Free The Alpha's Surrogate: A Paranormal Pregnancy Romance by Angela Foxxe

spill."
     
    The two girls were pouring hot coffee and cocoa, Chuck and Abby stood watch at the main entrance while Skye showed Reign the ropes.
     
    "Not a big story, you see the tales you've read about werewolves are mostly true. We're humans that turn into wolves on the full moon. After you've been one for a while you get a sense for working with the wolf inside of you. It took me five years to not switch when I was hurt, or angry, another five after that to not switch on the full moon every month. There's only one time of year we all change though, the last new moon of the year, don't ask me why, it's just irresistible."
     
    "Were you born this way," Reign asked.
     
    "No," Skye said with a smile, "there are very few shifters born anymore."
     
    Reign noticed the shift in her voice, the sadness that felt palpable. Skye seemed like a very capable woman to Reign, she was physically strong, emotionally tough, respected by her peers, yet there was a sadness there, a sadness Reign had noticed with Cara as well. She assumed that Cara being barren was a cover story, but now she wondered.
     
    "Skye, can wolves have children?"
     
    "The men can father them, but all female wolves who survived the blight are barren."
     
    "Skye, I'm so sorry," she reached over and put her hand on the woman’s shoulder.
     
    "Is this why I'm..." she motioned to her belly.
     
    "It's Richard’s hope that a child born to a human will be a natural shifter and immune to the blight. If not, well, it won't live long. Trust me, if it wasn't for how strong the wolf is in me, I wouldn't have survived either."
     
    "Is it like another person?"
     
    "No," Skye replied, "more like a force of nature. It's why we just refer to ourselves as wolves, even when we look like humans, it's always there, guiding us, protecting us, and sometimes getting us into trouble," she said with a wry grin.
     
    "At least those of us who had guidance, lone wolves well..." her sentence was cut off by a static burst from the intercom.
     
    "Better get up here, babe," came Chuck’s voice, "we got party crashers."
     
                                              *              *              *
     
    Richard was nervous as he climbed out of the SUV. It wasn't like him to be nervous, but it wasn't like him to fall head over tail for a girl barely old enough to vote. Even now, walking into danger, just thinking about her made his stomach knot t and his skin hot. Good god, man, get a grip, he thought .
     
    The walk from where he parked to the barn wasn't far, it only took five minutes for him to come out of the forested drive to stand in the field near the bar. The wind ruffled his leather jacket as it breezed by him and wafted his scent to the small farm.
     
    His wolf rumbled inside of him, reminding him it was there, ready to spring forth and destroy if called. Richard smiled, it calmed him somewhat to feel that part of him. To know, no matter what else, his wolf was with him. Beyond the internal rumbling he could also feel the pack. He closed his eyes for a moment, and he could almost visualize each one in his head, feel what they were feeling. He thought that was going to take some getting used to.
     
     
    For now it seemed, Cara was asleep, her captive must have grown tired of her. Being upwind from them kept his senses in the dark, they could be on him and he wouldn't know.
     
    He waited a few minutes before resuming his walk. He wanted them to know he was there, but not make it too obvious it was a trap.
     
    He was a hundred feet from the barn when his sensitive ears picked up the click of a gun, and it took all his willpower not to dodge. The dart impacted his arm with little pain, its payload delivered.
     
    "Well, well, how mighty do you think you are," came Edward’s voice from the dark.
     
    "Edward, I'm here to talk to your alpha, one to another."
    The much smaller man's face screwed into a sneer of