Read Rosko, Mandy - Mate of the Wolf (Siren Publishing Classic) for Free Online

all. Especially with your friends warning you away.”
    Michael’s eyes shifted to the bed, where his letters were kept. He frowned, and for a split second Shelley thought she might have gone too far.
    “They have their reasons.”
    “Pearl?” she asked, that same unpleasant heating of her blood starting up again.
    He rolled his eyes. “She’s no one you should be worrying about. And she’s not my ex either.”
    She was shocked. The idea that he had been seeing that woman had crossed her mind. How was he doing that?
    “Have I answered enough questions?”
    Shelley shifted. “I just…figured if I knew more about you, this all wouldn’t seem so scary.”
    Michael stared at her intently, gray eyes seemingly searching her insides, as though checking for sincerity. Finally he shifted and reached behind to his back pocket. His hand came back with a black leather wallet.
    Shelley watched with interest as he took out his driver’s license and handed it to her. She swallowed and took the card. There was no way he could be serious. Was he really giving this to her? If she ever got out of here and decided to turn him in, just looking at this little card could be enough to lead the police straight to him.
    She hesitated, then looked. There it was in writing and a photo that did not nearly do the justice of the real thing: Michael Robert Hunter. His DOB indeed put him at thirty-three, and the address was some town she’d never heard of in California.
    So he was telling the truth about his name and age. And he was letting her look at a pretty important piece of ID. She didn’t know how to tell if one of these was fake or not, but it certainly looked real, and he was totally trusting her with it.
    All her fear of him vanished. She wasn’t scared anymore. She just didn’t get that vibe out of him.
    She handed him back the license. He took it as casually as if she were passing him the salt.
    Shelley grinned. “So,” she started conversationally, unable to suppress her giddiness. “Mike…”
    “ Michael, ” he corrected.
    She shrugged, but agreed. “Michael, if you’re not going to hurt, rape, ransom, or eat me, why am I here?”
    “I have my reasons for keeping you around.”
    “Uh-huh, my amazing conversation, right?”
    He smiled a lazy smile. “Something like that. I will eventually take the chain off. Just not now.”
    Hmm. He’d handed her his license and said he wasn’t going to keep her. Maybe he still didn’t trust her enough to not turn him in to the police. Or maybe he thought she was going to tip off whoever this Pearl woman was. A lot of his friends seemed to think she was a concern.
    A sudden thought had her eyes going wide. “Is she, like, a werewolf hunter?”
    Michael choked on the juice he’d been in the middle of swallowing. “What?”
    “Pearl? Is she out to get you? Because that’s not right. Wolves are beautiful animals, and if hunting them isn’t already illegal, then it should be.”
    Michael laughed at her, slinging a muscled arm over the back of his chair. “Yes, but I’m not exactly an animal.”
    Shelley blushed. “Oh, but I didn’t mean it like that.”
    Michael dipped his sausage in his syrup packet. “I know you didn’t.”
    It got quiet then as they ate. Shelley feasted on toast dipped in egg yolks, took generous bites of buttery and syrup covered pancakes, and then decided to take a chance. She took a bite of one of her sour apple slices with the sweet caramel sauce. Her eyes widened as both flavors hit her tongue. Delicious. Utterly fantastic.
    Shelley double-dipped, making sure there was an extra amount of caramel oozing off the apple.
    Michael grinned. “Thought you didn’t like Granny Smith.”
    Shelley shrugged. “Guess I was wrong.” She took another bite, eyes gliding shut as she savored the simultaneous sweet and sour taste. “Besides, it’s nice being able to eat all this without my dad hounding me about calories and carbs.”
    He raised a brow, then