Free Alpha Ever After (Midnight Liaisons Book 5) by Jessica Sims

picnic, when we celebrated Marie’s big ‘turning’. Connor showed up and we tried to make nice for the afternoon. Then, he’d slipped up by casually mentioning his pack, and how he more or less expected me and the baby to join it once the baby was born.
    That made my back go up. I ditched him at the picnic, and I haven’t seen him since.
    He’s tried hard, but I can’t forget. It’s hard to forget when you have the evidence of your betrayal growing in your stomach. I tried to make it work for a few months, but now I just ignore him. I don’t answer his texts, I don’t talk to him, and I don’t let him into my life. That makes things easier. For me, anyhow. I know it must hurt Connor, and I can’t let myself worry about that. I have enough to worry about.
    I’m at the checkout, loading things onto the belt, when the scent of wolf wafts through the human-pungent air. I freeze and tilt my head, tasting the scents, and then turn to the right just as someone walks up.
    “Hey, Savannah. You want paper or plastic?” Gracie Anderson stands there, ready to bag my groceries, a red vest over her tight dress. She gives a flirty wink to the two shifters at my side.
    This is hell, isn’t it? I must be in hell.

8
    CONNOR
    F lipping houses in Texas is not a fun job in the dead of summer. The one I’m currently working on doesn’t have a working air conditioner, which means it’s 140 degrees in the attic. And where is the central air unit located? Attic, of course. I’m pouring sweat as I shine my flashlight on the wiring, trying to figure out what’s wrong with the damn thing.
    “Hey, bubba,” Gracie calls from downstairs. “You here?”
    “In the attic,” I yell back at her. “Don’t come up.” You need shoes to walk on the insulation here, and my little sis isn’t all that fond of shoes.
    I hear Gracie’s footsteps as she approaches and her scent wafts up from below. “Jesus fuck, it’s hot in here, Conn.”
    “I’m trying to fix the AC,” I tell her, and wipe the flood of sweat from my brow. “Damn thing blew out yesterday and I’m painting tomorrow.” And I’d prefer not to do it in the heat.
    “Well, come down and take a break, because I need to talk to you.”
    With a sigh, I give up on the AC for now and climb down the attic ladder. The house isn’t much cooler, and I see Gracie fanning herself by the doorway, so I head over there. She hands me a bottle of ice water. I swig half of it before I take a breather to ask, “What’s up?”
    “So you know that grocery store job I got?” She crosses her arms over her chest. “The one you made me get?”
    I grin. “You’re not still complaining about it, are you? A job’s good for you. It’ll teach you responsibility.” It’s something our pack’s been lacking a long time, and I intend on drilling it into the heads of the remaining members. Gracie hasn’t been too happy about it, either. She was used to getting handouts from Uncle Levi, who thought women should be kept subservient to the pack men.
    No longer. If she wants money, she’s going to have to work for it.
    Gracie scowls at me. “I’m not here to complain. I’m here to tell you who I ran into.”
    I take another chug of water, not all that interested. “Oh?”
    “A certain pregnant lady. And guess who she was talking to?”
    My body tenses. I narrow my eyes at my sister. “Savannah? She was there? How did she look?”
    She shrugs. “Fat. Pregnant. It’s more interesting who she was with.”
    Hot longing fires through me at the thought of Savannah, her belly rounded with my child. Our child. I miss her with a fierce intensity, but she hates me. I think she’s going to hate me forever. She won’t even return my phone calls anymore, and she avoids me. I can’t get anywhere near the Russell ranch without one of her brothers trying to plant a fist in my face—
    —Not that that stops me often. But they have a new gal there, and she’s terrified of other shifters, and