Free Wolf at the Door: Salvation Pack, Book 1 by N.J. Walters

there was no derailing him.
    Through the bedroom window, she saw the front door of the cabin open and Louis and Armand step out. She was alone in the house with Jacque. Before she could begin to worry too much about the implications of the situation, she was distracted by the fact that Louis was on the front porch stripping off all his clothing.
    The man was certainly prime real estate. His shoulders were wide, his hips slim. While she could appreciate how he looked, he didn’t make her break out into a sweat or make her toes curl, not the way his brother did.
    Jacque was standing behind her now and she could feel the heat radiating from his big body. She could also see their ghostly reflection in the glass of the window. It was disconcerting to see him looming so large and fierce behind her so she concentrated on what was happening outside. Louis raised his arms in the air and the muscles rippled beneath his skin.
    “He’s going to change. Watch.” He settled his hands on her shoulders, keeping her there. Not that she could have looked away from the spectacle unfolding before her. It was fascinating and frightening at the same time.
    Bones and muscles began to shift and move beneath Louis’s flesh. His jaw lengthened and his skull flattened. Fur seemed to push its way out from beneath his skin until his entire body was covered in a brown furry pelt.
    Gwen was sucking in breath quickly, close to hyperventilating. This wasn’t possible. Yet she was seeing it.
    He fell to all fours, his hands and feet replaced by claw-tipped paws. He was huge and gorgeous in a deadly way. His thick fur was various shades of brown and she wanted to bury her hands in it, to feel the immense strength beneath it.
    She swallowed hard, both awed and scared by what was unfolding in front of her.
    Then Louis tilted back his head and howled. The sound was long and lonely and made her heart hurt. She wanted to go to him and offer comfort. She must have made a slight movement, because Jacque’s hands tightened around her shoulders. “No, stay with me.” It was both an order and a plea, and she relaxed, watching as Louis trotted away, swallowed up by the surrounding forest.
    Gwen was more confused than ever about these men, or rather werewolves. Because there was no denying what she’d just witnessed. She wasn’t drugged or dreaming. This entire situation was real. They were real.
    “We are real.” She hadn’t realized she’d spoken her last thought aloud until he answered. Jacque turned her away from the window and brushed a lock of hair from her face. “I’m sorry for what’s happened to you, but you can’t go back to your old life.”
    “Why?” She couldn’t see any reason why not. “I won’t tell anyone about you.” And not only because no one would believe her, but because she had a fierce need inside her to protect him, to protect all of them.
    She had no idea why. These men seemed less likely to need protection than anyone she’d ever met. There was something feral and deadly about all of them. It was in the way they held themselves and moved with a predatory grace, the hunter within them always watchful, always ready to strike.
    He rubbed his thumb over her cheek and she tried to ignore the slither of heat radiating down her neck to her collarbone and lower.
    “I know you won’t.” His assurance pleased her even as his next words dashed her hopes. “But Hector met with you, and if our former pack ever found out, they’d hunt you down and kill you.”
    Her blood ran cold and she shivered. The way he said it chilled her to her core as if killing her was no more trouble to those people than stopping at the store to pick up a carton of milk would be to her.
    “I don’t understand.” She started to sway and Jacque quickly picked her up and carried her to the bed. He didn’t put her down, but settled himself against the heavy wooden headboard with her cradled in his lap.
    “I know you don’t.” His eyes seemed to