Free The Werewolf Ranger (Moonbound Book 3) by Krystal Shannan, Camryn Rhys Page A

looking for a way to escape the pain I hold in my heart.” Nora wrung her fingers together in her lap. “I don’t deserve a second chance, and I can’t bear the thought of living through a repeat performance from my father. Losing you. But I also realized this morning that I don’t want to leave you, either. The thought of being separated from you hurts.”
    “You were going to leave me?”
    The wounded tone in his voice crushed her. “To protect you from my father. Yes.”
    Rain sat up crossed his arms over his chest, and leaned against the headboard. His blue eyes darkened in anger. “I don’t need you to protect me, Nora.”
    His words cut deep and she cringed at the anger beneath the surface. She’d known he would be angry. How could he not? She’d been mated. She’d hid it. And now she was telling him she’d been planning to leave him. And she would’ve. To keep his identity hidden from her father and her pack. She would die to protect Rain. She wasn’t given that option with Paul, though she would’ve done the same for him.
    “I’ve lived beneath his thumb for so long. You don’t understand what it’s like. Francis Dubois is nothing like Edward Cavanaugh. You have a pack that loves and cares for you. I have a pack that looks for ways to exploit and use others…use me for their gain. Whether it’s for power, money, or punishment.”
    “Do you want to be with me Nora? To be my mate?”
    “Yes.” She nodded as another tear burned its way down her cheek. “More than anything. But—”
    “No buts,” he said, crawling closer to her. “I’m all in, but you have to be too.”
    Tears poured down her cheeks and she sucked in a breath. “I want you, Rain. I’m all in.”
    He slanted his mouth over hers and their magick swirled between them, alive with desire and passion. The intensity was heady, and she moaned into his mouth. His hands caressed her breasts, tweaking her nipples until they stood as hard peaks in the cool air.
    Rap. Rap. Rap.
    “Sorry to interrupt. Alex’s here with some priest.” Maggie’s voice carried clearly through the closed door. “I hadn’t heard you leave, so… We need you both now.”

Chapter Eight
    T he Miami wolf paced back and forth near the door, and Rain tried to focus himself, amid the buzzing of electric magick that pulsed around him. Even with Nora sitting across the room, he couldn’t stop the feel, the pull.
    He’d been just about to do it when Maggie came to the door. Bond. He was going to say the spell that would put those weird tattoos on his wrists—the ones he’d never thought he would ever have.
    It was damn hard to concentrate on Miami, on Maggie, and this priest they’d brought him, when he just wanted to be touching Nora. But the look on Alex’s face when he’d found them in the same room had been enough of a deterrent.
    Another knock at the door brought the rest of the team, and they’d all crowded into Nora’s room. The young priest sat on the bed, still silent, eyeing them.
    “Okay. Everyone’s here.” Rain looked at the Miami wolf. “Alex, tell us what happened.”
    “This guy was nosing around outside that building. When I came out of the door, he started babbling about some old priest and was I there for the book and shit.” He pointed at the man on the bed. “There’s something weird going on here.”
    “I don’t think he speaks English,” Tomás said, parting the group so he could come forward and kneel on the floor in front of the guy. “Father, do you speak English?” he asked in Spanish.
    The priest shook his head. “No, I never learned,” he returned in Spanish.
    Nora raised an eyebrow at him and Rain translated. “It looks like there are enough of us here who speak Spanish, I think we can question him.”
    There were a few nods in the group, and no objections, so Rain gestured for Alex to come to the front of the crowd. He put his foot up on the edge of the bed.
    “Who sent you?” Alex asked.
    “I wasn’t