ALSO BY SUZANNE WRIGHT
From Rags
THE DEEP IN YOUR VEINS SERIES
Here Be Sexist Vampires
The Bite That Binds
Taste of Torment
Consumed
THE PHOENIX PACK SERIES
Feral Sins
Wicked Cravings
Carnal Secrets
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2015 Suzanne Wright
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Montlake Romance, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake Romance are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781477828748
ISBN-10: 1477828745
Cover design by Jason Blackburn
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014955194
For: ______________
(Please sign your name)
Thanks so much for buying this book. Seriously, you’re amazing.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHAPTER ONE
Opening your eyes to find that you’re upside down can’t be good, can it?
Through the cobwebs clouding her mind, Roni Axton realized that it wasn’t just she who was upside down. The car had toppled over.
Well, that sucked. Clearly the fuck-up fairy had made an appearance.
Strangely, Roni felt no rush of panic, no fear. And despite that she was pretty sure her head was bleeding, there was no pain. There was only a feeling of weightlessness. Even the fact that her wolf was frantic didn’t disturb Roni in this dreamlike moment.
Her brain distantly registered that the car kept leaning sideways, as if something was repeatedly pulling at it. But it was the various sounds that penetrated her mental fog: low moans, a phone ringing, a child crying, and strange voices arguing.
Sensing that the ringtone and the moans were coming from her left, Roni turned her head to find a male wolf shifter in the driver’s seat, eyes closed. Tao. Huh. Odd that the Phoenix Pack’s Head Enforcer was with her. She rarely hung out with anyone outside her pack. In truth, Roni counted very few people as friends.
Sadly, she was very like her brother, Alpha of their recently formed Mercury Pack, in that she found social situations uncomfortable. In Nick’s case, it was because he didn’t like most people. In Roni’s case, it was because most people didn’t like her. Even when she was a kid, she’d found making friends difficult, especially at school. It was kind of hard to fit in when you were a tomboy with a higher IQ than that of your teachers.
It probably made things worse that she didn’t “get” her own gender. But she just didn’t see the appeal behind constantly gossiping, shopping endlessly, asking deep personal questions, or having different lotions for different body parts.
Roni was more comfortable around guys, particularly her two brothers and her Beta male, Derren. Men didn’t care that she wasn’t a people pleaser, or that she didn’t know how to satisfy social niceties, or that she preferred chocolate to living beings of any species. The only female she thought of as a friend was her Alpha female, Shaya, who—
A succession of memories suddenly hit Roni hard: Shaya singing to a toddler in the backseat, Tao playfully grumbling about the noise, the sound of tires screeching, an unexpected impact to the side of the vehicle, a blow to her head that made everything go black.
Grasping onto those threads of memory, Roni remembered how she had escorted Shaya—who was two months pregnant—on a daytrip to the zoo with Shaya’s godson, Kye, and his bodyguard, Tao. The Alpha female had wanted a break from Nick and his extreme overprotectiveness. It was during the drive back to Phoenix Pack territory when a car had slammed into theirs.
And then she’d gone and passed out like a girl. How embarrassing.
Blinking rapidly, she swiveled her head as much as she could. She might have winced at the sharp pain that lanced through her neck if she hadn’t been distracted by the fact that Shaya wasn’t in the backseat beside a still crying Kye. That was when Roni noticed the female body sprawled like a ragdoll on the grass a few feet away from the vehicle. Fuck.
The dreamy quality of the moment disappeared as reality crashed into Roni, and her wolf howled in fear and rage. One word dominated Roni’s thoughts: out. She had to get out.
Forcing a reassuring smile for Kye, who was squirming in his safety seat and reaching for her, she crooned, “It’s okay, little man. Give me a second and I’ll—”
The car wobbled sideways again. “This crowbar is a piece of shit!” griped an unfamiliar voice.
“Hurry up!” ordered an equally unfamiliar voice. “We don’t have much time before someone shows up. Coleman and Axton will sense through their pack links that something’s wrong with their wolves.”
The stranger was right about that: she could sense Nick’s rage and anxiety. She could also sense Shaya through the pack link; she was alive, but unconscious.
“I can’t open the door, it’s jammed.”
A growl. “Move. I’ll do it.” The car swayed again. That was when Roni understood what was happening. Someone was yanking at one of the rear door handles, trying desperately to get inside . . . trying to get to . . . Kye. Oh, the fuck no.
Roni awkwardly fought to unclip her seatbelt. It eventually snapped open, and she cried out at the sensation of falling onto a bed of glass. She shelved the pain as she righted herself and began to slide toward the backseat on her stomach. “Tao, wake up! Get to Shaya!” All she received was another moan.
“Shit! One of them is awake!” Rather than flee, the strangers redoubled their efforts to open the door.
Their efforts paid off.
Just as the top half of Roni’s body wriggled through the gap between the seats, the door was yanked open, and a tanned arm reached for Kye.
Roni unsheathed her claws and sliced at the limb, causing it to flinch away. Her wolf growled her approval. “I swear to God, if any part of your body tries to touch him again, you won’t get it back intact!”
“You bitch!” Two arms reached inside this time, both sporting claws of their own. One set of claws acted as a barricade between her and Kye while the other set cut through the belt that secured Kye’s safety seat to the car. In a lightning fast motion, the arms caught him before he and his seat could crash to the floor.
Roni stabbed her claws through one long, muscled arm, past bone, and all the way into the rear seat, pinning the arm in place. He howled in pain, hurling obscenities at her. Well, she had warned him; he’d chosen to ignore her, so there was really no need for that kind of language.
With her free hand, Roni worked Kye’s belt open. His little body toppled out of the safety seat and onto her outstretched arm. If her wolf could have sighed in relief, she would
have. Curling her arm around him, Roni pulled him tight against her body. Only then did she release the would-be-kidnapper from the grip of her claws.
She was feeling a hint of victory when someone grabbed a fistful of her hair from behind. Turning her head as much as the strong grip would allow, she realized that the second male had come at her from the other side of the car. He held her in place by her hair while the other shifter frantically struggled to drag Kye from her grasp. The toddler was wailing and clinging tightly to her, absolutely terrified. When two large hands got a firm grip on his little waist, panic bit into her. No, no, she wouldn’t let—
Her hair was suddenly released, and a scream mingled with a familiar animal growl that meant Shaya had shifted into her wolf form. While Roni was relieved that she was conscious again, Roni did not want the pregnant female, ruthless or not, fighting a male shifter.
“Don’t shift!” the other male yelled. “A car’s coming!”
Footsteps thudded along the ground as the two males disappeared from view. Seconds later, there was the sound of a car speeding away, and a heavy sense of relief surged through Roni.
Hearing Shaya’s wolf pawing at the vehicle, whining, Roni assured her, “We’re fine.” But, really, Roni wasn’t fine. Her head was now throbbing, her body ached in several places, and her vision was starting to blur and darken. If she passed out again, she would be seriously unhappy. Dominant females did not pass out, dammit.
“Roni, how badly are you guys hurt?” Shaya asked, back in her human form.
Roni wanted to answer her Alpha female; wanted to ask Shaya how injured she was and reassure her that everything would be fine. But Roni’s mouth suddenly felt stuffed with cotton, her chest felt tight, and black spots were dancing before her eyes. Worse, there was a horrible ringing sound that made her head pound even more.
She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Her wolf began to panic once more as the ringing became deafening and a dark veil fell over Roni’s vision.
Then there was only blackness.
CHAPTER TWO
Sitting on an infirmary bed at Phoenix Pack territory half an hour later, Roni flinched as Grace used tweezers to pluck yet another piece of glass from Roni’s palms. Silently, she seethed, annoyed with herself. She—a dominant female who could outrun both her brothers, who could defeat a wolf while in her human form, and who had once almost made an Alpha male sob when she beat him at an arm wrestle—had passed out. Twice.
What was wrong with the world?
“Done,” announced Grace. “I have to thank you again for what you did. I dread to think what could have happened to Kye if you hadn’t kept him safe.”
Roni took her strawberry-flavored lollipop out of her mouth only long enough to respond with: “It’s what anyone would have done.”
“Don’t try to play it down. Protecting another with your life is never a small thing.” The brunette squinted as she studied the cut on Roni’s forehead. “That’s looking better.” It was the benefit of having a shifter’s accelerated healing rate. “What about the rest of you?”
“Healing.” Shifters weren’t easy to hurt, which was largely why Roni had escaped the incident with just cuts, bruising, and a cracked rib. Thankfully, Tao and Kye had walked away with only a few scrapes and bruises. As Roni was almost fully healed, she’d turned down the Phoenix Alpha female’s offer to heal her. Shaya, however, had needed Taryn’s healing skills since she’d had a broken leg and a fractured wrist. Shaya had been fine by the time Nick and Derren arrived. Even so, Nick had freaked out—Roni had been able to hear him from the infirmary yelling and growling in the kitchen while Shaya desperately tried to calm him.
The sound of heavy footsteps striding through the network of tunnels pulled Roni from her thoughts. Seconds later, a tall, dark, broad-shouldered vow of sexual satisfaction entered the room. Two pools of electric blue locked on Roni, and the atmosphere snapped taut as awareness throbbed between them—it was always the same.
Marcus Fuller exuded sex, confidence, and a raw compelling charisma that commanded the attention of those around him . . . which was why the Phoenix Pack enforcer was the star of her every X-rated fantasy. He deserved an Oscar for his performances.
Anger and concern radiating from him, he demanded, “How badly are you hurt?”
As if he had every right, he ate up her personal space, skimming his gaze over her body. His dark scent slammed into her, and Roni once again found herself wishing she could bottle it. Earthy, spicy, and with a hint of leather, it never failed to tantalize both her and her wolf.
Determined not to let him see the effect he had on her, Roni shrugged nonchalantly at the six feet of pure male power staring down at her. “I’m fine.”
Clearly unconvinced, he turned to Grace for an answer. The traitor sang like a canary before reassuring him, “She should be fully healed within the hour. Now I have to get back to my daughter. She’ll wake up any minute now.”
Once Grace was gone, Marcus’s gaze again locked on Roni. Anger no longer spilled from him, but she knew it was still there, simmering beneath the surface. Maybe everyone else was fooled by his laid-back manner, but Roni knew this wolf was as dark and dangerous as any predator.
The minute she’d met the enforcer, her wolf had sensed the danger in him, the intensity, and the power . . . and then she’d practically rolled over, panting, totally in lust. It was just so . . . undignified.
“How are you feeling, gorgeous?”
Honestly? Like she wanted to gouge out those piercing eyes that took in her every move and expression. It was the stare of a hunter, and Roni very much felt like prey when he focused his full attention on her. It was something he did a lot, which only intensified the sexual tension that pulsed between them—a tension that was unexpected considering she was nothing like the foo-foo attention-whores he dated.
In the beginning, his flirtatious nature had irritated Roni, despite her powerful elemental attraction to him. Sublimely gorgeous people intimidated her, particularly the typical “smooth talkers”—guys who had mastered the art of making females part from their clothes using speech alone. Roni liked a male with substance, not a player who was incapable of loyalty and relied on his looks to get him what he wanted in life.
However, her irritation had soon given way to curiosity, because the more time she’d spent around Marcus Fuller, the more she’d come to realize that the whole “smooth talker” act was nothing but that—an act. He hid behind the charm and the carefree attitude he projected to the world.
This guy cared very deeply about something. There was so much anger there, packed in ice . . . yet no one seemed to see it. No one seemed to see that this was a wolf with secrets.
He was also a wolf who was annoyingly impossible to dislike. She envied how he could so easily put people at ease. Envied his ability to mix well with others and be instantly accepted into any social circle. Roni, by contrast, had a tendency to make people feel uncomfortable with how out of tune she was with others’ feelings and their social expectations.
At his impatient expression, she removed the lollipop from her mouth. “I told you, I’m fine.” She slid off the bed, and he cupped her elbow to support her as she stood upright. The simple skin-to-skin contact caused her nerve endings to spark to life. She pulled her arm free from his grasp. “I can walk perfectly fine without help.”
He flashed her that infamous smile designed to make any female blush and trip over herself to get to him. “You should know that prim, schoolteacher tone totally turns me on.”
Roni would have been immune to that smile if it were sleazy. But no. It was a confident, mischievous, “I could make you come all night long” smile. She would bet that he damn well could. Not that she’d ever find out. Marcus flirted with her, sure, but only because he didn’t know any other form of communication. And besides, tomboys weren’t his type.
Her wolf loved having all that raw sexuality and seductive charm directed at her, and she constantly pushed
at Roni to act on her desire for him. It was taxing, since she and her wolf were so extremely close that the line that existed between her human side and animal side was blurred. It didn’t mean she didn’t have full control of her wolf, but it did mean that her wolf’s emotions could intrude on Roni’s human responses, and vice versa. As such, her wolf’s desire for him fed her own, making it even more difficult to resist him.
Frustrated with him, herself, and her wolf, Roni stuffed her lollipop back into her mouth and offered him a blank look, refusing to let him see that she was no more resistant to his charm than every other female.
Nothing. The female in front of him didn’t give him the slightest reaction, which only made Marcus smile wider.
He had been on his way home from visiting his sister when he’d received a call from his Beta male, Dante, to let him know about the crash. He’d broken all kinds of laws as he drove like a maniac to get home and see for himself that everyone was fine, that Roni was fine. And now here she was, doing that aloof act again. And he was nothing short of amused.
Initially, Roni’s apparent indifference had galled him. He hadn’t liked that he seemed to be the only one feeling this intense attraction that bordered on magnetism. Every time they were in close proximity, the air crackled with sexual energy, and he hadn’t believed that could possibly be a one-way street. Yet, while the idea of skimming his hands over that seductively lithe body and having those supple legs wrapped around his waist often consumed his thoughts, Roni always appeared totally unmoved. It made no sense.
Rather than push, Marcus had backed off. He’d watched her closely, studied her every reaction to him, and soon come to realize that she wasn’t so indifferent to him after all. Why she was fighting their attraction, he didn’t know. He wanted to find out, to figure her out, so he could find a chink in her armor. Roni was incredibly intelligent; in order to seduce her physically, he’d need to first seduce her mentally.