Unmasked: A dragon shifter paranormal romance (Alice Novella Serial Book 1) by Maria Dean

Author:Maria Dean [Dean, Maria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-09-26T16:00:00+00:00

The next time Astrid ran had contact with one the Russo heirs, it was Irene. She sent Astrid an email, inviting her down to their animal shelter on a rainy Saturday. Irene was more down to earth than the rest of her cousins. She contacted Astrid like a normal person, via her business e-mail.

What was refreshing is that she didn't spend any time staring at her like she was a creature from the deep. That was her one major complaint with Christian. Though she warmed up to him as their lunch went on, he continued to look at her like she was a shiny new toy.

Irene's shelter was a short bus ride away from Astrid's apartment. The forecast predicted thunderstorms all day threatening to trap Astrid inside. As a solicitor who spent most of her time in an office or the homes of her clients, Astrid tried to spend as much time as possible outside. She hated feeling trapped inside when the weather was sunny. Rainy days forced her to find things to do inside. Typically, this resulted in binge watching old horror movies and eating popcorn.

The shelter was a welcome distraction. It was smaller than Astrid expected, though she scolded herself for thinking the Russo family would ever be exactly what she expected. It was rather homey. A weathered brick storefront with worn curtains in the windows. Astrid approached the window and spied two cats cuddled together on a white carpet. They were tiny, no older than 10 weeks by Astrid's best guess.

"Astrid!" Irene heaved the door open. "Come in, come in." She ushered Astrid inside the shelter. "I didn't keep you waiting for too long, did I?" She nudged an old orange cat away from the door.

Stripping out of her rain jacket, Astrid laid it over her arm and leaned down to pet the cat with her other hand. "You had perfect timing," she said.

"Good!" Irene plucked Astrid's jacket out of her arms and put it on a nearby coat rack. "I'm so glad you could come. We have so much to talk about."

"We do?" That weird feeling Astrid got in her stomach was coming back. She and Irene had exchanged all of two sentences at the will reading. Well, a Russo is a Russo, she thought.

The confused look on her face registered with Irene. "Oh, don't worry, it's just about Matilde. I wanted to apologize for her behavior and maybe clear some things up for you. I understand my cousins have been terrorizing you."

Astrid snorted. "Terrorizing is one way to put it, yeah."

"They're definitely characters," Irene replied. "Let me give you a quick tour before we get into that story." She picked up the orange cat who tried to escape. "We can put this old man back in his bed too."

Tentatively, Astrid reached out to pet the cat. It sniffed at her hand, licking the ridges of her fingers when it decided it liked her. "What's his name?"

"Romeo." Cat in hand, Irene invited Astrid in. Irene explained the shop floor was the shelters sitting room, where guests could play with adoptable cats and dogs.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.