Free Seer: Reckless Desires (Norseton Wolves Book 8) by Holley Trent

mate.”
    Arnold scoffed. “Bogus. Looks to me like you had his baby and then ran, so do you really think that’s what you are? And you don’t smell like you’re his anymore. You smell like you’re mine . Maybe I don’t remember biting you, but I don’t regret that I did. I think that’s why I was sent the vision to fetch you in the first place. You’re supposed to be mine.”
    “Always someone’s . Why can’t I be no one’s?” Her voice came out in a pathetic whisper she hardly recognized as her own, but she wouldn’t take the words back. She’d meant every one.
    She took a deep breath, and pressed Kinzy tight against her chest. Kinzy was the most sure, solid thing in Leo’s life. Holding her was almost like medicine at times, even when Leo was so tired and uncertain. Kinzy made her want to persevere—to be better, because Kinzy deserved better.
    “I’m a person,” Leo said. “I have feelings and opinions, and I’m so tired of not being allowed to express them. I’m tired of people not caring.”
    “We care,” Alpha said.
    “Do you really?”
    “Of course we do. That’s the entire purpose of this pack, Leo. We’re scratching out a life for ourselves here, far away from where any of us were born, because we want to do things a different way. We want to be free to do what wolves naturally do, without having some alpha’s perverted drive for power and money and whatever else spoiling things. Everybody should have a chance to be happy, right? Not just the one or two fools closest to the top of the power pyramid.”
    “Sounds wonderful, but that’s fairytale stuff.”
    “That’s real life here,” Arnold said. “And that’s the life I want. Don’t you?”
    Of course I do.
    She wanted that life more than she wanted the next breath she had to breathe. She didn’t want for her little girl to grow up only to be told that choice was a luxury afforded to a few, and that she’d never get to be one of those lucky ones. But Leo was practical. Had to be, because survival demanded such of her.
    “Wanting is one thing,” she said quietly. “Possibility is another.”
    No one said anything, either because they knew Leo had told the truth, or because she was flat-out wrong and they didn’t know how to break the news to her.
    As always, the silence gnawed at her, but instead of saying more immediately, she stood again, fixed Kinzy more comfortably in her arms, and looked from Arnold’s handsomely neutral expression to her new alpha’s.
    “I’m going to give this place a shot,” she said after a minute of quiet. “If you’ll allow me to stay, I’ll find some way to contribute, and I’ll do all I can to not lure anyone here looking for me. I won’t mess things up for you. But can I ask you for a promise, too?”
    Alpha’s nod came slowly. Maybe he knew as well as she did that the promise wouldn’t be for him, but for one of the wolves under his jurisdiction. The other man in the room.
    “Let me decide to stay first,” she said. “Before you ask me to do anything else, let me decide that. Please .”
    She didn’t dare turn around to look and Arnold. She didn’t want to be swayed by the look on his face, or see the defensiveness in his body language. As thrilled as she was to know that a wolf like him had staked a claim on her, she needed to consider Kinzy’s future. Kinzy’s best chance would only come from them starting with a blank slate. No attachments.
    Adam kept his gaze locked on Leo, and nodded again. “All right. Welcome home.”
    “Thank you, Alpha.”
    She started moving and didn’t look back. Was afraid to. She didn’t stop moving until she’d reached the kitchen, where Graciella was leaning against the counter sipping coffee. Then, Leo finally let herself really breathe.
    “Show me around?” she asked, voice shaking, but convincing enough.
    Graciella set down her mug, and straightened her posture. “You decided to stick around, huh? Cool. Well, okay, then. Let’s