Cherished: True Mates Book 5 (BBW Wolf Shifter Romance) (A Craggstone Paranormal Romance) by Olivia Arran Page A

don’t know about me, things I would rather you didn’t find out quite so soon, not before we’ve had chance to get to know each other.”
    “I know you’ve been in the military. I know that you were probably special ops, or something similar. Which means you’ve seen things that most of us probably wouldn’t imagine in our worst nightmares. Done things too.” Each word was punctuated with a shove.
    The woman just didn’t give up! “How did you guess?”
    “My brother is in the military. Or was, I don’t know.” A shadow passed over her face, her mouth puckering as she thought of her family, the brother she hadn’t seen in years.
    “I was, for a while,” I admitted, already pushing the boundaries of what I was allowed to share with her, but fuck it , she was my mate, she had a right to know! “I grew up in a facility that didn’t look much different to the one Josh was in.”
    The shoving stopped, silence now thick between us.
    Why the hell I was feeling the need to share all of a sudden was beyond me, but it was suddenly important that I make her understand. “I’m the fixer for the pack and the Shifter Council.”
    “What does that mean?”
    She wasn’t running, screaming at me to stay the hell away, so that was a start. “Simply put, I fix problems.”
    I could see her chewing it over, processing the new information. “Problems like Bert?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Fix them how ?”
    Shit , she had to go and ask. “I extract information mainly. Though, at times, I have been called in to…uh…nip a problem in the bud, so to speak.”
    “Right.”
    She was giving me nothing. Not a hint of what was going on behind those luscious brown eyes. “Ana?” She was killing me with her silence.
    “I don’t know what you want me to say. You tell me you hurt people for a living, and that you operate outside of the law?” She raised a single eyebrow, her voice rising in question.
    Wincing, I nodded.
    Slumping back against the door, she continued, “Just answer me one thing—”
    This was starting to sound a lot like my conversation with Josh.
    “—did every person you fixed deserve it?”
    My breath whooshed out in a rush. “They did.” A tiny victory, but one I had clung to in desperate hope that my soul wasn’t lost, that it could be saved.
    She pushed away from the door, sweeping her hand at me in a motion to open it. “Then, okay.”
    I blinked in amazement. “ Okay? ” I echoed, my voice sounding high-pitched and strange. Coughing, I continued in a more normal voice, “What do you—? Have you—?”
    “I lived with a sociopath for years. I think I’d be able to recognize one by now,” she answered simply.
    “You don’t mind?”
    Her nose wrinkled at the question and she glanced at the floor. “I can’t say I’m thrilled with your chosen career, but I don’t know what lead you to that path, so I can’t judge. Screw it, I’m choosing not to judge you.”
    I was thunderstruck. Everyone judged me, even if they thought they didn’t, they did. It was one of the reasons why I had buried all my emotions, cutting myself off from everyone. That, and the fact that my job didn’t mesh well with touchy-feely emotions. It kind of got in the way.
    “You’re not just saying that?” I had to ask. I wasn’t adept at reading women, and Ana in particular had my head spinning. With her ripe curves and smooth skin, it was hard to keep my mind on the task at hand.
    “I’ve decided I’m not going to just say anything. From now on I can say whatever I want, so I’m going to.” She tilted her head up at me, sticking her jaw out as if to underline her vow.
    Before I knew it, I was striding over to this wonderful, gorgeous, kind, straight-talking mate of mine and sweeping her off her feet, hoisting her up so I could devour her mouth.
    She squealed, her shriek of surprise morphing into a moan of delight as she gasped into my mouth, her tongue tentatively dueling with mine, slipping and sliding in