Free Wild Instinct by Sarah McCarty Page B

contact. A hunger. Need.
    Casting Kelon a snarl, every sense on alert, Garrett crouched over her. “Sarah Anne.”
    She fought awareness, preferring to stay linked inside him. Hell, he didn’t want the link severed, either. She was so right inside him. So safe.
    “Mommy?”
    But her daughter needed her. “Sarah Anne, Megan needs you.”
    Agony seared along his consciousness as Sarah wrenched free.
    She cried out. He held her closer, absorbing her pain along with his.
    “Careful.”
    He let her go when she struggled. Her big brown eyes were wide and her scent a wild mix of fear and confusion.
    Donovan offered her his hand. Garrett’s teeth snapped together when she took it. She did that too easily. She’d spent too much time among humans to touch another male so readily. They were going to have to talk about that.

Eleven
    SARAH Anne rushed to Megan. The child was pale and wan. Sarah Anne snatched her close. “What did you do to her?”
    Her small canines flashed in the dark. Too small to inflict real damage. Garrett wondered if she could actually manage to change. Was that why she hadn’t run with her son?
    “Nothing was done to her,” Daire said wearily, from where he sat beside Teri. “She’s just tired. What she did took a lot of strength.”
    “What exactly has she done?” Sarah asked.
    The answer came short and sweet. “Kept Teri alive.”
    Garrett knew the strength of his own power, but he hadn’t felt its existence until he’d reached puberty. How strong must the little girl be, that she could do so much, so young? And what would that mean to her future in the pack? She lay against her mother’s side, her thumb stuck in her tiny mouth, eyes drifting shut. The flickering resentment at what she represented drowned in a flood of protectiveness. She would need someone strong to stand between her and prejudice. He brushed his mind over hers, experimentally. Without hesitation, it opened for him. With no shields, anyone could rip her apart. He hadn’t ever been around children. Were they all this trusting?
    “She will be very valuable.” Daire looked pointedly at Garrett before returning his attention to Donovan. “Too valuable to chance.”
    To a packless rogue, he meant. Garrett shifted his position and bared his teeth in a silent challenge. “Fuck you.”
    Sarah Anne gasped.
    “Watch your language,” Donovan snapped, glancing pointedly at the baby.
    It took Garrett a moment to recognize the surge of emotion that flooded him. Shame. Son of a bitch. He’d vowed never to feel that again.
    “Sorry.”
    The guilt only increased when he saw the disappointment in Sarah Anne’s expression. Hell, she already didn’t trust him. She probably thought he’d never make it as a father for her kid. He would, though. Including watching his language.
    “It won’t happen again,” he told her gruffly.
    “Good.”
    There was a distinct lack of subservience in the retort. The defiance skittered along his raw nerves, bringing forth more aggression. He didn’t need that right now. The rumble in his throat was soft, a warning she recognized, if the dropping of her lashes was an indication. He had all he could handle right now, with the other werewolves.
    “Megan is not Haven’s concern. She’s mine, by right of mating.”
    “No one argues that.”
    “He’s not marked her yet,” Daire pointed out.
    Donovan dismissed that with a quick wave of his hand. “Semantics.”
    Daire’s response came too casually. “It is only custom, not law, that says a child goes with the mother.”
    Donovan spun as fast as Garrett did. “Take a child away from its mother?”
    Hell, no. Garrett dropped into a fighting crouch. “Sarah Anne, get behind me.”
    Kelon caught her arm. “Stay.”
    “Now, Sarah.”
    The snarl that rumbled from Sarah Anne’s throat was no less feral than the one building inside of him. “Let me go, Protector.”
    “No.”
    “You have no rights over me.”
    “Wyatt, Pack Haven’s alpha, does,