Clementine I watched as Liam sprinted away and felt my heart fall into my stomach. My feet moved on their own, and Milo cut me off before I foolishly ran into the middle of a wolf fight. He growled, and I knew he was telling me we needed to get the fuck out of Dodge. “Sorry, I’m not exactly light,” I apologized as I clambered onto his back. He huffed and spun on his paws so fast I felt myself buckle. I grabbed fistfuls of fur and tugged. He grumbled. Oops! I tried to loosen my hold, but there was no good place to hold onto. I had no experience riding a horse, let alone a wolf. If I wrapped my arms around his neck, would I choke him? I felt awkward and clumsy on top of him. “Milo, you need to stop and let me down.” I got a grunt as a response, and, not surprisingly, he didn’t slow as he whipped around the trees. “Milo, I’m going to fall.” Another grunt. Vinny grumbled at me too. His eyes darted around the forest and back to me, watching me fumble as I tried to balance on the bac
Liam The full moon was approaching, and the entire pack could feel it. Everyone was on edge. There were several ex-pack members still missing. Everyone seemed convinced it would lead to another battle and more pack members would die. Our pack had lost fourteen members in our quest to rescue my mate. Fourteen families had received visits where Clem and I delivered our heartfelt condolences to personally. I was unsure how many the rogue army had lost, but there were a lot of deceased wolves when we started to clean up and sort through the bodies. I had left Clementine the next morning, tucked safe and sound in our bed. I knew she would be pissed about it, but I needed to go and help identify the bodies. Twenty of us marched out to the battle site and started to sift through the woods, pulling wolves out of debris and resting them together in a small area where their loved ones could collect them. Usually, we would just burn the rogues, but as much as I kept saying it, these rogues we
Clementine The full moon had come around again, but this time, it was different because I was a bundle of nerves. Okay, so I might have been a bundle of nerves the first time too, but at least I had Circe. My wolf still hadn’t shown up, and although I was wearing a brave face, the idea of being mated without a wolf made me nervous. Liam kept reassuring me that she would come back eventually, but as we got closer to the full moon, I became more agitated because I believed I couldn’t be with Liam without a wolf. Not if he remained alpha. I tried to convince him to hold off the mating ritual until we knew if she was coming back. I was trying to be pragmatic and develop a strategy in case I was left wolfless, as a human couldn’t be luna. Liam had simply shaken his head, dropped a drugging kiss to my lips, and inhaled along my neck. “Your scent is the same; that intoxicating honeysuckle and pear with the underlying scent of canine and human. Your eyes haven’t changed back to the pure tu
Clementine I was in a very wet forest. I smelled the moss and lichen growing on the trees and heard the creek at the bottom of the leaf-littered slope. My body itched and burned as I jogged. I heard a guttural growl that shook every cell in my body. My running shoes pivoted as I looked back to where the sound came from. What the hell was that? The crunching sound of my shoes resulted in the forest turning deathly quiet. Dad promised me that this track was safe to run, but as the light glittering through the trees dimmed, I began to think that maybe he had been wrong. I heard the growl again, picked up my pace. The loop I was on went up toward the river, turned, then circled past some old hunter’s cabin and then back toward home. As I passed a tree with an old broken ladder that went up to a dilapidated tree stand, I heard it again—that growl. Then, out of nowhere, an ethereal howl echoed and bounced off the trees. Shit, run! I sprinted as a large tawny wolf came out of the treeli
Liam Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. I awoke to an annoying buzzing noise. I opened my eyes and looked around the room. Where the hell was I? I tried to move and found a very naked female body partially draped over me. I tried to turn to the other side and noticed another exquisitely nude woman leaving me pinned to contemplate my escape. Gently, I climbed over the one on the left and looked back, grinning. The brunette with milky white skin stirred and shifted onto her stomach before letting out a little sigh, fading in to sleep once more. The bottle-blonde had her hands tucked under her cheek and was drooling slightly from her plump pink lips. I wracked my mind, trying to remember their names. Pfft, what does it matter? They only slept with me for one reason, and I wasn’t going to complain when I got the two of them at once…more than once. I grinned to myself again. Perks of being the alpha’s son, I guess. Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! It started up again. Oh right! I looked around the room and found my bl
Clementine “Dad, I’m not a teenager anymore,” I grumbled, looking away from the pity bound to be displayed in his eyes. “I know, Clem. It’s just, people in this town can be cruel.” I raised an eyebrow. “I thought we moved here because this town would be good for Vinny?” “It will be.” “But you just said it can be cruel.” “Yeah, to outsiders, it can be.” “And I’m an outsider?” I watched as the tops of my father’s ears turned pink. He was getting stressed. “No, that’s not what I’m saying.” “Then what are you saying, Dad?” “I was just trying to be supportive,” he rushed out. “Your mom just died, you dropped out of med school, you moved to a new town where you don’t know anyone. I just want you to know I’m here.” “If people are cruel?” I added. “Something like that.” God, my dad could be weird at times. He was avoiding eye contact, and his ears were still flushed. He closed his eyes and appeared to be trying to calm himself down, before setting his gaze upon me once more. “There
Liam “Shit, are you okay?” I asked the short little she-wolf that crashed into me, her gentle honeysuckle and pear scent invading my nose. She looked up, her hand covering the tiny upturned pink tip protruding from her face. She was shorter and curvier than the other she-wolves around the place. It made her stand out. I was surprised to see she wore glasses. Photochromic lenses obscured her eyes, but they seemed to be the most interesting shade of bluey green. Said glasses didn’t appear to be a prop or some fashion statement either. They seemed to be corrective lenses. What the fuck? Wolves didn’t suffer declines in vision. I breathed in her scent again. As the intoxicating honeysuckle and pear notes swirled around, I managed to take in the undertones of her canine heritage—definitely a wolf. Wait, what’s that smell? I sniffed again; her wolf seemed tainted. As if it was mixed with something else. Human? Oh, shit. This girl must be the other half-breed—the older sister. A subtle p
Clementine Okay, maybe Blackfern Valley was a lot bigger than I thought it was. I swear I was lost. I really had no sense of direction. Where the hell am I? I kept walking aimlessly for another twenty minutes. Houses had started to thin out—not that they were very close and abundant to begin with. I could feel the sweat start to pool around the base of my neck and in the canyon of my breasts. God, this humidity is going to kill me. But I kept walking. The black tar seal had ended; now, it was mostly dirt and gravel. Okay, I was certain I had gone in the wrong direction. I turned around and smacked into something. Ouch, my poor nose! It was getting a hell of a beating today. I looked up and saw another large body obstructing my view of anything else, then took a step back. “Sorry about that,” I murmured, rubbing my nose. “You know, glasses are supposed to help you see, yet you’re walking into me.” His voice was smooth, but there was something cold about it. My defensive walls i