A Stranger’s Touch by Lacey Savage

fear and shock, as she stared at him while he shifted from wolf to human. And the horror written all over her face when she realized he’d bitten her. He had so much to explain and no idea where to start.
    He slowed as he neared a bench, his mind still whirling. A thin layer of snow had accumulated on the wooden surface. He brushed it off with his palm then sat on a corner and pulled out his cell phone. This was one phone call he’d never planned to make. But he’d initiated the mating ritual with a human female, and she wasn’t the only one to whom he needed to come clean.
    “Hello?”
    The sound of his father’s voice, gruff like his own but crackled with age, made his chest tighten. “Dad.”
    A sharp, indrawn breath reached his ears. “Donovan.”
    Homesickness turned the ache in Donovan’s chest to lava. He’d stayed away too long, but the last time he’d been home the pack had treated him like an outsider. They’d made it clear he wasn’t welcome among them until he returned with a suitable mate who could take Samantha’s place. The pack had lost a female. They blamed Donovan. He owed them, as much to rebuild their numbers as to redeem himself.
    “You’ve found a mate, eh? It’s about bloody time, son.”
    Donovan’s mouth twisted in a grimace. “There’s something you should know. My mate… She’s not… Well, she’s…” He took a deep breath, realizing he had no idea how to break the news to his father. As the Alpha of the Thompson Falls pack, Doug Armstrong’s word was law. Rigid pack rules and traditions had been drilled into Donovan’s head since he was a small pup, and he knew better than anyone what Doug expected of him. Of them all.
    “She’s what?” The impatience in his father’s tone was unmistakable. “Spit it out already.”
    Donovan sighed. He’d always envisioned strolling into Thompson Falls with a beautiful shifter at his side, a female his pack would accept unconditionally. In his fantasies, she was a remarkable specimen of a wolf shifter. Now he pictured Roxi, stunningly beautiful, sure, but vulnerable and delicate.
    The wolves would descend on her like starving jackals on a wounded deer. They’d mock, taunt and test her until they stripped her of every shred of confidence she possessed. She’d never be one of them, no matter how hard she tried. Without the shifter gene running through her blood, Roxi had no chance of being accepted by his pack. They’d make her miserable until they chased her out of town. Was that really the kind of life Donovan wanted to subject her to?
    He’d been able to protect her from the overly bold patrons at Moderne. But could he protect her from his own kind?
    “She’s human,” Donovan blurted out. He braced himself for the tirade sure to follow.
    “Donovan.” The old man uttered his name on a sigh, like he’d just breathed his last. “What am I going to do with you?”
    The emotion in his father’s voice sent a wave of uncertainty crashing into Donovan’s soul. He thought he knew all of Doug’s different guises. The strong, authoritative pack Alpha. The disciplinarian father intent on shaping his sons into outstanding wolf shifters. The sweet-talking diplomat who negotiated treaties with other packs and human settlements. But the vulnerability in his voice now was completely foreign.
    “The wolf chose her.” Donovan scrubbed a hand over his face. His fingers had long ago gone numb from the cold, and he could barely feel his jaw when he touched it. He sighed. If he was going to come clean, he needed to tell the whole truth. “We both chose her. She’s…” His mind drifted to her flawless skin, her beaming smile, the way his name sounded on her lips. “Perfect.”
    “Not for the pack, she isn’t.”
    As much as Donovan hated to admit it, his father was right. “I won’t be returning home then.” His stomach bottomed out as he uttered the words. It made the most sense that he should stay here, in New York, where wolf