Free Roaring for Him (BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance) (Wicked in Wilder Book 1) by Celia Kyle Page B

a.m.
    Through it all—the drama, the snarls, the whines and growls—he kept up a constant stream of calls between him and Phoebe. Though their conversations typically consisted of: She’s sleeping… still sleeping… guess what? She’s sleeping…
    No matter how many times he got the same message, he kept calling if only to feel close to her.
    As soon as he was free, he went to her. The lights in the house had been off, his mate and her sister tucked in for the night, but he’d needed to be there even if it was as a wolf sleeping on the porch. Which was what he’d done. He’d crept into the shadows, stripped and shifted before taking up position across the threshold of the front door. Her scent surrounded him, the innate flavors of her family wrapping around him in a comforting cloak and the aromas chasing him into sleep.
    Which was where he’d stayed until Phoebe tripped over him at 7:30 a.m. on her way to school. That was also, coincidentally, the beginning of his hunt… for Tilly.
    The woman managed to be everywhere he wasn’t and it rankled him that an alpha wolf couldn’t manage to hunt his mate through their small town. First she somehow slipped past him while he slept on her porch—he wasn’t telling a soul about that—and now he couldn’t find her.
    Mitchell could have continued playing phone tag. He could have sent flowers with a note asking her to call him. Hell, he could have given up, accepted that his pack was a cluster fuck of bigoted assholes, and left Tilly alone.
    Staying away from her was like asking him not to breathe.
    He was done with phone tag, flowers made him sneeze, and Tilly was his. And he’d tell her that just as soon as he ran her to ground.
    Mitchell’s beta caught up to him just as he pushed on the door to Lush. His palm was flat against the glass, pressing just hard enough for the door to slightly part and let the cool air blow toward him through the crack. The floral scents of lavender and vanilla invaded his senses, filling his nose with each inhale. He fought the urge to sneeze, to blow away the overwhelming flavors, because it would have meant sneezing on his beta. Since his beta was trying to keep him from chasing after Tilly, maybe sneezing on him was a good thing.
    “Mitchell, slow down, man.” Kade jogged the last few steps between them until they stood side-by-side.
    Slowing meant it’d take him even longer to find Tilly. Not happening. “What’s wrong now? Somebody better be dead.”
    If Mitchell had his choice, it’d be Seth. The asshole was causing problems. Real problems. He’d been a dick before Tilly came into his life, but now the male was making a true nuisance of himself. It’d begun the night Tilly came to the pack house and quickly escalated yesterday with his attack on the lioness. Oh, he’d claimed innocence, a desire to protect pack lands. Then Seth launched into apologies about continuing the fight against Mitchell, chocking it up to adrenaline from the initial assault on Tilly.
    Everything inside him still ached to tear Seth’s head from his body. Quick and easy and then a lot of his problems would disappear.
    But he couldn’t. Mainly because he always tried to be a fair but firm leader. There was no disputing the fact that a lioness was on pack lands and Mitchell never made an announcement regarding her permission to have unrestricted access to the forest. He’d erroneously assumed the fact that she smelled like him and was running with him would mean something to his wolves .
    Obviously not.
    Kade sighed, dragging Mitchell’s attention back to him. “Maybe you need to chill out a little.”
    “I will,” he assured his beta. Then Mitchell promptly ignored him by pushing open the door to Lush and striding into the purely feminine domain. “As soon as I find Tilly.”
    He flashed a smile at a customer, the woman’s face flushing red as she hurriedly replaced the bra she clutched. Another customer squeaked and ducked behind a rack. When