Her Lone Wolves by Diana Castle Page A

conscious of what she’d done with the two of them last night, she nervously pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.
    “You hungry?” Avery asked. “I made lots.” He tilted his head toward Everett and Caleb. “These two were ravenous. But that always happens after we shift.”
    Avery’s casual mentioning of the transformation Everett and Caleb had undergone brought home that it had really happened. It hadn’t been a dream.
    “I would have thought you would be full after eating whatever it is you eat when you’re...” Her voice died away as Everett’s frown deepened, while Caleb’s eyes crinkled with what she assumed was amusement.
    “We didn’t hunt last night,” Everett said. “I was too busy looking for Caleb.”
    “Are you alright?” she asked Caleb.
    He nodded. “Sorry about last night. It must have been quite the surprise for you.”
    Surprise was hardly the word she’d use. More like shocked out of her socks.
    “It’s alright. If I had known...” She stopped. If she had known what Caleb and the others were, none of this would have happened.
    “Everett told me about your real parents,” he said. “You really had no idea your father was a shifter?”
    “I was a baby when he died.” She moved further into the room. On the counter were platters full of ham, sausage and steak; scrambled, fried and poached eggs, towering heaps of biscuits and mounds of golden pancakes. She fixed herself a plate, along with a glass of orange juice then sat next to Avery. She glanced around the table. They looked like men, albeit they were taller, muscular and far more handsome than normal men.
    She sipped her orange juice. “I still find it all rather hard to believe.”
    Everett stopped eating, leaned over and fixed her with a hard stare. “Even after what you witnessed?”
    Her cheeks flamed as she recalled kneeling before him and sucking on his cock before he changed into a wolf. “It’s not about what I witnessed.” She glanced between Everett and Caleb, her face growing hotter. “That’s not what I’m having problems with.” She stabbed her fork into her eggs and quickly ate a mouthful. “I can’t deny the evidence of my own eyes.”
    “Then what?” Everett asked. “What is it that you find so hard to believe?”
    “That I have the same blood in me.”
    Everett shrugged his broad shoulders. “I don’t know anything about half-breeds. Every shifter I’ve known was full-blooded.”
    “You shouldn’t use that word,” Jane said.
    “What word?”
    “Half-breed. It’s considered offensive.”
    Everett frowned. “By who?”
    “By people. Everyone. I don’t know. It’s just not used anymore.”
    “Then what am I supposed to call you.”
    “Jane,” she snapped. “Just call me Jane.”
    Caleb laughed then put a huge piece of ham in his mouth. He chewed lustily on it even as Everett glared at him.
    “What’s it like?” she asked.
    Everett turned back to her. “What’s what like?”
    “Being the wolf.”
    Everett went back to eating his breakfast. “It’s like nothing.”
    “Bullshit,” Caleb said. “It’s like nothing all right. Like nothing in the whole world. It’s the best fucking high you can imagine. It’s even better than sex.” His eyes glittered lustfully. “Though not by much.”
    “You feel like you’re one with everything,” Avery said. “You can see and smell and feel everything around you, and you know in your heart and your soul that you’re part of something larger and greater than yourself.”
    Caleb snorted. “Leave it to Avery to turn it into some kind of hippie stoner experience.”
    “You said it was like getting high,” Jane said. “What’s the difference?”
    Caleb was about to answer but Everett interrupted him. “It’s more than that.” His deep voice rumbled in his chest, and he looked directly in Jane’s eyes. “It’s sacred. It’s been passed from one generation to another for thousands of years. Our line goes back—”
    “To