Free Enforcer's Heart: (BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance) (Stratton Wolves Book 3) by Mina Carter Page A

his wolf surged, trying to break his control. He relented enough to let it take a peek through his eyes. It grumbled but didn’t struggle, seemingly content with reassuring itself she was okay.
    “That’s the plan then,” Max said, arm still around Kelli as he turned back to them. “I’ll deal with this side, you get our guest up to the cabin…Captain,” he added with a glimmer of amusement in his eyes.
    Riley sighed.
    He was never going to live that down.
    ***
    When Max had said the pack had a cabin in the hills, Ce imagined a quaint little log built affair with cute quartered windows and mismatched curtains. The type of woodsman’s cabin featured in soppy chick flicks. Or horror movies, but she really didn’t think even a hardened serial killer wanted to take on a pack of werewolves.
    What she hadn’t imagined was a freaking palace with remote controlled gates.
    “ This is the cabin?” she asked, her voice more of a squeak as Riley threw the remote back on the dashboard. Up ahead, an imposing structure played peekaboo through the trees. Two-story with wraparound panoramic windows, it would be the closest thing to actually living in the forest, for about a hundred people.
    “Yeah,” Riley’s reply was non-committal, all his attention on the dirt track in front of him.
    “That,” she paused for emphasis. “Is not a cabin. Nothing that fits my entire apartment block in it can possibly be described as a ‘cabin.’ What the hell do you people do with something that big? Hire it out for weddings?”
    “Nah, we hold orgies and BDSM parties here.”
    Her head whipped around. He caught her amazed stare and laughed, the muscles in his forearm bunching as he put the big truck into park. “You should see your expression now. No darlin’, we don’t hire out for weddings or hold orgies or anything. But when the full moon rises and the pack runs, we need a place to crash after. Somewhere private and close to nature.”
    He leaned on the steering wheel, arms crossed and blue eyes piercing as he looked at her. As though he could see into her soul to the wildness growing ever stronger there.
    She swallowed. She’d been so convinced this was all a horrible mistake. Sure, she’d been “bitten” but it was a little scrape, barely more than a paper cut across her skin… there was no way she’d have gotten the lycan virus from something so small, surely?
    Since this whole thing had begun, she’d told herself it was all about people being too careful. Taking no chances in case she had been infected, but that infection was just a minute, outside possibility. The full moon would come and go without incident. She wouldn’t go four-legged and furry…it would all be hunky-dory and she could go back to her normal life.
    But looking into Riley’s eyes, set in a face a model would envy and a body that would make any hot-blooded woman sit up and take notice, she had to admit there might be a few advantages to the furry life.
    “Yeah, it is close to nature.”
    Suddenly the truck cab felt too enclosed and small. As though the tiny space were getting smaller, crushing the life out of her. Gasping for breath, she yanked on the door handle and fell out to escape.
    As soon as her hands hit the dirt, something shifted sharply within her. The change so abrupt and knifelike she gasped, fighting for breath.
    “Shit! Ce? Ce…are you all right?” The truck’s other door opened and slammed shut. The sound of Riley’s boots on the packed dirt were like hammer blows to her sensitive hearing.
    “Hey, darlin’. It’s okay. I got you.”
    Within a heartbeat he was there, lifting her with strong arms into his embrace. Instinct made her turn to him, the same changes that scared the crap out of her, also telling her he would help. That he might be the only one who could .
    She shoved the thought away. What the hell was wrong with her? Was she sick? Had the bullet that had grazed her arm been poisoned? Could bullets be poisoned, or