Free First Beast by Faye Avalon

stability and focus, the Council had finally appointed Joshua leader.
    Talia hadn’t been able to forget the moment she’d turned in the shower and seen Caleb standing there. In that moment, something happened. She wasn’t sure what, but it had shaken her to the very core.
    It was more than the way he’d touched her, or the way his hooded eyes had traveled down her naked body, settling for disturbingly long periods on her breasts, her pussy. As intense as that was—and heck, she felt her nipples pebble and her juices flow even thinking about it—her reaction to him went deeper. Her world had tilted somehow.
    Instinct told her he would make life difficult, and not just because he didn’t want her as part of his community, and not even because he wanted her to give up her job. It had more to do with the way he made her feel, and she wasn’t sure she could look at him and not think of him in a compromising way. It was impossible not to wonder what he looked like naked. How it would feel sliding her hands over him .
    Damn and blast it. Having licentious thoughts and feelings about her husband’s brother did nothing for her sense of propriety and didn’t exactly make her feel good about herself. She had to get a grip on this. She was a married woman, for God’s sake. With a new husband at home, a man she loved and desired.
    Guilt edged along her nerves and she moved away from the window. Perhaps she was making too much of her reaction to Caleb. His blatant sexuality and primal power would affect any woman whose hormones were in good working order. Now that she was aware of his effect on her, she could manage her feelings. Knowledge was power, wasn’t it?
    Awareness of the problem was the first step in resolving it. She would simply ignore the way he made her heart pound whenever he was in breathing distance, or the way blood pumped through her veins and caused her to lose the feeling in her legs.
    They were simply physical reactions, and she could deal with them. Easy. No problem.
    She slumped back in her chair, wondering when she’d actually start to believe her own lies.

Chapter Five
    For the millionth time, Caleb cursed himself for a fool and wondered why he couldn’t think of any other option except the one he’d decided upon. He’d always been an ideas man, so why the fuck couldn’t he think himself out of a damn paper bag right now?
    All he could focus on was the conversation with Talia in her office yesterday, and its implications.
    She felt like an outsider. Refused to give up her job. Two potentially explosive elements that could, should they at any time combine, be catastrophic for the pack. In retrospect, maybe he shouldn’t have antagonized her. By doing so, he could have set into effect the very thing he was desperate to avoid—her getting pissed and leaking secrets she had no fucking right to know.
    He had to keep her under tight control. She had to be answerable to someone and that someone had to be him. Joshua obviously wasn’t the man for the job.
    The woman was able to lead his half-brother around by the balls, thinking she could blink those appealing eyes and Joshua would do her bidding.
    Not that he could entirely blame the man his weakness, seeing he himself had been the victim of a woman’s sultry eyes and persuasive smile. They had cost him his freedom, and given him a wake-up call. One moment he was sliding between her welcoming legs and the next he was rotting in a jungle hellhole. Hell really did have no fury like a woman scorned.
    But he wasn’t about to dwell on past mistakes. He’d learned his lesson. Now his job was to take what he’d learned and use it to make himself the best leader for his pack.
    He walked into the room where he’d called an emergency meeting of the Principals. It was the first time he had met with the entire council since his return, the motion to instate him as leader having been