Free Legacy Found: Legacy, Book 3 by N.J. Walters

about.”
    She shook her head and he had the urge to shake her until she told him what had just happened to frighten her. Not that he’d give in to it. There’s no way he’d ever lay a hand on her in anger. He was very afraid she’d had more than her share of that kind of treatment in her life.
    “Talk to me, Shelley.”
    She licked her lips and seemed to draw herself inward, all her earlier pleasure in her new clothing gone. That made him even angrier. Someone or something had stolen that joy from her.
    James sighed, knowing that Shelley wasn’t going to tell him anything. Not now. Not until she felt safe.
    He drummed his fingers against the steering wheel as they left Nashville behind them and headed toward North Carolina. There had to be something he could do to get Shelley to open up to him. All he needed was time.
    Why it was so important to him that she do so was something he didn’t want to look at too closely, but he forced himself to. A man didn’t reach his age without learning a thing or two about himself and about life. And James knew without a doubt that he couldn’t let Shelley go. Not now. Maybe not ever. She was important.
    There had to be something he could do to convince her to stay with him. He pondered everything he’d learned about her in the short time he’d known her. He shook his head in wonder. It was less than a day, could be measured in hours, yet he felt as though he knew her, knew her soul. He damn sure wanted her.
    He shoved aside the fantasies of having her naked in his bed, her body undulating under his as he fucked her hard and fast. They were only making him tense and causing his clothing to be uncomfortably tight.
    Being around Shelley made him feel alive in a way he hadn’t felt in decades. Not since Leda, his mate, his wife, had died in childbirth all those years ago. The nightmares of those days smothered the sexual fantasies in a hurry. He couldn’t go through that again.
    James rubbed a hand across the back of his neck, trying to release some of the tension gripping him. His immediate problem was Shelley wanting to leave.
    He ticked off what he knew about her in his brain. She was independent. She didn’t like owing him money. Not that he thought she owed him anything, but obviously she did.
    She was also afraid. The way she sometimes cowered before she caught herself doing it was a sign that she’d been abused. That knowledge ate at James’s gut like acid. He’d like to find whoever had hurt her and rip them limb from limb. Females were to be protected. They were the hope, the heart, the future of their people.
    He glanced at Shelley, but she was staring out the window, her body pressed as close to the door as she could get it.
    He turned his attention back to the road and his problem. In spite of everything she’d been through, Shelley was strong. She was a survivor. She was also a caretaker.
    Trying to protect him. He still couldn’t quite wrap his head around that one. As alpha, he was the one who did the protecting. To have a female try to do so went against the natural order of his world.
    Caretaker. The word tumbled through his mind as he turned over the problem, searching for a solution.
    Shelley needed a safe place to stay for a while and she also needed to earn some money. She obviously didn’t have much. Then there was the question of her heritage. She knew nothing about being a werewolf. Maybe she was a half-breed. There was no way of knowing. But either way she needed to learn about who and what she was.
    It came to him then and he smiled inwardly. It could work. It would work , he assured himself. It had to. There was no way he was going to drop Shelley off and leave her at some bus stop like she wanted.
    “How would you like a job?”
    That got her attention fast. He could feel her eyes on him. He sent a quick glance in her direction and, sure enough, her dark brown eyes were watching him intently.
    His body reacted predictably, his cock jerking,