yanked his hand back as if he may have hurt her.
    With a frown he tried something else. Turning sideways in the seat he looked at her, using a hand to smooth down the back of her head. She stiffened.
    “Don’t,” she said simply.
    “Listen, I know what you were feeling, Nivea.”
    She