Moon Madness

Moon Madness by Mina Carter

Lyrical Press, Inc. www.lyricalpress.com

Copyright ©2008 by Mina Carter First published in 2008, 2008 NOTICE: This eBook is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution to any person via email, floppy disk, network, print out, or any other means is a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines and/or imprisonment. This notice overrides the Adobe Reader permissions which are erroneous. This eBook cannot be legally lent or given to others. This eBook is displayed using 100% recycled electrons.

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Moon Madness by Mina Carter

CONTENTS Moon Madness Dedication Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Epilogue About Mina Carter Lyrical Press ****

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Lyrical Press, Incorporated Moon Madness Copyright © 2008, Mina Carter Edited by Pam Skochinski Book design by Emma Wayne Porter and Renee Rocco Cover Art by Renee Rocco Lyrical Press, Incorporated 17 Ludlow Street Staten Island, New York 10312 www.lyricalpress.com eBooks are not transferable. All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher's permission. PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content. 4

Moon Madness by Mina Carter

Published in the United States of America by Lyrical Press, Incorporated First Lyrical Press, Inc. electronic publication: November, 2008

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Moon Madness by Mina Carter [Back to Table of Contents]

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Dedication To Will, Doug and Layla. The best support group a writer could have! [Back to Table of Contents]

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Chapter 1 "Bite me!" Penny sighed as the familiar demand intruded on her thoughts and her shopping. Didn't she have enough problems without this as well? But then, when had her life ever been simple? She'd picked stereotypical, small town Garmin because it was so far out in the middle of nowhere that even the tumble weeds packed passports, and because no one knew her. That was a plus, the fewer people who knew her location, the better her chances of staying alive. But she hadn't counted on the paranormal groupies. Okay, it was an insult to paranormal groupies to class Sam Davis in their number. A security guard at the local mill, he was more conspiracy theorist than paranormal nut. So when he'd caught a look at the security camera just at the moment Penny had gotten careless and seen the reflection of her eyes, a reflection that wasn't human, he'd almost been in ecstasy. The brief glimpse had been enough for him to make all sorts of connections and guess she wasn't human. Which was correct. But somehow he'd got his thinking muddled and decided Penny had to be a vampire. She wasn't, although some days she'd prefer it. Immortal life, languishing about in the moonlight, and looking romantic? Sure, you had to drink a little blood every now and then, but it beat her lot in life. 8

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Penny was a werewolf. At present not a happy one. In fact, right at this moment, she was edging into 'pissed off werewolf' territory. "Look Sam, I have no idea what you're on about okay? So would you quit it, I'm trying to shop here." She studiously ignored the lean, lanky youth leaning against the pillar next to her and concentrated on the shampoo shelf. Never let it be said Garmin's one convenience store lacked for shampoo choices. Jasmine and geranium, apple-blossom and rose, strawberry and kiwi ... She frowned at the last one, she wanted to wash her hair in the stuff, not eat it. A pity that at certain times of the month the 'family' sized bottles on display just weren't big enough. She needed something bigger. Perhaps a bucket. She sighed again. Despite the bright and cheery advertising campaigns run by the major brands, she didn't think any of them were going to solve her problems for her as promised ... 'Just wash your hair in our tropical flowers shampoo and be transported by magic to a rainforest waterfall with a hunk on tap to rinse the suds out.' Pity it was an advertisement, because it would solve all her problems in one fell swoop. "I know what you are, remember? I saw! And I could make things very difficult for you. Somehow I don't think Mrs. Winchester would be very happy about renting her house to a blood sucking fiend from beyond the grave," Sam's pale, bulbous eyes glittered with purpose as he spoke, trying for an ominous undertone. It didn't come over as ominous though. 9

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Instead, just an irritating whine that got on Penny's already hormone-strained nerves. What would he do if I did bite him? She gritted her teeth and ignored the temptation. She was too close to her heat phase to even be thinking about biting anyone. In fact, her heat was so close, the only safe option was the chain in the basement. At least until she considered herself fit for human company again. She reached out and grabbed a purple bottle off the shelf, not bothering to read the label. It was purple, so whatever it contained, she'd like it. An odd logic that had led to bathroom shelves filled with purple bottles of varying shapes and sizes, but it worked for Penny. "Sam, what time is it?" She asked as she carried on down the aisle, bypassing the laundry products and heading straight for the cakes section. "Hmm, half past twelve I think..." he twisted his watch around on his thin wrist to check. "Yeah, twelve thirty-three. Why?" "And what's the weather like outside?" She frowned as she tried to fit three chocolate cakes into the basket on top of her other purchases. She'd not been in heat yet, but if it was anything like her normal furry 'time of the month' then she'd be starving afterwards. And sometimes a girl just had to have chocolate cake. "Erm ... It's bright, sunny with clear skies," he replied frowning, confusion about this line of questioning evident on his face. 10

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Penny flicked back the heavy fall of her hair, a dark dye concealing its natural deep red, and looked at him. "Sunny as in sunshine?" She asked. "Just so we're clear on that, because last I checked vampires tended not to sunbathe so much. Not good for their health." With a sigh she gave up on the cake box puzzle and put two back. Her hips would thank her for it later. "Ah yes, well, I've been thinking about that. You're a day walker vampire." His voice rang with triumph as he trailed her to the checkout. Penny held onto her temper with an effort. How the hell did she get herself into these messes? A year ago, she'd been just like everyone else. Good job, nice neat little apartment in a good part of town, and her family not far away. She'd been human and werewolves had belonged in films and books. Then a bite from a 'stray' dog had changed everything. Okay, she thought as she waited for Roger, the store owner and cashier, to ring up her purchases, I should have known no stray looked like that. But she'd never even seen a wolf before, so how was she supposed to identify one? Especially when it was trying to make friends and cadge treats, holding up a paw with a pathetic whimper until she'd caved in and shared her sandwich. As soon as it had wolfed down the scrap, the ungrateful brute had nipped her! A nip she didn't think anything of, until the next full moon found her with a bad case of the furries. "So, like Blade?" She couldn't help asking the question, and found herself drawn into Sam's little fantasy world. Roger, across the counter, rolled his eyes and smiled in 11

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sympathy. Everyone in Garmin was used to Sam's wild stories, everything from supernatural critters to conspiracy theories. Personally, Penny had liked the one where Sam had been convinced the government was reading his mind and walked around all week with tinfoil on his head. Most of the time he was harmless, Penny was just in the unfortunate position of having something to hide. "See! You admit it, you know what I'm on about," he crowed. Penny shook her head, chuckling as she paid and gathered her purchases. "Nope, I just like watching films. Thanks Roger, see you later." She said, heading outside. Even though she expected it, the heat hit her like a physical blow, taking her breath away for a second before she forced herself out onto the sidewalk. Why the hell had she decided on the south? She was a grey wolf, more suited to the north. However, south was the last place Big Jimmy would think of looking for her, so she had to suck up the discomfort in the interests of staying alive. No one left Jimmy, ever. Until her. "C'mon ... you have to bite me, I'd make such a cool vampire," Sam wheedled as she headed out to her car. She opened the door and tried to load up the ancient little compact without getting her arms roasted from the heat inside. It would take more than a couple of minutes with the door open until the car reached a bearable temperature to sit in. Lord knows, she didn't want to scald the skin off the backs 12

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of her legs. She opened her mouth to tell Sam to get lost, her temper hitting breaking point, but she didn't get the chance. Two things happened at once. The scent of another wolf, musk mixed with citrus and sandalwood, hit her heatsensitized nostrils, and a silken voice inquired from the shadows. "This geek giving you trouble, Penny?" Penny stilled, every cell in her body wary. She didn't recognize the voice. Which meant nothing. At the moment she wasn't pleased to see any wolf. The more of her kind who knew she was here, or even that there was a female wolf living in Garmin, the more chance word would get back to Big Jimmy. Then she would be back to square one, running for her life. A place she wasn't fond of. Her response dried up in her throat as she turned and got a look at the speaker, her eyes latching onto the figure slouching against the wall in the shadows. Recognition filled her. No woman forgot Cade Steele in a hurry. Penny had only seen him fleetingly, his mere presence enough to give whatever pack member she was with the heebie-jeebies and hurry her away, but those brief glimpses were enough. She would have known him anywhere. Tall and handsome, with a lean, muscular build, Cade had the sort of looks that hijacked a woman's attention and took it for a joyride. Looks that couldn't be mistaken for anything but male, oozing virility. A potent combination of masculinity and something else, an extra earthy edge that made Penny's wolf sit up and take notice. A stirring started under her skin, a subtle shift and a feeling like fur brushing against her skin, against the inside of 13

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her skin, all over her body. A sharp scent filled her sensitive nostrils, of cool forests and grass after the rain. It was the smell of freedom, the scent of her wolf as, unbidden, it almost broke free of her control. With a gasp Penny got a grip on herself, sweat beading in her hairline as she fought the shift back down, allowing her wolf only the thinnest connection to the world around them. It was the technique she'd been taught when newly turned, along with a warning never to let the wolf have free rein ... or control. She shuddered. There was no way she could change in the middle of the high street in broad daylight with a witness in attendance. She gritted her teeth as the wolf retreated, her panic aiding her in the struggle. She'd never lost control before, not ever. Not even when she was newly bitten. She'd always had a high level of control over her wolf, unusual for a bitten wolf. It was more a trait associated with born wolves. But never, never had she had another wolf call hers that way. "You know this guy Penny?" Sam glared at the newcomer, no doubt needled by the 'geek' comment. He stood straighter as Cade pushed off from the wall, almost squaring off against the wolf as he approached. The natural posturing of a male who thinks another is encroaching on his territory. Penny had to admit, Sam had guts. Cade was taller, with a longer reach, and that wasn't the half of it. The elders of the pack had called him Wargwolf, Rogue Wolf. Swearing allegiance to no pack, he lived on his own. Most wolves wouldn't consider it. Wolves needed a pack, needed the structure of the society. A lone wolf was easy 14

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prey. Which meant an exiled wolf didn't tend to live very long. The ones who did were mean as hell, creatures you really didn't want to get into a fight with, in particular ones like Cade Steele who'd turned mean into an art form as both a human and a wolf. "Yeah, I know him," Penny replied, watching Cade move with appreciation. While she was happy to admit human men could be pretty to look at, there was nothing on earth that moved quite like a male wolf in his prime. And Cade was in his prime. There were tiny, almost imperceptible differences about the way he walked, the loose limbed stride that held the potential of explosive power, all little clues that were easy to spot if you knew what you were looking for. And as a female wolf about to go into heat, Penny knew without thinking about it what to look for. "Oh ... right ... uhm, I should ... uhm, let you guys catch up then," Sam stammered, as though unwilling to leave her alone with the other guy. Like Penny, his eyes were riveted on Cade as he stalked towards them, although for very different reasons. Even now she could smell the fear seeping out the pores of his skin as his instincts, the hard-wired primeval ones that had helped humanity get out of the caves and claw its way up to the apparent top of the food chain, were screaming at him. Even if humans didn't believe in monsters like vampires and werewolves any more—a definite plus for both species, especially as far as human survival instincts were concerned— they easily recognized a predator when faced with one. 15

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Especially one like Cade, who was making no effort to disguise what he was. Penny tapped her tongue against the back of her teeth in frustration. Sheesh, never mind her changing in the middle of the street, Cade might as well go for it as well, she thought as he rounded on the smaller human, all but growling as he spoke. "You do that..." His gaze dropped down to the name tag on Sam's shirt. "Samuel Davis." He smiled. It wasn't a nice expression, more an excuse to bare his teeth. Teeth that looked suspiciously pointed. Somehow he managed to make just saying Sam's name sound like a threat. All bravado deserted the young security guard as his fight or flight instinct took over. Backing away, his mouth working with no sound, he tripped over his own feet in his haste to get away. Booted feet scrabbled at the tarmac, kicking up the dust on top until Sam regained his feet and ran off as fast as his legs could carry him. Penny shook her head as he disappeared around the corner, her eyes flicking over Sam's truck parked two spaces down. Looked like he was walking home today. "Well, way to go." She clapped and the sound rang around the empty street. "Great little performance there, fancy dragging me off to your cave by my hair for an encore?" His pale eyes flicked to hers, humor written in them as his lips quirked. "If I didn't fear bodily harm, then I might take you up on that offer." He leaned on the top of her open car door, his forearms resting along the top of the hot metal as 16

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Penny leaned back against the car body, her arms folded as she eyed him warily. "So, how you doing?" he asked. His eyes seemed to search her face, her appearance, and, if she wasn't mistaken, there was concern in his eyes. Which didn't make sense. Cade was famous for shunning any contact with other wolves. So why would he be interested in her? Could it be because she was an outcast too, unable to join any pack in case she brought down Big Jimmy's wrath on them? Outcasts anonymous, banding together for protection? She had a few issues with that line of thought. The main one being Cade Steele didn't need anyone's protection, much less hers. So what gave? "What do you want Cade?" She crossed her arms over her full breasts and tried to ignore the heat making her shirt stick to her skin. Although petite, Penny had never been what you could be described as waif-like, not even when she tried to half starve herself in order to achieve it. Since becoming a wolf though, she'd more or less given up on controlling her weight. It was hard to diet when you were always ravenous. "And how did you find me?" she demanded, fear spiking sharp in her chest. She'd been so careful to cover her tracks, hoping to be able to just disappear. He shrugged again, a one-shouldered nonchalant movement. "I have my methods." He frowned, and while Penny watched, he drew a deep breath into his lungs, lips parting a little to roll the air over his tongue. Tasting it. Amber bled into the pale color of his eyes, a split-second glimpse of the wolf within. 17

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"You're going into heat." "Well thank you Captain Obvious!" Werewolves had an excellent sense of smell. That she was almost in heat would be obvious to any wolf with a nose on their face. "Is that what you hauled your hermit ass out of the wilds for? Because if it is, you can just damn well high-tail it back." He didn't deny it, just watched her, all amusement gone from his expression. Still working out the lay of the land, she realized. Braving the heat of the car she slid behind the wheel and started the engine. The temperature inside the small vehicle was barely tolerable, but she didn't care. She didn't want to discuss going into heat with anyone, never mind a walking fantasy like Cade. "You have a mate then?" He refused to relinquish his hold on the car door. Penny eyed him for a moment, trying to work out if it was jealousy tinting his voice. It couldn't be. Cade had never shown an interest in her before. He'd always been on the outskirts back in Roakestown, always on the edges of the pack but never a part of it. She'd often wondered why Johnathon, the old pack Alpha, had put up with a rogue in his territory. Big Jimmy, the new Alpha, and his thugs wouldn't. Then someone had clued her into the family history. Cade was Johnathon's son, exiled from the pack years before for something no one would talk about. He'd gone into the army. After his tour was finished, he occasionally drifted back into the territory. Even though the argument was long in the past, Cade had always refused any 18

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attempt by Johnathon at reconciliation, preferring his solitary existence. Now, it was too late. She pulled harder on the door, the two werewolves playing a bizarre game of tug of war until the inhuman strength involved threatened to buckle it. Penny let go as she felt the panel start to give. She should know better by now. Hadn't she ruined enough doors and other things when she'd first been turned to know to watch her strength? And Cade had no excuse, he'd been born a wolf, had had his whole life to get used to it. "It's taken care of, thank you," The evasion slid off her tongue easily. He didn't need to know about her plans. A female wolf's heat was a very personal thing, and if she chose to spend it in solitude rather than let it force her into sleeping with a guy just to satisfy an animal urge, then that was her decision. But she wasn't prepared for the flash of rage that crossed his features, so quickly masked she wondered whether she'd seen it at all. "Who is it?" he demanded, his voice tight with control. "That human? Ha! He's far too delicate, you need a wolf in moon fever honey, nothing else'll do." "What I need is none of your damn business!" She pushed the door wider in a sudden movement. It worked. Taken by surprise, Cade stumbled back a step and released it. Penny pulled it shut, leaning her arm out the open window as she looked up at him. "Just piss off and leave me alone Cade, I don't need you or any other wolf." [Back to Table of Contents] 19

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Chapter 2 Thankfully for Penny's nerves, and temperature, the journey home was short and uneventful. She pulled around the back of the neat little two bedroom house she had rented and parked in front of the garage. After gathering her shopping from the back seat, she headed inside, sighing in relief as she reached the blessed cool interior of the house. With practiced ease, she kicked the door shut behind her. Sanctuary. Flicking her hair back from her face, she carried her groceries through to the kitchen and dumped her bags on the counter. She leaned against it for a long second, hands flat on the marble, her head drooping down between her shoulders. "Crap!" The curse exploded from her as she slammed her hands against the marble. The wood of the cabinet below creaked in protest, not used to the stresses of werewolf strength. She needed to move on. If Cade had found her, then there was every chance Big Jimmy could as well. Something Penny had a vested interest in making sure never happened. In fact, if she didn't see Jimmy or any of the Roakestown Pack again as long as she lived, then it would be too soon. She leaned her hips back against the counter and ran her hand through her hair, completely destroying what was left of the style before she wrapped her arms tight around herself. She'd always known her stay in Garmin was temporary, but— damn it—it was a nice little town. Even with Sam and his mad 20

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theories and schemes to avoid 'government control.' She'd hoped to be able to stay a little longer, perhaps until after Christmas at least. She pushed away, moving across the room to put the kettle on to boil. A deep sigh escaped her. The decision was out of her hands now. As soon as her heat was over—just three days—she'd pack up and move on. She'd paid up on the rent until the end of the month, so all she had to do was drop a note in Mrs. Winchester's door on her way through, and she was out of here. Her movements were quick and economical as she moved about the small kitchen with an ease that spoke of long practice. Ignoring the bags on the counter for now, she collected a mug from the cupboard and set it next to the kettle. Then she opened the cupboard and reached for a canister at the back. The same in design and shape as the canisters next to the kettle, there was nothing to mark this one as special. It even had 'Tea' in curly letters on the front. But it didn't contain tea. Well it did, but not your average run of the mill Earl Grey. It was Penny's 'special tea.' Wolfsbane tea. She gritted her teeth and cracked the lid on the canister, feeling the wolf inside recoil in disgust. She didn't blame it. The wolf knew what the tea did, and was even now snarling and snapping its teeth in disagreement. Folklore was divided on what Wolfsbane did. Half of the tales had it as an ingredient in witch's potions designed to turn a person into a werewolf that, as far as Penny knew, was complete baloney. The only ways to become a werewolf were 21

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to be born one, or to get bitten. But then, folklore had never been the most reliable source of information. It was the other tales she was more interested in. The ones describing Wolfsbane as an herb that could suppress the wolf. Research on the internet had located a suitable supplier. Wolfsbane wasn't your average herb so there was no way she could walk into a 'normal' herbalist and ask for it. No, she needed a Warden. The magic-users of the paranormal world, any of them would keep a supply. Trouble was, she didn't want to leave a trail for Jimmy to follow. Which meant a back street Warden who didn't keep records, and a bribe to say she'd never been there. Penny wrinkled her nose as the water hit the herbs, releasing the pungent aroma. It was good for her, she told herself, ignoring the howling in a small part of her mind, locking it away so she didn't have to hear it. And maybe, just maybe, if she drank enough of the foul stuff, it would achieve the impossible and revert her physiology back to just plain human. Hell, if she thought that was possible, she'd take whole baths of the stuff. Pulling a face, she dunked the filter ball, watching as the hot water infused into the tea leaves and turned the water a weird brownish color. Then the tea was ready and she removed the ball, dropping it into the sink and lifting the mug to her lips. Her stomach rebelled at the smell, her wolf's selfpreservation instinct perhaps, but she forced the tea down anyway, closing her eyes as she felt it burn all the way down. When she'd first started drinking it, it had been hard to keep 22

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down, which wasn't surprising. For a human, even the smallest dose could be lethal. It wasn't lethal for a wolf, so the warden she'd brought it from had said, but there was a fine line between suppressing the wolf and illness. The mug fell from her fingers into the sink with a dull clump. She leaned her palms against the cool porcelain as she felt the effects race through her system, boosted in its journey by the wolf's enhanced metabolism. As her heart rate slowed to near human, she opened her eyes, feeling a sense of calm steal over her as the wolf inside calmed, became quieter. It still wasn't enough. Before, she could go weeks without realizing the wolf was there, the smallest presence in her mind. But now, so close to her heat, the wolf was restless even as the Wolfsbane forced her into sleep. But it was an uneasy sleep, the beast stirring fitfully as she fought the drug. Penny sighed. It was going to be the basement after all. She'd known it was going to come to that. By rote, she packed her shopping away. She was going to be out of it for a couple of days and when she 'came to' she was going to need a lot to eat. It was the same every month; PMS, get furry then eat everything in sight. And that was just a normal month. She'd never been in heat before, already it was feeling like a normal month, just ten times worse. She shuddered. Lord knew what sort of an appetite she'd have when it was over. Pushing the piece de la resistance, the chocolate cake, onto the top shelf of the fridge, she stopped and looked around the kitchen. It would have to do, the wolf would stir again soon, despite the Wolfsbane tea still in her stomach. 23

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The closer to her heat she got, the less time it took for it to gnaw through the calming effects. On silent feet, she went through the house, securing all the doors and windows. The last thing she needed was a burglar getting in. She wasn't worried so much about anything being stolen, she travelled light and had nothing she couldn't replace with ease. But there was the risk that an intruder could make their way down into the basement; then things would get dicey. Chained up with warden-made chains, unbreakable whilst in wolf form, Penny would be at the mercy of any Tom, Dick or Harry who turned up. Unless of course they were stupid enough to get within reach. In which case, she wouldn't need the chocolate cake in the fridge... She completed her rounds and with a heavy heart headed down to the cellar. Each step down the stairs into the darkness felt like another step into the hell her life had become. A hell ruled by the animal that dwelled within her, an animal who craved flesh and blood, making the woman she had been shudder in disgust. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, she looked around. A small basement, only sixteen feet by ten feet, was occupied by the washing machine and dryer in the corner. The other empty space dominated by two heavy chains attached to rings concreted into the floor, half hidden under a ragged duvet. Removing the pre-existing storage shelves and installing the chains had taken her a weekend and some extensive research to complete. However, it hadn't been a job she could hand over to a handyman. Yeah Bob, I need some rings right about here and here, they're to hold the chains to 24

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keep me under control when I turn into a ravenous beast each full moon. Cheers mate. Determined not to think about what she was doing, she crossed over to the laundry area in the corner and started to undress. The counter was well out of the short reach of the chains so at least she wouldn't chew on her own shoes like some common mutt. Quickly she peeled her clothes off, first the casual shirt and jeans that were like a second skin, then the no-nonsense cotton underwear she wore in the heat of the day. Plain and utilitarian it might have been, but there was no way she could stand anything like silk or lace near her skin. Not with her heat coming up and the sensitivity of her skin in the last few days. Finally she stood barefoot and naked on the cold concrete, shivering a little and rubbing her arms. But it felt good to be naked, really good. The brisk rubbing of her arms turned into more of a caress as she became lost in the sensuous slide of skin on skin. Stop that right now! A little voice in the back of her head snapped her back to reality. Penny recognized it. Morgan's voice, the beta in the Pack who had schooled her through her first changes. The old wolf had warned her about things like that, things the wolf would make her revel and delight in if she let it. Resolutely she dropped her hands, not even brave enough to try and rub warmth into any other chilled areas of her skin. That way led to decadence and a way for the wolf to stop Penny locking them both in the chains until it was too late. If that happened, neither the thin wooden door at the top of the 25

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stairs, nor the slightly more substantial one at the back of the house, would stop two hundred pounds of determined shewolf. Ignoring temptation, she walked over to the centre of the floor and knelt on the tatty duvet. Spread out across the floor, it served as flimsy protection against the chill. She picked up the heavy manacles, fastening them first to one slender wrist, then to the other. "Lycaon," She whispered. It was the trigger word for the cuffs, one she could only say when fully human. At the sound of her voice the sigils inscribed in the leather of the cuffs flared brightly, and a haunting three note melody hung in the air for a second before it faded away. The magic clamped around her wrists, even though the cuffs didn't tighten or change in any way. They didn't need to, they were just something for the magic to latch onto. When she changed, the magic bond would change as well, holding her lupine form as easily as her human one. Human fairy tales and films might have pegged werewolves as being some kind of freakish hybrid form between human and wolf, but the reality was quite different. True werewolves had two forms, human and wolf, nothing in between. So anything that did look like the traditional film werewolf had to be either a demon or perhaps a vampire. Both could assume weird mixed up forms and had probably led to the origins of such tales. Penny was betting on the former, there were some ugly-ass demons about. Giving the chains a swift tug and finding them strong, Penny lay down, wrapped herself in the duvet and closed her 26

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eyes. Tears welled behind her eyelids at what she'd become, chaining herself in the basement, hiding herself away from the world lest it discover her shameful secret. Then the door at the top of the stairs crashed open, the heavy tread of footsteps storming down them. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Penny sat bolt upright, holding the duvet up against her breasts as though it were a lifeline. Which it was in a way, the preserver of her dignity. Wolves were tactile creatures, needing to touch and be touched. A basic need Jimmy had twisted, using it to force the pack into all night orgies. Penny though, was more reserved, perhaps a remnant of her human thinking and not at all comfortable with being naked in front of people. "What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded. "Other than breaking and entering?" Cade stepped forward, his tall frame shaking as he advanced on her. His silver eyes took in the chains, her clothes on the side, the duvet hastily wrapped around her like a toga. "Just answer the damn question! And what's this?" he snarled, holding up a mug. The one Penny had just used, obviously recovered from the sink in the kitchen upstairs. She arched an eyebrow. "I believe it's called a mug, you drink out of it," she replied, deadpan. "But then that would be for the more civilized among us, a subtle nuance of acceptable behavior I'm sure bypassed you completely." "Don't piss me off, Penny." The growl in his voice deepened. He hurled the mug down on the floor next to her. 27

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It shattered, making her jump as the shards peppered the bare skin of her calf. The pungent smell of the contents, still warm, rose to her sensitive nostrils and made her wrinkle her nose. "You know damn well what I mean, this is Wolfsbane." His voice dropped dangerously low as he stood over her. "I'll ask again, just what the hell do you think you're doing?" She lifted her chin, looking him directly in the eye. It was a challenging look and she knew it, not that she cared at the moment. "None. Of. Your. Business," she replied. She didn't know how she remained calm, faced with a furious werewolf. A furious male werewolf. Gritting her teeth, she fought down the reaction of her own wolf, so close to the surface now she could almost feel the fur starting to crawl all over her skin. She had to get rid of him, he was bringing the wolf out quicker. "Get the fuck out," she ordered, furious with him, with her reaction to him, with the world itself. "No," he replied, reaching down and taking a hold of the end of the chain. "Because if you're doing what I think you're doing, then you're either some kind of miracle hitherto unknown to wolf-kind or you're fucking out of your mind. Which is it?" he asked, wrenching the chains loose from the floor with a negligent heave. "Hey! No, you can't do that," she protested, fear and frustration driving her forwards, the duvet forgotten as she tried to put the chains back. But it was no use, the bolts were snapped and she didn't have time to fix them. Already she could feel the rise of the moon outside, calling to her. 28

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"Do you know what you've done?" she demanded. She ignored the fact that her voice cracked, dropped a little. It signaled the tenuous hold she had on her control. But it wasn't nearly as clear as an indication as the sharp scent that rose from her skin, the scent of the forest and something else. The scent of her wolf as the change edged closer. "Solving a problem caused by one dumb bitch who can't see further than the end of her nose, that's what," he snarled back, his eyes hard as he wound the loose chain around his hand. "You're in heat, do you know what happens to a female wolf if they can't mate in heat?" He took up the slack on the chain with each loop of his wrist. "They turn wolf, the heat ends, and some sort of sanity returns to their lives." Penny threw back, her slender frame almost shaking with the effort to hold the change back. She couldn't, wouldn't, change with him in the room, but it was a struggle. He was too much of a distraction. Her wolf had his scent, Penny could feel her interest as it stirred within her, looked out through Penny's eyes to see who the male was. The male who smelled so good. "Bullshit," he shot back, the chain taut now, and he began to pull on it, trying to pull Penny towards him. He was an Alpha, his stance, his attitude all screamed that. "They go mad, needing to mate ... unable to mate. And then the locals are forced to hunt a feral wolf before she kills too many of their kids. Fancy that Penny? You'll be stalking the school playground looking for your next snack." "No!" Disgust, fear and loathing all vied for equal footing within her. "I wouldn't ... I couldn't do that," she protested. 29

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"You don't know me, Cade, don't know what I'm like. I couldn't do something like that in a million years," she said, not noticing that when she'd dug her heels in and refused to be pulled towards him Cade had simply wound the chain around the back of his hand and moved closer. Then he was close enough to touch, close enough she could feel the heat of his breath fanning over her bare skin. She was naked in front of the guy, which didn't seem to matter to her at the moment. In fact, she wanted him to see, wanted to arch her back and show herself off to him. "The human you were wouldn't," he said, his voice implacable as he looked down at her. "But you're a wolf now, governed by a whole new set of laws, and you have to learn to live with it. Or you'll die, simple as that. Because I will not let you go feral. I have some morals, even if you don't." "You bastard." Tears of frustration and hurt welled at his words. Her hand shot out and cracked him across the cheek. A heavy blow that rocked his head back and left a red mark. He turned back to her, a dark look in his eyes that took her breath away. "Aye, I am," he agreed. "Lycaon." Penny gasped as the same three-note melody as before echoed through the room. "How did..." "How did I know?" he asked, his head tilted to the side as, with rough movements, he removed the manacles from her slender wrists. Stunned, Penny let him. "It's a standard keyword for wolf chains." He shrugged and stepped back, giving every evidence of departure. 30

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"Hey! Where are you going now?" Confusion colored her voice as she rubbed at her wrists, smoothing the sore spots where the heavy manacles had pressed. He looked back over his shoulder, hot silver eyes flicking once over her naked body. "You need to mate, and I'm not watching as you fuck someone else. See you around, Penny." [Back to Table of Contents]

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Chapter 3 Penny watched frozen as Cade headed up the stairs, only spurred into action as the door slammed at the top. He was right, she needed a mate. She knew, on an instinctive level, everything he'd said—about going feral without a mate, without sex—was true. He hadn't tried to push her into sex, assuming she already had a boyfriend, which meant he wasn't just interested in sex. But she didn't have a boyfriend, so now she was up the creek without a paddle. She needed a mate, and she needed one fast. If she didn't have sex by the time the moon had risen, her body would force a change and send her out into the night looking for one. And it wouldn't be picky about who. Or what. She shuddered at the thought. It could be any male; full wolf, human, even a vampire if one was unlucky enough to cross her path. As long as it had a cock, the heat wouldn't care. Closing her eyes, she realized her last chance at anything close to having some sort of choice in all this was about to walk out of the door upstairs. "Wait," she shouted, fear lending wings to her heels as she took the stairs two at a time. "Yes?" he asked, his hand stilling on the handle of the back door as Penny appeared behind him in the basement doorway. He didn't turn, his head down and his broad back turned to her as he waited for her to speak. "I don't have one," she admitted in a low voice. 32

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"You don't have one what?" His back was still turned, his head down. Penny gritted her teeth. "I don't have a boyfriend," she said, a flush building over her cheeks. He was going to make this hard. Okay, she could handle that. She had to handle it, anything was better than the picture he'd painted. But she'd never asked a guy for sex before, not in so many words anyway. "I see." Penny bit her lip, watching his turned back for some sort of a reaction as she padded over the tiled floor on bare feet. "Uhm, so, I was thinking..." She trailed off, instead reaching out to touch his shoulder. He turned, faster than she could see or react to, her hand suddenly engulfed in a hard grip as amber eyes blazed down at her. "So, you want me to service you, is that it Penny? No safe little human boyfriend for you to pretend with so you want the big, bad rogue wolf to fuck you? You want me to fuck you?" Her eyes widened as she reared back, surprise in her eyes at his crude words. Surprise swiftly followed by arousal, a wet heat flooding her body at the sensitive apex between her thighs. "You do," he murmured, a hint of triumph in his voice. He pulled her hand closer, running his lips across the inside of her wrist. Not touching, not quite, instead inhaling the scent of her skin. Penny's heart stuttered in her chest, an erratic 33

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rhythm that matched her breathing as she watched his amber gaze deepen. "I can smell your need. You need it, and you need it bad, don't you Little Wolf?" he whispered, drawing her into his strong arms, his free hand winding into the thick hair at the nape of her neck. He held her still and looked down into her eyes. "Why did you let it get this bad, Penny?" he demanded in a low voice, "You could have any man you wanted, human or wolf, so why?" Penny shrugged, heat and chills chasing over her skin wherever he touched her, shivering as his hand swept along her arm and down her bare back. He pressed her naked body against him from breast to thigh. She didn't need any encouragement, arching her back and rubbing against him eagerly. She didn't want to talk, the moon was rising outside, and she needed him to touch her, get on with it. "You planning on talking all night?" she bit out, "Not exactly the big bad wolf you promised, are you?" she challenged, a challenge that got a swift reaction. "So you just want to screw? We can do that," he said, his voice low and dangerous. Penny squealed as she was lifted suddenly and deposited on the counter behind her. She gasped as the sensitive skin of her backside hit the cold marble, the contrast between the warm male body in front of her and the chill against her ass made her squirm. Roughly, he shoved her thighs apart, stepping between them to press the hardness at the front of his jeans against her needy flesh. His large hands swept up the outside of her thighs as his lips descended, claiming hers. A fierce kiss 34

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designed to punish, but for what Penny didn't know and didn't really care. She moaned as his tongue swept out to brush the full curve of her lower lip, demanding entrance to the silken recesses of her mouth. However cool he appeared, the intensity of his kiss was evidence of his need and she relaxed, allowing him entrance past her lips. Sensation, pleasure coursed through her as he explored her soft mouth, one hand hard in her hair as he drank from her, taking what he wanted. Not that Penny wasn't taking as well, matching him kiss for kiss, using her tongue to duel with his and challenging the dominance he was trying to assert. Which surprised her. She'd never considered herself particularly dominant, but not submissive either. Yet one more way she didn't fit into life as a Wolf. His other hand swept up her back, fingertips brushing the sensitive skin over her spine. A touch so light he only just stroked the tiny hairs along the skin. An electric shiver shot through her, her back arching in response to offer her bared breasts up to him as the soft flesh pressed against the hard muscled wall of his chest. "God, you feel good," he whispered, his voice ragged as he dragged her closer, kissing her as though he wanted to crawl inside and take up residence. The tension between them mounted, each kiss, each caress driving the heat between them higher. "Less talk, more kissing," she ordered between hot, open mouthed kisses. She couldn't believe this was happening. When they'd told her about a female wolf's Heat phase she'd been so adamant she wasn't going to be forced into screwing 35

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some guy just because of a biological urge. But now she was actually here, experiencing the all consuming need for the first time, she understood the warnings. The alternative was so hideous she didn't have a choice in the screwing part. But she could decide on who it would be with. Of all the people she could have picked from, human or wolf, her dream team so to speak, Cade would have topped the list. She'd always found the lone wolf disturbingly attractive. Desperate to touch him, feel his skin under her hands, she pulled at his t-shirt. The fabric, although sturdy, wasn't proof against a heat-driven werewolf, and the sound of tearing cloth filled the room. She breathed a sigh of relief as his skin was revealed to her, satin smooth over the heavy steel of his muscles. Tearing her lips from his she explored the curve of his jaw, running her cheek against his and reveling in the difference between his stubble roughened skin and her smooth cheek. It was a very lupine gesture as her eyes opened in the increasing darkness of the room, their normal human green now a startling emerald, as though lit from within as her wolf rode her. Cade sucked his breath in at the sight. He'd always found Penny attractive. More than that, she fascinated him on a very primal, masculine level. There was just something about her, an indefinable quality that would have had any male wolf sitting up and taking notice. Something Cade was sure his father had taken into account when he'd bitten her. It was what had kept him returning to Roakestown these last six months. He hadn't been able to stay away, even though his 36

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plans had been to collect his stuff and get as far away from the place as he could. Particularly when Big Jimmy had taken over. But he hadn't been able to. She'd cast a subtle lure over him, keeping him coming back for more. Watching her from afar as she adapted to life in the pack, each moon getting more confident in herself, in her wolf. So he'd kept coming back, knowing, like every other male wolf in the vicinity, that she would go into heat soon. That period once a year that a female wolf was driven to mate, needed it more than she needed to breathe. Hell, he'd been surprised there hadn't been a queue forming, ready and waiting for her to make her choice. Not that Big Jimmy had planned to let her make that choice, that much had been obvious, and Cade was glad she'd had the guts to escape before the Moon Madness hit. But it wasn't that quality that was calling Cade at the moment. It was the deliciously curvy body pressed against him, and the rising scent of her arousal. A scent that plucked at his self control in ways he hadn't experienced since he was a cub. He wanted her, pure and simple. He'd sworn he wasn't going to make a play for her when he found her. But that had been when he'd assumed she had a human lover. Finding out she didn't have a lover at all, human or otherwise, had completely swept away his good intentions. So when she'd touched him, he'd caved in. She was in heat, and she needed a mate. The plan she'd had was suicidal, and there was no way Cade would allow her to risk going feral. It would break his heart to have to hunt her down and put her out of her misery. However, he was 37

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more than happy to see to her more physical needs. Looking the way she did, that wasn't going to be any sort of hardship. Just doing his duty for the community, he told himself, by stopping a female wolf going feral. Yeah, right. And the fact you've always had the hots for her doesn't have anything to do with it then? Penny's hands swept over his bared shoulders in appreciation, her lips moving along the side of his neck and finding the line of his collarbone. She alternated kisses and tiny nips that drew low growls from deep within Cade's chest. "Playing with fire there, doll." She chuckled and nipped him again, the playfulness of the wolf coming out. And then bit him again, a little harder. Hard enough to mark the skin but not break it. Penny soothed the small hurt with quick brushes of her tongue. "Yeah, yeah," she threw back, mischief twinkling in her eyes. "Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf?" Cade couldn't help himself, a laugh rumbling through his big frame at her irrepressible manner. Even on the run from a psycho Alpha, she still had that spark. An attitude he'd found so fascinating. Something he knew Jimmy would beat out of her if he got her into his clutches, something Cade couldn't, no, wouldn't let happen. "If I'm the big bad wolf, then you get to be the little pig..." he replied, catching her at the nape of her neck again and kissing her deeply. "Which means I get to eat you all up..." Penny's answer dried in her throat at the sensual promise in his voice. He slid down her body, stopping to nip at her 38

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chin before drawing the tip of his tongue down the centre of her throat and lower. The warm brush of his tongue across her skin, like the stroke of warm velvet, stole her breath away. His mouth closed over her taut nipple, sucking the sensitive flesh into the warm cavern and suckling hard. Her hands drove into his short hair, holding him to her. She moaned and arched her back, offering more to the touch of his lips. He moved from one breast to the other, making sure both were well attended to until Penny was ready to scream in frustration. Pleasure whirled through her like a raging torrent, the pull of his mouth on her breasts pulling the tension at her core, as though there was a direct line between the two. But before she could marshal herself to say anything, direct him to where she needed him most, he trailed kisses down the taut skin of her stomach. Penny sucked her breath in sharply as his hands urged her thighs further apart. His hands stroked in, gentle fingers opening her dewy folds to him. The first touch of his tongue against her was electric, wringing a moan from the depths of Penny's soul. Then he opened her further to his lips and tongue, sucking and kissing. Long slow licks of his tongue followed by swift hard suckling on the tender nub of her clitoris almost sent her through the ceiling. Oh god, that felt so good! Penny's head dropped back, her hands tangled in his hair as she held him to her, urging him on silently. He didn't disappoint. No one gave oral like a wolf and, as Penny was rapidly finding out, there was no wolf quite like Cade. His clever tongue swirled and teased until she writhed 39

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on the counter, desperate for the climax he withheld from her. He pulled away just as she reached the edge, the pause interminable before he touched her again. Teasing her until Penny thought she was going mad. "Cade, please," she moaned as he pulled away and left her teetering on the edge again. Far from helping her in her time of need, he was driving her mad instead. He pulled away again, the rumble of his laugh vibrating against her skin and making her eyes roll back in her head. "Please what Penny? What do you want?" he asked, his voice silky in the encroaching darkness. Penny almost howled in frustration. "Come on Cade, you know what I mean, what I need!" "Then tell me," he ordered as his tongue swept over her. "Tell me what you want me to do to you." "Just fuck me," she commanded, a demand that would have made her blush to even think about before. Not now. Not with the scent of aroused male and sex swirling in the air around her. Her inhibitions disappearing as the moon rose outside. He stood in front of her, white teeth flashing in the shadows. "Your wish is my command, little Wolf," he breathed, the whisper of his zipper loud in the silent room. Penny smoothed her hands down his sculptured torso, reaching lower as he released himself from the confining denim. His hardness filled her hand. "Oh God..." Cade's head fell back to bare the strong line of his throat in the pale moonlight filtering through the window. "Th—that feels good." he managed as Penny stroked him 40

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firmly, feeling the length and breadth of him. His size took her breath away, and she chuckled, suddenly feeling a little nervous. "Big bad wolf indeed." She swept her finger over the sensitive head of his cock. "Oh yeah, I'm bad..." He looked down again, his eyes bright in the darkness, alive with heat and need. He ran his hands over her hips and pulled her to the edge of the counter. The perfect position for him to run the hard head of his cock against her sensitized flesh. "Prove it," she challenged, a verbal gauntlet. He held her eyes as he dipped his knees, the swollen head of his erection pressing against her soft, feminine flesh. Penny's breathing caught as he pushed and her body yielded, stretching to accept him. Slow by deliciously slow inch he pushed inside her. Stretching her, filling her until, with one last push, his hips met hers, the two of them locked together as they stared into each other's eyes. It was the most erotic thing Penny had ever experienced, watching the changes in his eyes as he slid within her. She watched his eyes darken and his nostrils flare, visual reactions to the sensation as their bodies joined. Then he was deep inside her, his cock pulsing as they stilled. A moment's pause as their eyes caught, held. As though each recognized something in the other. "You feel good." His voice was more a groan than a whisper. He covered her lips with his own, and slid out of her again. His next thrust wasn't as slow, a long slide into her as he seated himself to the hilt again. He held still as a muscle in his jaw pulsed. He was fighting for control, Penny realized 41

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with a shock, still reeling from the power in his thrust and the sensations spiraling through her. She smiled and rocked her hips. "And that, what's that feel like?" she murmured, a siren's whisper in the silence. His eyes snapped open, the hot look in them all the answer she needed. He didn't answer but moved instead, his hips setting up a hard fast rhythm. His hard cock pressed into her needy body with a power she found breathtaking. She clung to him and wrapped her legs around his lean hips. Hard pleasure radiated through her body from where their bodies were joined, sensations that quickly built into a maelstrom, an electrical storm that surged through her body, lingering under her skin as he held her tight in his arms. Then time slowed, Penny hovering on the edge. Just one more good hard thrust and she would come undone. She lifted her lips from his shoulder, catching his eyes with hers. Then her body stiffened, tension and need became ecstasy as she cried out, coming hard around him. "Fuck!" He cursed, the sound making her pussy clamp tight around him, milking him as she climaxed. She could feel the trembles of his big body as he held on, trying to delay his climax. His hips pounded against hers, the movement growing shorter, more powerful. He threw his head back and howled, thrusting deep, his body rigid as his cock pulsed deep inside her. **** It was a cloudless night, perfect for running. High and fully risen now, the moon shone down brightly through the window 42

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of Penny's living room. A bright banner of silvery light sliced across the darkness of the room and fell across the two naked bodies lying entwined on the sofa. A very uncomfortable, very lumpy sofa that was doing its best to drive a spring into one of Cade's kidneys. He grimaced as he tried to shift position without waking the woman dozing across his broad chest. Cade wasn't the 'cuddling' sort but, with Penny ... well, with Penny all bets seemed to be off. He wasn't reacting as he usually did with women, which was to leave as soon as he could. Often as soon as they'd dropped off to sleep. But this time, he had no itching drive to get away. In fact, right at this moment he couldn't think of anywhere he'd rather be than here with his arms wrapped around the curvy figure half lying over him. He reached out to brush a lock of her dark hair, darker than he remembered it, back from her temple. A grin spread over his face. She'd been insatiable. Cade had needed every trick in the book to satisfy her heat-driven desire, that and the stamina of an Olympic athlete. He wasn't complaining, there was nothing like a female Wolf in heat, and he'd kept up with her, not needing to cry off for a rest. Which meant he could claim her as his mate now, if he wanted to. But did he want to? More importantly, would she accept the claim if he did? It wasn't guaranteed she would. She was an Alpha female, even if she didn't know it herself. The Roakestown pack past and present had deliberately kept the knowledge from her in an effort to control her. Cade's lips quirked. Under control! There was no way to control an Alpha female, not if you planned to keep your hide 43

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in one piece anyway. It was more a case of hang on and enjoy the ride. And hell what a ride! Movement against him drew his attention, the subtle shifting of his companion's limbs warned him she was waking up. "Heya." He smiled as she lifted her head, a sleepy expression on her face. She raised a hand and raked her tousled hair out of her face with a delicate hand to look at him. "Heya yourself." Her eyes met his, sultry and dark. Through the worst of her need now, she had the look of a woman well satisfied. So she should, after the last few hours. "Feel better?" A pang of regret filled him at what he was going to have to say next. The words he knew were going to shatter the contented look on her face, and bring back the hunted one he'd caught a glimpse of earlier when he'd caught up with her outside the store downtown. "Uh-huh," she nodded. "But horny again." She wriggled against him, drawing lazy circles on his chest with her fingertip. Cade caught her hand to lace his fingers with hers. "We don't have time, I wish we did, but we don't." Already his cock was stirring to life just at the thought, there was nothing he'd like more than to just flip her over and sink into her wet heat again. Lose himself in her for the rest of his life. He blinked in surprise at the thought. He wasn't the commitment type. So what gave? He shook his head and carried on. "Jimmy knows where you are." "What?" 44

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Fear and adrenalin hit Penny's system like a plane at Mach one. She shot off the sofa in a panic as though to flee straight away. Then she stopped, turning one way then the other in confusion. She couldn't just run, change to the wolf and flee into the night. She needed to pack, organize. "Shit," she cursed and ran her hands through her hair, distress evident in her eyes and the jerkiness of her movements. "Why didn't you say something straight away?" she demanded, grabbing some clean clothes from the laundry basket she'd dropped on the single chair earlier and starting to drag them on. She'd meant to iron them last night but hadn't had time with everything else she needed to get done before her heat phase. Luckily, most of her clothes were easy care, they barely needed ironing. She paused for a second then shook her head at her own thoughts. She'd just been told the wolf equivalent of the Godfather knew where she was, after she'd refused his offer of becoming his mate, and she was worried about a few wrinkles in her clothes? She needed a reality check and fast! Cade shrugged, still sprawled full length on the sofa, hands behind his head and seemingly unbothered about his nakedness. "You were in no shape to go anywhere, and we had time. I figure I'm about ten hours ahead of them, but we need to leave within the hour. Think you can manage that?" Penny nodded. To stay out of Jimmy's clutches she'd leave everything and go now. At a push, all she needed to do was grab her bag off the side in the kitchen as she left. Her whole life was in that bag—documents, license—there was no way she could leave without it. 45

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"Hell, yeah, we can leave now." She grabbed her battered sneakers and shoved her feet into them. She paused for a second as she laced them, looking up at him with curiosity on her face. "Why are you helping me?" she asked in confusion. "You've been outside the pack for years, why get involved? Jimmy would've left you alone if you had. But now, we're both dead if he catches up with us. Why would you risk it?" He rolled off the sofa to avoid her gaze. As a tactic, it worked well. Penny's attention was immediately hijacked by the grace of his movements, the sleek glide of powerful muscles under his skin. He grabbed his boxers and jeans from the floor where they'd been dropped hours before and pulled them on before he answered. "I know Jimmy's type. And I was in the neighborhood, so it wasn't any skin off my nose to warn you," he said nonchalantly. He left the top button of his jeans undone as he scouted about, looking for the rest of his clothing. Penny flicked him his t-shirt from off the counter, one eyebrow arching. "You were in the neighborhood? Right, like I believe that." She folded her arms over her chest, an act that just drew his interested gaze to her cleavage. "In case you hadn't noticed, this place is in the middle of bloody nowhere, which is why I picked it. So, 'just happened to be in the neighborhood' doesn't wash." The silence stretched between them as she waited, watching him, giving him 'the look,' the pointed one she'd inherited from her mother. 46

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He sighed, caving in. "Okay, I wasn't in the neighborhood." He paused to pull his shirt on, then headed across the floor to pick up his shoes. He leaned against the windowsill to pull them on. His eyes were serious as he looked back at her. "Jimmy's a nasty piece of work, I couldn't just do nothing. I won't let him get..." he paused, his expression shuttering, as though he'd given away too much. "Won't let him get...?" she prompted, but his expression was unyielding. Instinctively, she knew she wouldn't get anything else out of him on the subject. There was nothing as stubborn as a wolf at times. Then something he'd said registered, and she frowned. "So, what happened earlier?" "Earlier?" He leaned down to look out of the window. "Yeah. You were leaving? Said you didn't want to watch me with someone else." "Yeah, I didn't. What about it?" he asked, his attention still focused outside. Penny worried her lower lip, a habit she had when nervous or thinking. Why was she so concerned about this? Did it even matter? "Well, you were going to leave earlier, and you didn't say anything about Jimmy then..." she pointed out. Cade stilled, his hand on the window frame. "Ah..." His voice was wary, cautious. "Would you believe me if I said I'd have waited outside until your lover had gone, then come back and told you?" Penny felt her expression freeze. "Nope." He sighed. "Nah, neither would I. I'd probably have kneecapped the guy as soon as he arrived. Okay, I admit it, it was a ploy. I wanted you to come to me, make the choice about 47

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this." He motioned toward the counter, the sofa, the floor, every place they'd visited in their passion filled tour around the room. "A choice? You think that was a choice?" Penny blinked in surprise as she felt her temper begin to rise. "You storm in here, destroy the plans I had in place to deal with this, and leave me with no alternative but to screw your damn brains out. And you tell me you wanted me to make a choice." She all but yelled, her voice getting higher and higher pitched. "Penny, are you expecting anyone?" he interrupted, still looking out the window. "I was going to spend the weekend chained up naked in the basement," she pointed out, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Not really the dress code for a dinner party is it? Not unless I want to announce to all and sundry I'm a damn werewolf! And since I'm trying to avoid that, no I'm not expecting anyone. Why?" Cade turned from the window, the expression in his eyes making her catch her breath. Something was wrong, very, very wrong. "Because three SUVs just pulled up outside. They're here." "Oh shit," Penny breathed, fear filling her eyes. "Exactly." Cade grabbed her arm and pushed her ahead of him. "Out the back, now. If we're lucky we can change and go across country, lose them that way." He hustled her through the kitchen. Adrenalin surged through Penny's system, bringing the wolf nearly to the surface, ready to change as soon as they got outside. She gathered the wolf under her 48

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skin as Cade opened the door, all but running into his back as he stopped. "Hello Penny, thought you could outrun me?" [Back to Table of Contents]

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Chapter 4 Penny froze at the sound of the voice. It was the voice that haunted her nightmares. Low with a hint of menace, there was only one person who sounded like that. James Dexter, aka Big Jimmy, Alpha of the Roakestown Pack. "Hello Jimmy," she replied, poking Cade in the side to make him move. He did, albeit grudgingly, Penny needing a further firm push to make him realize she meant it. He moved less than a foot, his legs spread as he looked around the small backyard. A low growl emanated from low in his chest as, buried within, the hackles of his wolf rose. They were penned in. Jimmy leaned against the side of Penny's car and his enforcers formed a semi-circle blocking their escape. "You've been a naughty girl, Penny. I really thought you were more sensible than this," he chided, talking to her as though she were a small child who'd misbehaved. Tall and heavily built, he was a powerful wolf and a strong man, even if some of his muscle was beginning to turn to fat. For a wolf, that was just window dressing. "Yeah well, you just can't tell with some people," she replied flippantly. He hadn't looked at them yet as he was concentrating on rolling a smoke, his pudgy fingers working at the small white cylinder. "Let us go Jimmy, we're no threat to you," she tried. "You don't need to ever see us again." 50

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He looked up, and Penny knew they were lost. His eyes were flat, so dark they were almost black. And filled with hate and determination. "You really think it's that easy, Penny?" He pushed off from the car as his eyes flicked to Cade. He leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Oh, no, beautiful, that's not how it works. No one walks away from me. Ever." Penny swallowed, trying not to flinch away. "That's as far as you go buddy, touch her and loose a hand." Cade's voice deepened into a snarl. A warning that his wolf was close to the surface. Jimmy ignored him, his eyes fixed on Penny. A look that undressed her as it wandered down her body and back up again. It made her feel sick, dirty inside. "Deal with the pup," he ordered the men at his side, who smiled nastily and reached into their pockets. Tasers. One of the only things guaranteed to put a wolf down and proof of just how far Jimmy and his thugs had deviated from pack honor codes. No wolf used a taser on another, it just wasn't done. Penny screamed as the first one fired, catching Cade in mid leap, the lone wolf already beginning the change. In human form against five enforcers he had no chance, but as a wolf, an Alpha to the enforcer's Betas, the odds were slightly, but not much, better. But the tasers leveled the playing field, as more and more fired. Cade yelped as thousands of volts of electricity poured into his changing body. "No," Penny screamed, punching and kicking as Jimmy grabbed her, trying to fight past him to get to Cade. "Leave 51

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him alone," she demanded, landing heavy blows on the Alpha's chest and shoulders as he struggled to hold onto her. When that failed, his hard hands holding her despite her struggles, she turned and sank her teeth deep into the fleshy part of his hand. "You bitch." He snatched his hand back and shook it. Then his other fist descended, hitting Penny hard across the face and sending her into darkness. **** Penny slid in and out of the darkness, waking sharply and in pain only to be soothed back into blessed unconsciousness by the hum of an engine. She was in a moving vehicle. Cade was near her, and they were in terrible danger. But even the threat she could feel hanging over them like the sword of Damocles couldn't keep her awake for long. She slipped back into the darkness each time. Finally she woke, sharper headed, fighting the pull of sleep. She grimaced, feeling a dull ache in the side of her face. The reverberation of the vehicle seemingly trying to inscribe the pattern of the hard floor into the sensitive skin of her cheek. She winced and lifted her head, blinking into the blackness. Where were they? Obviously the back of a truck or something. She opened her eyes to blackness, struggling a little as panic started to worm its way in. Alarm that only deepened when she realized she was tied up, her arms secured behind her back and something tight wound around her ankles. 52

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The fog burned out of her brain. Jimmy must have hit her hard—hard enough that even her werewolf physiology was taking a while to counter the damage. Usually she healed most things within minutes. She shook her head and pulled on her bonds. They didn't move, not an inch of give in them, and she could feel a tingling against her skin she recognized. The ropes were warded. "Lycaon," she tried, careful to keep her voice under the hum of the engine. Nothing happened. Damn it! Jimmy must have changed the keyword. She dropped her forehead to the cold metal, the vibrations shaking through her skull and making her teeth chatter. "Cade? Are you all right?" She could feel a large male body next to her and knew from the scent it was Cade. An unmistakable scent she knew as well as her own, the musk of his wolf under the unique scent of his skin and the citrus and sandalwood of his aftershave. And blood. Old blood. She moaned in distress. He was injured, she didn't know how badly but it was obviously bad enough to be bleeding. At least he was breathing. She could hear the steady rhythm as he breathed in and out. Although, was that a slight rattle? She worried her lower lip, thoughts of cracked ribs and punctured lungs filling her mind. What if he needed her help? She struggled against the ropes, trying to free herself, desperate to get to him. All she succeeded in doing was rubbing her wrists raw and wearing herself out. She closed her eyes as the blackness swam up again and gave herself a firm talking to. Logic 53

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dictated if Cade was going to die from his injuries, he'd have done it whilst she was unconscious. Now, his breathing appeared to be settled, and his wolf had had time to work on the worst of the damage. There wasn't anything she could do in any case. She wasn't a doctor, or would a vet be more appropriate for a werewolf? Exhausted, she shuffled closer to Cade, careful not to lean against him in case she hurt him or did any more damage. The heat of his larger body was comforting, his scent wrapping around her. Resting her cheek on the cold metal again, Penny dropped into an uncomfortable sleep. **** "He's going to die you know. Tonight. I'm gonna kill him." Penny ignored the low voice that sounded over her shoulder, keeping her face blank and clear of emotion. Even when a sharp tug on chain attached to the collar around her throat jerked her back against Jimmy's legs as he sat, holding 'court' in the large common room of the old farmhouse that served as the Roakestown pack's base of operations. "Slowly, I think. Make you watch. Would you like that, Penny? Watch your new lover kill your old one?" he taunted, his voice a soft whisper. She ignored him, didn't say anything. She'd been stuck here, sitting at his feet wearing a collar and chain like some kind of dog since she'd been roughly woken and hauled from the back of the truck hours ago. It had taken four of them to get the collar and chain on her, and although her body was a mass of bruises and other hurts now, it felt good, damned 54

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good, not to have just let them chain her up. And she wasn't finished yet, as Jimmy was going to find out at some point soon. Because if she got near enough, and got the halfsecond window she needed to change in, she planned on ripping his throat out. An act that might kill her. In fact, it probably would kill her, in one way or another. Even fully shifted, Penny's wolf would be no match for Jimmy's. And she wasn't stupid enough to challenge him, to try and take him in a legal fight. An honorable fight. No, she'd need the element of surprise to get the drop on him. Even if she did somehow survive that, she was a dead wolf anyway. Pack law would demand her life. "You listening to me, Penny?" Jimmy asked, seeming to be a little put out at the lack of response from his captive. "Hmm, perhaps that just isn't sexy enough for you, not kinky enough. Is that what it is Penny, you want something kinkier?" His tone was contemplative. "Yeah, we need something big, something really big for tonight's festivities. It's not often we get to execute a feral." Penny kept her silence and suppressed the start that shot through her. He was claiming Cade was feral now, was he? Clever, very clever, but then Jimmy always had been. Right from taking over the Roakestown pack to this. No other pack would get involved or even look into the situation if they thought Cade had turned feral. It was each pack's responsibility to deal with the feral wolves in their area. Before they started hunting and killing. Since a feral wolf's favorite prey was humans, it tended to draw the attention of 55

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human authorities. And there wasn't a pack out there who wanted human scientists looking too closely at any wolf kills or, worse, werewolf remains. She sat still, thoughts and plans whirling around in her head as she assessed the wolves milling around in the common room. The pack was in even worse shape than when she'd left. Sad empty-eyed females waited soundlessly on the men, mostly the bruisers Jimmy had brought with him when he'd killed Jonathan, the old Alpha, and had taken over the pack. In fact, she thought with a frown as she looked around, she didn't see many, if any, of the original pack males. What had he done with them all? That wasn't the worst of it, though. As she watched, one guy reached out and groped the young girl handing him a beer, his handling so rough Penny winced in sympathy. That had to have hurt. But the girl didn't even flinch, nothing in her face or body language to say she'd even noticed. Penny's temper simmered higher. She recognized the girl. It was little Mary Beth, only just eighteen, and as innocent and naive as they came. Or she had been. Now she had the blank look of a victim who'd given up hope. "Yeah, something kinkier." Jimmy's voice held a new edge, an unhealthy interest and amusement that had chills chasing down Penny's spine. Whatever he was thinking, it wasn't going to be good. She was right. "I think a little show, eh, Penny love? Show him what he's missing out on. How about watching your new lover fuck you 56

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senseless. What do you say Penny? That kinky enough for you?" "You're a sick man," she spat back. "If you think I'll agree to that, or did you not understand the word 'No' the first time I said it?" She felt rather than saw his shrug, the chair behind her shifting as he sat back. "Makes no difference to me whether you agree or not sweetheart," he said quietly. "You don't even have to be conscious for me, although I admit it would be nice to see the horror in your eyes as I shove my cock into your tight little body. But not as nice as seeing the terror when I gut your lover in front of you." Fear froze her in place as he heaved himself to his feet, dragging her bodily to her feet by the wide collar around her neck. He stared into her eyes, amusement and darker things she didn't want to recognize, much less name, swimming in his. "Err, boss?" A voice said hesitantly behind her. "Piss off, I'm busy," he snarled, not bothering to look up. "I'm sorry boss, but you really need to see this, Graham and Terry are scrapping behind the sheds again..." Jimmy sighed deeply, irritation flashing in his eyes. "For fucks sake ... do I have to do everything around here?" He threw her chain to one of his bulldog enforcers. "Chuck her in the basement with lover boy. Let 'em have some time together. Face it, it'll be the last chance they get." Dragged across the room, the wolves jeering and catcalling didn't terrorize her now that Jimmy had disappeared. No, these Betas weren't worth worrying over. They were all 57

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degenerates who would only find a place in a pack when someone like Jimmy was the Alpha. No other self-respecting pack would do anything other than drive them out, or teach them the error of their ways. She managed to keep to her feet despite the vicious yanking on the chain from the wolf ahead of her, the expression in his beady little eyes telling her she'd fare a lot worse down in the basement if Jimmy hadn't already claimed her as his. He hauled her along the rough dirt floor, opening a door at the end of the corridor. "In there bitch, and keep quiet. We're trying to watch the game upstairs." He shoved her through and slammed the door shut behind her. She stumbled in the darkness, catching her breath as she landed in a heap, her ankle twisted underneath her. But the pain was forgotten as a familiar scent hit her nostrils and a voice asked from the shadows. "Penny?" "Oh, my God. Cade! Are you okay? What did they do to you? You're bleeding." She babbled, scrambling through the darkness towards his voice. She'd never been more pleased to hear anyone in her whole life, not even her mother after Penny had been in hospital when she was eleven years old. She collided with a warm male body, his hiss warning her to be careful, even if his reply was typically male. "It's just a scratch, nothing to worry about," he assured her, his big hands swept over her, checking her. They stopped on the heavy collar, the chain clinking as his hand swept along it. "He chained you up like some kind of animal?" 58

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His voice was little more than a low growl in the darkness. "The bastard!" Penny shrugged, not bothered about that now as his fingers moved on the collar, undoing the heavy buckle. She sighed in relief as it dropped away, then rubbed at the abused skin underneath. "Thank you," she whispered, "And it doesn't matter, at least I know you're okay." Her night sight kicked in. She could now make out details in the room. Like the corridor outside, it had a dirt floor. One she remembered was prone to flooding at times. Indeed, one corner was currently occupied by a large puddle. In the other was a tangled pile of blankets that looked suspiciously like the pile in Penny's basement. "They've been keeping someone down here," she murmured, her hands on Cade's arms. Just the feel of him, the tactile contact, was reassuring, and she could almost feel her blood pressure dropping. "Not just that." Cade nodded towards the shelves behind the door. Penny's eyes widened. Harnesses and chains of every description hung from hooks next to whips and other things Penny didn't even want to think about. "And I'll bet the people in those don't have much say in the matter. Jimmy's one sick little puppy." She nodded soundlessly, remembering Mary Beth's blank look. "More than likely. Cade, there are people missing. Some of the pack are gone." To her dismay, her voice wavered as tears threatened. It hurt to see what Jimmy had done to the pack. She might not have had any choice about joining it, 59

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about becoming a wolf, but under Jonathan it had been a good pack. A decent pack. Now it was just a bunch of bullies, the monsters they were made out to be in films. It shouldn't be like that. "And those that are left, it's like they're dead inside. There's nothing in their eyes. Just blankness." "Shh." Cade pulled her into the warmth of his body and stroked her hair. She fit so easily against him, so naturally ... He suppressed a moan. She was his mate and he couldn't protect her. Inside his wolf raged and paced, wanting to fight. Emotion overcame him as he pressed his lips to her hair, closed his eyes as he felt the fine trembling in her limbs. She was trying so hard to be brave, but her body and her scent gave her away. He could tell from her voice she was close to tears, so he did the only thing he could think of. Taking her hand, he urged her toward the blankets in the corner and pulled her down into his lap. "We'll get out of this." She curled up trustingly around him, making him grit his teeth as her lusciously rounded ass pressed right against his hardening cock. Hell, she was the one supposed to be in heat, not him. But he couldn't even touch her without developing a raging hard-on. "Sorry," he murmured, a little embarrassed. Locked up in a basement awaiting whatever hideous fate Jimmy had in store for them, now was not the time or the place. "It's okay. I don't mind." She wriggled against him to get comfortable, her head against his shoulder.

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Cade held his breath and started to count to ten, praying for strength. Each wiggle was delicious torture. Adding to the torment he was under just breathing in her scent. "I'm sorry sweetheart, you're killing me here." He tilted her chin up. "Just a kiss, I promise. I just need to taste you again." His voice was ragged, filled with need. "We'll hear if anyone comes." She nodded, her beautiful eyes wide and trusting. Cade groaned, he couldn't wait any longer. He leaned down, his lips covering hers gently. She sighed, a soft sound lost in his mouth as he teased her lips open to explore the sweet inner recesses of her mouth. His tongue plundered, sliding along hers, slow and sensual. A total contrast to his usual technique. Usually he liked it hard and fast, taking control quickly and keeping it that way. But then, usually this was about sex, physical fulfillment with the minimum of emotional involvement. Zero, zip, nada. Usually. But not now, not this time. All Cade could think about was reassuring the slender woman in his arms. He couldn't offer her forever, hell, he didn't even know what was going to happen in an hour's time. But right at this moment, he'd give everything he had to offer her comfort. As any man would for the woman he loved. Loved? Did he love her? Could he love her already after only knowing her, really knowing her, for a few hours? Cade had never believed in love at first sight before, but as he sat in the darkness of a basement cell with a woman he'd die for, he had to admit it was a distinct possibility. 61

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His musings didn't last long, Penny's gentle response fired him up. The kiss got hotter, wetter as she shifted in his lap to straddle him. Cade spread his legs, rocking his hips gently against hers. "Baby, you're driving me mad," he whispered as she pushed his jaw to the side, exploring along his neck with hot little kisses, her wicked little tongue teasing his earlobe seconds before her sharp teeth nipped it. "We have to stop. We can't. Not here." "Damn it," Penny murmured, dropping her forehead to rest against his shoulder. She pushed against the bulge in his jeans. She whimpered a little as it pressed right where she needed it; her body ached for him as her heat-driven need built again. Even locked in a basement waiting who knew what, it wasn't giving her a break. "I need you ... so much. It hurts," she whispered. "I didn't think the heat would be this bad. Please Cade?" She smoothed her hands over his bare skin, just the feel of him a potent aphrodisiac. He flinched a little as she touched his ribcage, and she bit her lip in worry. She'd forgotten he was injured. "Oh crap, are you okay? Am I too heavy? I can get off." She started to swing her leg over him. Hard hands clamped down on her hips, pressing her back down into his lap. "Oh, no, doll, you're not going anywhere. I'm not that injured. I'll never be that injured." "If you're sure." She leaned down and brushed her lips against his. 62

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It only took seconds to deal with her jeans, sliding them down her legs. Then she was straddling him again. She settled back down with a little murmur of pleasure, rocking her hips against his. "I didn't want to take anything else off," she admitted, motioning to her shirt and skimpy panties. "Just in case." Cade sat up with her in his lap, his large hand sliding over the front of her thighs. "Not a problem, we can work around them." As good as his word, his fingers slid under the cotton of her underwear, pushing the material aside as he stroked along her sensitive flesh. Penny's eyelids drooped, the single brush making her pussy clench hard, wanting more, far more. "You're already wet." He nuzzled her neck "Wet and ready for me. Let me loose, Penny." His order sent arousal spiraling through her as she reached down to the fastening on his jeans. Her hands trembled, making it difficult to open the snaps and slide down the zipper, but she managed. His stiff cock all but leapt from its confinement, filling her hand. She slid her fingers around him, exploring him again. The first time she hadn't been able to take everything in. It had been a rush of sensations and emotions. But now, she took her time. He felt so good, all hot skin and hardness. His musky, aroused scent tantalized her senses and calmed the wolf within. His mere presence a balm, where she'd strained and snarled whenever Jimmy had touched her. The wolf didn't like Jimmy. Her wolf had never accepted a man as it had Cade. There was a lesson in that somewhere, but Penny was too 63

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distracted with what she was doing to think about it, sweeping her thumb over the sensitive head of his cock. His flesh jumped in her hand, throbbing with life. "Two can play at that game." His mouth claimed her with a kiss while his hand slid over her sensitive flesh, his clever fingers teasing and circling her clit, spreading the moisture of her own desire over her heated flesh. Her eyes rolled back in her head, her breathing caught in her chest as her heart pounded. She needed him so badly. Needed to sink down over the hard cock in her hand and impale herself on it until he filled her completely. She smiled as, unlike a child in a sweet shop, she realized she could have exactly what she wanted. Shifting her hips, she moved her hand, angling him as she sank down. The swollen head of his erection pressed against the opening to her body, and she bit her lip, feeling her pussy stretching around him to accommodate his width. Feeling wicked, she just took the head into her body, stopping and circling her hips as she watched his face. His jaw clenched, a look of near pain crossing his features as she teased him. "You like that?" "Witch." Penny sank all the way down, taking him deeper until she felt him pressing against places inside her she'd never felt before. Her eyes locked with his, she saw every nuance, every expression and flare of desire that crossed his face as she rode him. The pleasure was intense. Even though their gentle movements were slower, less desperate than their encounter 64

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before, it was somehow hotter and sweeter. Wrapped around each other, looking deep into each other's eyes as they moved, it was the most intense thing Penny had ever known. She shivered, a long slow movement that travelled through her entire body as she closed her eyes, giving herself up to the moment. Her hands stroked over his shoulders and back as they moved together, the only sound in the room the slide of skin on skin and the soft sounds of their moans. It was more than sex, it was comfort as well, each seeking something from the other. A means of forgetting the precarious situation they were in. Forgetting what might happen later, the blackness of the future. A future they wouldn't be sharing together if the wolves upstairs had anything to do with it. Sadness welled within Penny as she held Cade. Two days ago she'd have laughed if anyone told her she'd be considering, no, desperate to take a mate, live with one man for the rest of her life. But that was before Cade had come storming into her basement and shouted demands at her. Now she never wanted to let him go. Her release, when it came, was bittersweet. Lazy pleasure surging through her and arching her back as her body gripped his, milking his hardness deep inside her. His cry mingled with hers as he stiffened, arms tightening around her as his cock surged deep within her, pulsed as he found his own release. Penny closed her eyes, resting her head on his shoulder as the aftershocks rippled through them. And wished the moment could go on forever. [Back to Table of Contents] 65

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Chapter 5 Moonlight filtered through the leaves overhead, casting a mosaic of silvery light across the woodland path that shifted and danced as the leaves rustled softly in the breeze. It reminded Penny of the patterns in an old-fashioned kaleidoscope, always changing. They'd fascinated her as a child. Catching her toe on a rock half buried in the dirt Penny stumbled, only to be hauled upright by a sharp tug on the chain attached to the collar around her throat. It had been refastened as soon as she'd been hauled out of the basement cell with Cade, and she hadn't fought it this time. She'd need her strength later. Another pull. She winced and wrapped her hands around the chain, trying to ease the pressure on the tender skin of her throat as she glared at the broad back of the enforcer who held the other end of the leash. May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your asshole. She didn't like this one. She didn't like any of them, but this guy was particularly vicious. Andy? Adrian? Something like that, she wasn't sure. Not that she cared. All she wanted to do was get out of here. But that was so not going to happen, not with both her and Cade in chains. Cade's virtually covered him, making it difficult to walk as the small group of wolves headed deeper into the woods behind the farmhouse. She could see him just ahead of her and her little friend with the chain. Cade's shoulders slumped, and he 66

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shuffled along favoring his left side. Blood covered his t-shirt, and Penny was pretty sure he had broken ribs. They had to be busted good and proper if his werewolf physiology hadn't managed to clear them up. Guilt surged through her, she bit her lip. They shouldn't have made love. However, she knew if given the choice, she'd make the same one again. Just to touch him, those precious moments hoarded against whatever Jimmy had in store for them. But it couldn't have helped Cade any. No matter how gentle they'd been, stomach muscles were used for most things. A fact she knew from past experience, having had to have surgery for a small hernia a couple of years before. She'd not been able to drive for a few weeks, and had even had to be careful with performing everyday tasks for a few days as her wound healed. Now of course, it wouldn't be an issue. Wolves didn't suffer with things like hernias, and besides, her healing rate would cause an uproar if human doctors managed to document it. Fear and nausea ate at her gut as she trudged along the narrow woodland path. She was careful to keep within the chain's length, knowing that if it went taut, Andy would yank on it again, hoping to bring her to her knees. Which would then give him an excuse to haul her upright and see the wince she made as the abused and bruised skin of her throat objected. She knew where they were going. She'd taken this path many times in the past, during happier times. Deep in the woods behind the farmhouse lay the challenge circle, a rough circle of stones in a glade where challenges were issued and 67

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met according to pack law. The darkness of the woods around them held the lair, a collection of caves they used during the full moon when they were in wolf form and the pack ran together. These days Penny supposed it was just another place for Jimmy to hold his orgies. A feeling that was confirmed as the group reached the circle of trees. Penny's nose wrinkled. What had once been a beautiful scene of nature had been ruined, turned into a rubbish dump. Litter lay scattered around the glade. Broken beer bottles and crushed cans were the main offenders, with discarded food packets and cigarette ends coming a close second. Dirty and ragged sleeping bags and duvets were clustered together, the scent rising from them made Penny gag. She didn't even want to think about what they'd been used for, but the smell assaulted her nostrils anyway. "Throw the feral into the circle," Jimmy, at the head of the group, ordered. He lowered his bulk into a battered camp chair set at the 'head' of the circle, in front of the main cave entrance. Sitting next to an icebox, this area at least was free of litter. "And bring the bitch here." Penny cried out as Cade was shoved roughly into the circle, the enforcer's tasers connecting with his already battered side. He paled, his jaw compressing, but he didn't make a sound. His eyes were fixed on Jimmy. They held a cold hard look that made Penny shiver. This was not the gentle lover from earlier. Even though he looked identical, the man crouched in the circle was a stranger. Her shiver seemed to be catching, passing to Jimmy as he dragged her to him. Against her will, her hand reached out to 68

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steady herself against his denim clad knee. A strange expression flashed in his deep set eyes for a moment, then he laughed. A deep chilling laugh with an edge that grated on Penny's nerves. "Why the long faces?" Jimmy demanded, his voice boomed around the clearing. "Come on lads, this is a party! We've got beer, women, and entertainment. Speaking of which—let's get this show on the road." He looked around, as if assessing the wolves sprawled on blankets and in camping chairs who watched the proceedings with eager expressions. Ready for an evening of blood and cruelty. Penny flinched and tried to move away as Jimmy's hand descended and stroked her back. He didn't so much as look at her, but the chain tightened. A warning. She gritted her teeth and sat still, enduring his touch. "Hmm..." The Alpha said, the chair creaking under his butt as he sat back. "Brandon, you're up. Just leave some for the rest of us, 'k?" This was so not good it wasn't even funny. Cade swayed on his feet as the first wolf stepped into the challenge circle. He knew what was going on. Jimmy had named him feral, which meant his ass was anyone's. Physically and sexually if there were any wolves inclined that way here. They seemed more the homophobic sort though, which was good for Cade, but wasn't going to save him from a good old-fashioned beating. To death. He faced the challenger and raised his fists. He made sure to waver a little on his feet, the guard a little lower than it 69

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should have been, as though his injuries were too bad to mount a proper defense. He was injured, yes, but not as badly as he was making out, or as he'd made out to Penny. A stab of guilt impaled his heart for deceiving her, the raw fear on her face as she watched what was going on piled even more on his head. He couldn't help it, he needed her reactions to be genuine. She was too open, too honest to lie convincingly, especially in a situation like this. And he needed Jimmy and his pet wolves to buy this too badly to risk it. "Oh yeah, gonna be some hurtin' going on now," Brandon crowed, his snaggle-toothed grin cocky as he danced around Cade, showing off with some fast jabs and fancy moves. "Might as well give it up old man, you ain't gettin' out of here alive." Cade dodged, faking a punch, and making it look like a sheer fluke he was managing to stay out the kid's range. Carefully he circled, keeping up his pretence and letting the kid land a few whilst making sure he stayed well out of range of the taser-armed enforcers at the edge of the circle. Those bastards were just waiting for an excuse to shock him again. His teeth still ached from the going over he'd gotten outside Penny's house. Lord knows how many volts it had taken to put him down. Bloody cowards, not one of them could take him on in a fair fight. All he had to do was hang in and stay on his feet, wait for Jimmy to enter the circle. Something Cade knew wasn't going to happen until Jimmy's bully boys had smacked the living shit, as well as the fight, out of his already battered body. Even with the aid of his wolf, the channel open wider than 70

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usual to give him the strength and speed of the beast without changing and losing his humanity, this was going to be one hell of a tough evening. "Not so 'ard now are ya?" Brandon grinned, having managed to land his third punch of the bout, a solid right hook that snapped Cade's head back and to the side. Cade hissed as the impact stung, even though he'd rolled with it. Right, he'd had enough of this one now. He stumbled away and dropped to the grass. As he did, he flipped and spun. His foot snapped out, smashing into the front of the kid's knee. It was a powerful kick, one with Cade's entire weight and momentum behind it. The thing about a human knee was that it was designed to bend one way. Once it was locked straight, that was it. There was no give in it. Cade's kick however, took Brandon's knee to entirely new and unnatural angles, shattering the joint as it bent the wrong way with a hideous crack. "Argh, fuckin' hell. Me knee. Me knee," Brandon wailed, rolling around on the dirt, his hands fluttering uselessly in the direction of the ruined joint. Cade staggered to his feet, he should get an award for his play acting here, and lurched towards the kid as though to try and finish him off. "Gerrof! Gerrimoffme!" Brandon squealed, even though Cade hadn't gotten anywhere near him. His eyes were wide as he tried to scramble away, a moan of pain on his lips as he jarred his knee. Cade hid his smile as the bully boys stepped in, waving tasers in his direction as they recovered the kid. When Cade fought, he fought dirty. That knee break was a nasty, complex one. One designed to slow even a wolf down, 71

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as the body tried to heal the break with all the pieces in the wrong places. It would need to be re-broken and put back together by a doctor. "Steve, you're up." Jimmy grunted from behind Cade. And that was the way it carried on. A wolf would enter the circle, Cade would let them land a few blows and gradually maneuver them into a position where he could hurt them— badly. But he wouldn't kill them, not yet. An outright kill and he was toast. He'd seen the Sigs the enforcers were packing, ten to one they were loaded for wolf. Even he couldn't shrug off silver-coated lead. He stood back as the last wolf was dragged out of the circle whimpering in pain and clutching at his shattered arm. Broken in three places, two of them joints, it was maximum damage without actually ripping the limb off. "Enough," Cade went still as Jimmy rose from his chair, his deep set beady eyes fixed on Cade. "I think sunnyjim here has been holding out on us, haven't you Mister Steele?" he growled, throwing the chain to Penny's collar to the hulk standing next to him. "Hold the bitch." He turned to look at Cade as he removed the dirty plaid shirt covering his bulk. "You wanna play with a real wolf, Steele? Well, I'm right here." Cade's lips curled back in a snarl as Jimmy stepped into the circle. He dropped the punch drunk act, and snapped his fists up into a low guard. "Bring it on," he growled. The two men circled each other warily. Despite his bulk, Jimmy was light on his feet as some large men could be, and he had a wide mean streak. Cade locked eyes with the Alpha 72

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and realized something else. Jimmy wasn't afraid. He was confident he could beat Cade. Which was a distinct possibility. The first of Jimmy's lightening fast attacks took him by surprise, a mean jab that all but spread his nose over his face, pain exploding as his head rocked back. "Shit." Cade wheeled away, wiping the blood from his face with the back of his hand. "There's far more where that came from pretty boy, and you're getting it all." There was glee in Jimmy's eyes as he attacked in earnest. Cade backed up and blocked quickly, far more alert now than he had been with the other wolves. Jimmy was a nasty piece of work, the smallest mistake would mean it was all over. For him, for Penny, and for the abused members of the pack. However, staying out of the big Alpha's reach was easier said than done. Cade was bruised and tired, whereas Jimmy hadn't been attacked with tasers and baseball bats, and also hadn't spent an uncomfortable few hours drifting in and out of consciousness. No such luck, Jimmy was well rested and had the energy of a pup on his first hunt. A fact he was using to his advantage as he systematically wore Cade down. The twinkle in his eyes said he knew all about the exhaustion weighing Cade's limbs down and sapping his strength. It was impossible to completely avoid Jimmy's fists. Pain flared over Cade's body as he abandoned staying out of the way, and instead went for trying to take minimum damage. 73

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All the time he was looking for that one opening, the opening that would end the fight. His breathing grew ragged as he got hit again, trying to roll with the punch and ending up on his knees instead. He shook his head and clambered to his feet. But he was a fraction too slow, a heavy weight crashed into his back, nearly pile-driving his face into the dirt. The air left his lungs as a hard arm wrapped around his throat, pulling his neck back so far Cade's vertebrae squeaked under the pressure. Jimmy grunted behind him, hauling him around to face Penny, her horrified face filling his vision as the edges of his world turned dark. "Take a good last look, pretty boy," Jimmy taunted in a low voice, his breath warm against Cade's ear. "Cause when I'm done with you, I'm gonna fuck her, good and proper. Make her scream under me. How do you feel about me screwing the bitch carrying your pups senseless? In fact, we might just share her around, make a night of it before I rip those pups right out of her soft belly." Penny was pregnant ... carrying his pups. Time froze for Cade, his world tilting on its axis. Those words, that moment, changed his life forever. How Jimmy knew didn't matter, some wolves had such acute senses of smell they could tell you what you had for lunch three weeks ago last Tuesday just by your sweat. Pups. His pups. A low snarl started in the middle of Cade's chest at the realization that he had more to lose than just his own life. He 74

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had Penny and their pups. He was going to be a father, and damned if he was going to fall at the first bloody hurdle. Fury pounded through his veins, driven by determination as his snarl deepened, became a full-throated howl of rage. Then Cade did the unthinkable. He opened himself fully to the wolf, not just the narrow channel as he'd been taught. As all wolves were taught at puberty or when they were bitten. Just a little, never let the wolf gain control because he will never back down. But Cade didn't want to back down. He pushed the door to his inner being wider, throwing it open and meeting his beast head on. Energy surged through him as he flipped Jimmy, easily, shaking the heavier man off as he rolled and changed. Terrified on the sidelines, Penny caught her breath. Bones popped and cracked, skin receded as fur exploded over it. Within seconds, the man was gone and a huge grey wolf stood eye to eye with the visibly shaking Alpha. Penny's eye ran over the heavy lupine form, the thick coat, in awe. He was magnificent. She'd never seen any wolf change so fast, not even an Alpha. "Someone, do something," Jimmy shrieked, but it was already too late. Even as the goons started to pull their guns, Cade leaped. His powerful legs bunched under him, claws scrabbling for purchase as the nearly three hundred-pound wolf launched himself at the gibbering man. There was no time for Jimmy to change before Cade was on him. His teeth flashed white in the gloom as they sank deep into Jimmy's multiple chins. Terrified screams of pain filled the air, followed by the tearing of flesh and a horrible 75

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wet gurgling sound. Penny winced and looked away as the wolf tore the front of Jimmy's throat out, then dropped the heavy gobbet of flesh on the floor, curling his lips back as though it were diseased. The ultimate insult. Teeth flashed again, and the snapping of bone filled the clearing. The horrible gurgle stopped as though a switch had been flicked. Penny opened her eyes and looked around. It was like a scene out of a pantomime. All of Jimmy's buddies, his wolves and enforcer's, were standing open mouthed. All eyes were on the huge form of the wolf who had just torn out their leader's throat. Who, even now, stood over Jimmy's still warm body watching them. Slowly Cade's lips curled back into a snarl. His warning was clear. The next wolf to move was a dead wolf. "Fuck it, man, this is too much." The bully boy next to Penny dropped her chain and backed away, shaking his head. "I was only here 'cause he was a buddy." He made a break for it, crashing through the darkness into the trees. It was like opening a floodgate. All around the clearing, beer bottles hit the ground as Jimmy's wolves lost their nerve and ran for their lives with their tails between their legs. In the middle of the circle Cade threw back his head and howled. A howl of ownership and warning. A howl that said he was Alpha here and any wolf who tried to cross him would share Jimmy's fate. He dropped his head, his massive chest 76

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heaving as he panted. Then, almost gracefully, he collapsed into a heap by his enemy's corpse. "Cade!" Penny screamed, her heart in her throat as she tore the collar off and raced to his side. Frantically she checked him over, trying to locate a pulse or something, but in her panic not finding anything. He was dead. But how? A wail escaped her, and she buried her face into the thick fur of his neck, weeping as her heart broke. [Back to Table of Contents]

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Epilogue He woke slowly, the world coming back to him in increments. First warmth surrounded him, and he stretched out, feeling comfortable and contented. Crisp sheets brushed against his skin as the soft weight of a feather duvet pressed down on him. He sighed and rolled onto his side, wanting nothing more than to wrap the duvet around him and doze for a while. But something tugged at him, something niggled in the back of his brain. There was something he'd forgotten, something important. Sound followed next, the sounds of someone, several someones moving around in other parts of the house. House? What house? Where was he? Startled into full consciousness, Cade sat upright, blinking as his eyes focused. The fight. He looked around, recognizing one of the rooms in the pack farmhouse. It had always been a bolt hole, a place where new wolves were integrated into the pack, and a stopover for others who just felt the need for the company of people like themselves. Usually it was the Alpha's residence as well, and with a shock Cade realized that was him. He'd killed Jimmy. "You're awake!" He snapped his head around to find a girl hovering in the doorway, her large doe-like eyes fixed on him. As soon as he met them, she flushed and dropped her gaze. "I'll get Penny," she murmured, disappearing from the doorway before Cade could utter a word. 78

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He shook his head as he swung his legs out of the bed then realized he was naked. Swiftly, he pulled the duvet back over his lap in case the girl came back. Last thing he wanted to do was flash some poor unsuspecting girl and get accused of sexual harassment or something. Jimmy might not have cared about the ages or well-being of his pack, but Cade wasn't Jimmy, and he did. He ran a hand through his close cropped hair; he so wasn't ready to take on a pack. But he had no choice. He'd killed Jimmy, killed the previous pack Alpha, which meant he had to replace him. That or leave what was left of the Roakestown pack open to whatever dominant wolf breezed in. Possibly even someone worse than Jimmy, hard as that was to imagine. "Cade." The delighted shriek gave him scant warning as a warm and very curvy body hit him in the chest, toppling them both back onto the bed. "Hello, Little Wolf," he said with a smile, smoothing Penny's hair back from her temple and looking up into her beaming face. "Hello, yourself. Do you always sleep so much?" Worry and concern chased after happiness over her expressive heartshaped face. "How do you feel? Are you hungry?" "Whoa. Slow down there a little," he ordered, his hand sliding into the hair at the nape of her neck and drawing her down for a long, slow kiss. A kiss that spoke of new beginnings and a shared future. A kiss that held a promise he intended to fulfill as soon as physically possible, his lips and tongue slowly explored her soft mouth. With a sigh of regret 79

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he pulled away and looked at her. "Now I'm fine, so how about you fill me in on what's happened." A slow smile spread over her face, happiness practically oozing out of her pores until he could smell it on her skin. Any worry he might have had about how she felt carrying his pups after a heat-driven encounter eased a little, but he still kept his silence, wanting her to say the words. To say she wanted him in her life, wanted him to be around for her and the pups. Some female wolves didn't. "So? You any good with home decorating?" she asked, a delicate eyebrow raised as she drew the moment out a little longer, trying to make him ask, say the words. He played dumb, shrugging as he rolled her over. Already he could smell the slight difference in her scent, at least two others crowding in. His nose wrinkled slightly as he assessed the scents, then he grinned. "I'm damn good at hanging wallpaper. Especially pink nursery wallpaper. That do you?" Penny didn't answer, not with words anyway, but reached up to pull him down for a kiss. A kiss that held all the answers he needed. [Back to Table of Contents]

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About Mina Carter Mina Carter can be found exploring in the middle of the English countryside with her real-life hero and their young daughter ... the true boss of the family. As a successful businesswoman, Mina never tires of learning new skills, qualified in such fields as Aromatherapy, welding and corsetry. She juggles full-time mumhood, running a family business and writing, tossing another ball in the air with her cover artwork. For her, writing time is the wee hours of the morning or any spare minute that can be begged, bought or conned. Her first stories were penned at age 11, when she used a stationery set meant for Christmas thank you letters to write stories instead. More recently, she wrote for her own amusement to save on outrageous monthly book bills, as well as for the masses of friends on her doorstep demanding longer stories. Now you'll find her reading and writing original worlds where the paranormal is everyday and romance is a must. Mina's website: mina-carter.com [Back to Table of Contents]

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