Free The Last Wolf: A Highplains Shifter Erotic Romance (Wolf Fire Book 1) by Alice Longstaff Page B

that although I’d feel the warmth rush over me it was never enough to take me away from my body like it had on the wide and empty plains.
    “Well, why not?” Cassie asked. I snapped back to attention and realised I had been miles away, lost in my thoughts and emotions. I really wasn’t going to be good company tonight. “Okay, we don’t have to go into all the juicy details, though heaven knows they’re the best bits. Just tell me, did you do it.” She said, smiling expectantly, hoping that after all these years it would be me recounting salacious sex tales to her.
    I said nothing but I could feel my cheeks heating under a heavy blush. “Hope!” Shouted Cassie, grabbing me by the shoulders and forcing me to meet her excited gaze. “You did! Didn’t you? My god, Hope Richardson you little slut.” She punched my arm playfully. “So tell me all about it, did you like it?”
    I let out a sigh and tried to smile, but the corners of my mouth started to quiver and I could feel my eyes moistening. “It was amazing.” I said. “I don’t know why I didn’t listen to you sooner, it made me feel so good, so alive, so in touch with my body. I felt like I had a real connection to myself for the first time.”
    “Well if it was so good why do you look like you are about to burst into tears?”
    I sniffed, trying to hold them back, but the dam had burst and there was no stopping the flood. I felt the eyes of everyone in the bar on me as I broke down and started sobbing uncontrollably.
    “Oh Cassie. He was just using me. I thought he was real and that we had a connection, but he didn’t mean any of it. I’ve been so stupid.”
    My friend slid off her bar stool and hugged me close, “Oh Hope baby, I’m sorry” She stroked my hair then continued talking, “I think I’ve done a very silly thing.”
    My tears dried up and I heard an edge of panic creeping into my voice. “Cassie what have you done?”
    “Hakan phoned me, he told me that you guys had become, close and that he was going to be passing through the city, so he wanted to surprise you for your three week anniversary.”
    “What did you tell him Cassie, what did you say.” I was almost shouting now, I’d never seen Cassie ashamed, but she kept her head down and mumbled something unintelligible. “What did you tell him Cassie.” I shook her by the shoulders.
    “I told him he could meet us here, in the bar.”
    I was picking up my coat and bag and walking towards the door before she had even finished speaking. “Wait, was it really that bad?” She called after me.
    I turned around. “Yes it really was that fucking bad!” I spun on my heel and made to push through the door and instead walked straight into Hakan’s broad chest. It felt strange to see him in the city bar, this was my territory and he was jarringly out of place, a creature of the plains, it was like seeing a dust devil or a mustang cantering down Main Avenue.
    “Hello Hope,” He said. I pushed past him without saying a word and started hurrying down the street. “Hope wait!” He called, and I could hear his heavy boots striking the sidewalk behind me.
    “I have nothing to say to you.” I called over my shoulder, wondering if I was going to have to find a cop, or just start screaming right there in the middle of the street until he left me alone.
    “Just let me explain why I’m here, give me five minutes.”
    “Okay you’ve got five minutes and after that I never want to see you again, that’s the deal, got it?”
    He looked relieved. “I’ll admit it, when I first saw you The Prophesy did creep into my mind. But then when I got to know you it faded away. Every moment I spent with you became less about some old legend and more about the girl who was coming to life in front of my eyes. It’s not what you represent I’ve fallen in love with, it’s you.”
    “Well that’s a nice speech Hakan, but how can I believe it? I can’t tell if you’re lying to me, I don’t even