Free The Shepard's Agony by Mandy Rosko Page A

eh?”
    Shepard growled, a low sound deep in his throat . It shocked him at how much he sounded like a wolf already.
    “ Gwen’s here ,” Evey said, interrupting his wayward thoughts of killing him.
    “She is?” Both he and John asked at the same time.
    “ If you’d both stopped trying to kill each other , you would have heard her running a mile away.”
    John turned to Di who shrugged and nodded her head. “I heard her coming , too.”
    John grumbled and felt around the area where his ear used to be . Shepard quickly realized that not hearing Gwen coming had nothing to do with their arguing.
    “ I’ll get her something to wear ,” Evey sighed, stepping through a door that hung on a single hinge.
    The last thing she wanted was the two men in love with Gwen to fight over her while she was naked.
    Some seconds later, Gwen was inside . She didn’t bother to cover up her naked body with her hands . Instead , she demanded water. It was the second time she’d changed that night and it was taking its toll on her.
    She spent a few minutes bent over a sink that didn’t look like it would work, letting the water run until she was sure it was drinkable . She drank as much as she could from the tap before Evey had enough . Grabbing her, she shoved clothes in her hands and threw her in her tiny room with no doorknob to change.
    It was also the second time Gwen had changed clothes that night, the outfits seemed to be getting worse and worse. Not that she blamed Evey for her lack of funds, but she’d gone from a too small tank top to a baggy grey T-shirt and grey sweat pants. Her make-up had rubbed off with all the changes she’d made and her white-blonde hair was in worse frizzy tangles than when she woke up in the motel . She didn’t need a mirror to know that.
    She combed her fingers through her hair and looked at herself in a broken piece of metal.
    “ This is as good as it gets,” s he said to her big eyed, alien-like face.
    She took a breath, put her fingers through the hole in the door , and stepped out . Her looks didn’t stop John from throwing his arms around her and lifting her into the air in a bone crushing hug.
    Shepard stood back, seething. Gwen gushed her concern over his missing ear and Shepard jealously hoped it would get infected and render the wolf too sick to ever lay his eyes on Gwen ever again.
    Gwen saw the trouble brewing in his eyes over John’s shoulder, but was too relieved to see him unharmed to pay much attention to what her senses were telling her.
    While running to Evey’s house , her heart had been in her throat. She couldn’t run fast enough to see if he was alright or hear if John had killed him. Thinking of the latter made her shudder . But , he was safe and she didn’t need to worry anymore.
    Unfortunately, she did worry. Even now while she watched him stare at her in another man’s arms , she worried . Felt guilty , even. This was wrong. She didn’t want to be there with John, she wanted to be with David . She still loved him. As much as the realization pained her , it was true .
    T here was still the nagging question of whether or not he still felt the same for her. Taking her away from her pack and kissing her those times on the bed didn’t necessarily mean anything. So , she continued to hug John and tried to act happy when Dianna held her and said how worried she was . All the while, on the inside, she felt like crying.
    “You sure you lost them?” John asked.
    She nodded. “Positive.”
    When she finally reached the rundown , little house she wouldn’t even let John or Di speak to her in her head. She wanted to be dressed and have some cold water to splash against her face to help keep her alert and get all the dirt off. Now , she found herself free from one dangerous situation just to walk right into an awkward one.
    She would have preferred the danger to standing there, knowing that they all knew this particular hunter was the one who’d broken her heart.
    When she