Free A Mate's Sacrifice: (Hot Paranormal Romance) (Ozark Mountain Shifters Book 2) by P. Jameson Page A

Hardened asshole of epic proportions, but listen to me. If you lose her… you lose your soul. You’ll never be the same. Trust me, I know . You don’t want to live like that, man. You need your mate. So whatever you’re running away from, whatever makes you think you’re better off without your intended, face it head on. Deal with it. Kick it around. Fuck that shit up until it doesn’t bother you anymore.”
    Vesh hated everything the wolf was saying. Mostly because he was right. Vesh knew he was right, but that didn’t make this any easier.
    “Mind your own business.” It was all he could manage with his throat raw from mixed emotions.
    Lexar laughed humorlessly. “I’ll tell you what, if I find out you’ve been with Remy, I’m taking what’s yours. How about that? I’d take care of her like you never could anyway.”
    Vesh’s wolf wouldn’t have it. Vesh wouldn’t have it. He seethed at the mere idea. His wolf readied to change. He’d kill. Maim. Whatever it took to protect what belonged to him. And she did belong to him whether he wanted to admit it or not. Whether she admitted it or not. None of it fucking mattered, she was his. And his alone.
    But before his wolf sprang forth, Lexar pushed past him to leave.
    “Someday, you’ll thank me for this,” he called over his shoulder before disappearing into the woods, leaving Vesh reeling with the urge to fight until he drew blood.

Chapter Nine
    Ten minutes of pacing and a couple punches to the trunk of a tree calmed Vesh down enough so he wouldn’t scare Braeh when he entered the cabin. Or, at least that’s what he thought.
    Her suitcase lay open on the bed while she pulled items out and arranged them in piles. Vesh closed the door carefully, and prided himself on not slamming it.
    “Who won?” she asked, not looking at him.
    “What?” His voice came out gruff. He was still too revved up.
    “The pissing contest. Who won?”
    He stared down at his bleeding knuckles. “Me. I always win.” Of course, winning was open to interpretation.
    “Hm. I’m sure you do.” She didn’t pause as she folded a shirt and set in on top of a stack she’d made.
    Vesh watched her methodically finish emptying the suitcase. He figured he should say something, but fuck-all if he could think of a single word.
    “You can have the top two drawers. I’ll take the bottom two. I figure you’ll find somewhere else to sleep so I’m claiming the bed.”
    “We can share the bed,” he blurted. It was like his wolf just up and grew a voice box because Vesh had no intentions of sleeping in the same bed as Braeh.
    “Ha.” Finally, she looked at him. “You’re kidding, right?”
    Vesh stayed quiet.
    Her skeptical expression turned to a deep frown. “What happened to your hands?”
    “Took out some of my frustrations.”
    She gasped. “On Lex?”
    “On a tree.”
    “A tree?”
    He shrugged.
    Braeh’s eyes went from his hands to his face, and then back to his hands. “Poor tree.”
    His eyebrows shot up. Poor tree? He was definitely in the doghouse if she was more concerned about a tree. If the situation wasn’t so fucked up, he’d laugh. She made him want to laugh. She never responded how he expected. She was a beautiful surprise.
    She turned to him, both hands fisted on her hips. “So… how do we do that healing thing?”
    His eyebrows furrowed.
    “You know…” She waived a hand in the air. “That thing … where your wounds magically heal? How does that work? We should do some of that right now, because you’re bleeding on the floor.”
    Vesh looked down to see twin drops of ruby on the polished hardwood.
    “Damn it.”
    He rushed to the bathroom and turned on the faucet, rinsing his wounds and running the water until the pink had washed from the bowl. When he turned the tap off, he caught Braeh’s reflection in the mirror and a flash of the past hit him harder than a ton of bricks.
    She didn’t actually look like his sister. It was just the blonde