Wicked Werewolf Secret
By Lisa Renee Jones
THE WEREWOLF SOCIETY
Book 2 – Stand alone story
Book 1 – Wicked Werewolf Night
Copyright 2012 by Lisa Renee Jones
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[email protected] All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination. www.lisareneejones.com. Cover by www.theatuhorsredroom.com Steena Holmes
“The Past….”
Chapter One
He was the kind of wolf that made a girl want to pant like a dog. That was saying a lot about just how alpha and hot Kole Smith was, considering that she, Sarah Duncan, blackjack dealer and daughter to the family who oversaw Vegas’s Hotel Italy, the cover operation for the Werewolf Society headquarters, didn’t pant.
She dealt him a card, reminding herself of the many warnings her parents had given her and her younger sister, Dana, about avoiding the wolves of the Royal Guard, the law of their race, unless they wanted to be dominated and owned. And this man, this wolf, was not only part of the Royal Guard, Kole Smith was second in charge to Nico Moore, the pack leader. He was an alpha male, as controlling as they came, and while she would swear she didn’t want to be controlled, this wolf made her wonder. Oh yes. If she was someone else, or this was an alternate reality, she would be panting and running her fingers through the long blonde hair that was tied at his nape. The color was a drastic contrast to her long blue-black hair and it turned her on in some indefinable way. Perhaps it was a symbol of alpha and female, or some nonsense her body seemed to understand when she didn’t. Or better yet, she’d save the hair for later and just run her fingers, and her mouth, all over his rock-hard body. A body that was especially easy to drool over in the absence of his typical leather jacket to match his leather pants. Tonight there was just a snug black t-shirt that let her admire every little ripple he owned which was a jackpot times ten.
Since he was the only player at her table, she settled another card on the felt in front of him, then turned her final card face up, showing him that she had a King. He arched a brow and she knew why. The odds said that a face card meant the dealer had a strong hand, a twenty or a twenty-one. She didn’t peek for confirmation as she would with a human or lesser wolf. No dealer ever did when they were across from a wolf who could smell their emotions. Extra care was taken when an elder wolf like Kole was involved. He might appear no more than thirty-something, but the Royal Guard was made up of wolves who’d had a century or more to hone their senses and their combat skills. And Kole’s family was ancient Guard, both his father and his mother instructors in combat in the European division.
His blue eyes twinkled with mischief and heat, a combination she’d come to find alluring in the three weeks since she’d returned home. She had a new law degree in her possession, and had begun interviewing to be the first female legal aid to the Werewolf Council. He’d visited her table nearly each night and talked to her, and she’d found herself getting to know him, and liking him way too much. He had an amazing knack for making her talk about her family, her likes and dislikes. Probably because he openly talked about his, which was something the Guard wasn’t exactly known to do. They were rigid, alpha wolves, who shared sex and war and conquests, not family and favorite foods, and chitchat. Only he did with her. Never in her life, no matter who the man or wolf, had she felt so drawn, and so intimate with, and she’d never even taken her clothes off with this one.
He flipped his card and showed it to her. “Blackjack, my little tulip.”
Her lips curved and not just at his hand. At the silly names he was always calling her. Bluebonnet. Apple Pie. Twinkles. “Seems the big, bad wolf at the table is ridiculously lucky,” she commented, swiping his cards away.
“I’m big and bad, and happy to prove it to you some time soon, but as for luck, only at your table.”
Sometime soon. Oh yes. No. Yes. Yes. “I doubt your luck is that limited,” she said, placing his chips in front of him and thinking the man wore black leather like she imagined a girl would feel in a perfect pair of three hundred dollar heels – really damn sexy.
“In fact,” he added softly, “until three weeks ago, I hadn’t stepped foot inside a casino for pleasure in years.”
It was a declaration of his intent to have her. She knew it. She was, after all, a twenty-six year old wolf, three years past ‘The day of the Wolf’ when a female not only stopped aging for fifty years, but became fertile and able to mate if she found the right partner, during the right season. She, like all wolves of age, was sexual by nature and he called to her every primal instinct she owned.
Another dealer appeared by Sarah’s side. “You’re up.”
“Break time for me,” Sarah explained to Kole, thankful for the excuse to escape. “Good luck.” And then she was gone, rushing out of the center ring of the table and into the casino, her destination the break room. She just hoped Kole was gone when she got back and then she had to come up with some plan to deal with him. She was going to forget every warning her parents had issued about the Guard.
She wove through the clang of slot machines and was about to enter the private employee doorway behind one of the bars when she felt a strong hand on her arm. His hand. She knew it was Kole even before she was pulled around a corner and inside a retro phone booth with solid red walls, one of the only places in the casino without a camera. In an instant it seemed, the doors were sealed, and Kole’s powerful thighs enclosed hers, his big body framing her smaller one.
His fingers laced into her hair and freed the clip at her nape. The scent of him, wickedly male and dominant in a wild, sensual way, flooded her senses. She was hot, burning alive, and yet she was cold where he wasn’t touching, where she wanted him to be. “What are you doing, Kole?”
“I’ve wanted to know if you taste as good as I think you will for three weeks now, so unless you tell me not to, I’m going to find out.”
“I...” She intended to say ‘no’, but everything female screamed to say ‘yes’, and both the wolf and the woman, in her, cried out for him... “should.”
His mouth came down on hers hot and fiercely passionate. His tongue pressed past her teeth, stroking against hers with delicious command she shouldn’t have welcomed. Yet she did. She moaned with the pleasure of it, the heat of his body branding her, the flex of his muscles beneath her palms driving her wild. The feel of his hand settling on her waist and sliding to her lower back to mold her closer was almost too much to bear. She met his demand with her own, her tongue tangling with his, the fog of desire like she’d never known clouding her mind.
“When do you get off your shift?” he asked, pulling back to stare at her with a possessive glint in his eyes that had her squeezing her legs together with the depth of its impact.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, breathless, unable to stop the rasp in her voice. “We can’t... I-”
He kissed her again, a deep, drugging kiss that made her knees weak, before he demanded, “Why can’t we?”
“You’re Royal guard,” she whispered.
“And that means what?”
Her chin lifted slightly. “You’re off limits.”
“Says who?”
“Says me.”
His h
and went to the wall above her head, his body lifting from hers as he stared down at her. He was tall, a good foot and several inches above her five foot four height. “Why?”
“I don’t need another reason.”
His eyes narrowed, darkened. “You want me.”
There was no sense denying it. He could smell her desire, and no doubt he’d tasted it on her lips. “We don’t get everything we want.”
“Why not?”
Why not? Right. Why not. “Life isn’t fair,” she countered.
“Either answer is not telling me the real reason you don’t want to meet me.”
“I’m not some chew toy for the Royal Guard, Kole.”
“In the past few weeks there are any number of things I’ve contemplated doing to you, and with you, and words like lick, kiss, and perhaps even bite came to mind, but not chew. I do not chew.”
Heat pooled low in her belly. Lick. Kiss. She forced away the images those words conjured. “You know what I mean. I’m not one of those Guard groupies.”
“If you were, I wouldn’t be interested in you, and I am interested in you. Very interested, Sarah. And so we’re clear, what happens between us stays between us. I don’t share.”
The possessiveness of his words rattled her to the core, and aroused her way too much. She had to get away from him or she’d never resist him. And he meant what he’d said, that he would keep what was between them between them. She smelled his honesty, saw it in his eyes. That honesty mattered to her and tempted her to give into her desire.
He reached up and brushed his knuckles gently down her cheek, his tone softly prodding. “What’s holding you back?”
“You know how hard it is going to be for me to get hired by the council,” she said. “Being seen as your submissive will make me look too weak for the job.”
“You are a lot of things to me, things you don’t understand yet, but you aren’t my submissive and I would never ask that of you. At least, not outside the bedroom.”
Heat pooled between her thighs, the idea of being naked and submissive to him, so tantalizing she barely found her voice. “You’re a wolf, Kole, an alpha in the Guard. We both know it’s your nature.”
“We have females in the Guard,” he countered.
“But they aren’t in direct contact with the council nor are they-”
A knock sounded on the door.
Mated, she finished silently, rattled at how easily the word came to her mind.
“I need the phone,” a man shouted. “Hurry up in there.”
Kole stared at her, unmoving. “When is your shift over?”
She opened her mouth with the intent to tell him it was none of his business, and somehow, when she’d never had trouble controlling her tongue before now, she found herself saying instead, “Two hours.”
He closed the small space between them, his hand framing her waist, branding her with his touch. His breath was warm as he leaned down and pressed his lips to her ear. “See you in two hours.” And then he was gone, pushing open the door and stepping into the casino.
Chapter Two
With her shift over, Sarah headed toward the employee area to clock out. She hadn’t seen Kole for the entire two hours since he’d left her in the phone booth, but she could feel him nearby, sense his presence and his hunger for her. He would find her. He would have her. And God, that turned her on like nothing ever had. He hadn’t even really touched her yet and she was burning up with need. The kind of need she’d heard spoken of when a wolf found her mate. Exactly why she had to escape Kole and do so now. If she mated with Kole, she’d lose herself to him, and she’d lose credibility as an independent thinker. She’d worked too hard to be a role model for female wolves to let that happen.
Decision made, Sarah hurried through the process of clocking out, and was about to head to the private VIP elevators that led to a hidden city of The Society when her cell phone buzzed with a text. Sarah glanced at the message from her sister, Dana. I need a ride. I’m at 1010 Nevada Street. Sarah frowned, feeling oddly uneasy. Her sister was off work tonight and had a date with some wolf Sarah had never met. She tried to dial Dana but she didn’t answer. Sarah’s instincts, which were more developed than most wolves her age – a selling point to have her appointed to legal aid for the council – screamed with warning. Something wasn’t right. She tried to dial her sister again. Nothing. No answer.
Sarah headed for the parking garage and a sense of urgency had her pace at a near run. She was just about to get into her car when a fancy sports car pulled up next to her. The window slid down to reveal Riley Montgomery, one of the wolves on the security team for the casino. “Let me guess. You’re going to pick up your sister.”
That odd tingling sensation beneath her skin intensified. “Yes. How did you know that?”
“She texted me and said you weren’t replying.”
Sarah didn’t know Riley well and she wasn’t aware that her sister did, though Dana had worked at the casino the entire time Sarah had been in college, so it made sense that she would. And since her sister liked dark haired wolves with too many muscles for Sarah’s taste, and Riley was certainly those things, it seemed even more likely.
“I’ll get her,” Sarah said. “I tried to call her and she didn’t answer.”
“Hop in,” he said. “I’m going with you. Something about this feels off to me.”
So very off, Sarah thought, wanting to refuse and wishing Kole would show up. She’d feel a whole lot better bringing him along for the pickup. “All right.”
She climbed into the passenger side of the car and asked, “Do you have the address?”
“Got it,” he said lifting his phone and setting it back on his lap. “Remember? She texted me, too.”
“Right,” she said, but something didn’t sit right.
They didn’t speak on the short three block ride and she thought he was trying to read her. Like her skill to sense things, she was pretty darn good at masking her emotions. Except with Kole, of course, since lust was a hormonal thing that had a scent she couldn’t control. And she had plenty of lust for the wolf. But she could read Riley and he was edgy, almost nervous, which made her edgy and nervous, certain that getting into this car wasn’t the right move.
The car stopped in front of a steel warehouse with loading ramps and limited lighting that made her glad for her night vision. “Is this the right address?”
“Yeah,” he said, glancing at the building. “A little odd for her to be here.”
“A little?” she asked, her stomach knotting.
“A lot,” he corrected. “Let’s go in.” He pushed out of the vehicle.
Sarah dialed her sister and it was still ringing when he pulled open her door. Shouldn’t he be suggesting she stay here and he check things out?
“Ready?”
There really wasn’t any answer but ‘yes’ so she got out of the car. “To get my sister and get out of here,” she said. “Yes.”
He waved her forward. She inhaled and straightened her spine, walking toward the warehouse and now that she was moving she did so quickly, the idea of her sister in this place beginning to freak her out.
Sarah stopped at the steps, expecting Riley to go first. He didn’t. She walked up the steps and entered the warehouse to stop dead in her tracks as she brought the room into focus., Bile rose in the back of her throat and her heart all but stopped beating. Her parents and her sister were gagged and tied to chairs with four armed wolves standing around them.
“Welcome to the party,” Riley said, grabbing her from behind, his breath hot on her neck.
A wolf she recognized as Derek St. John, a known leader within the rebel movement trying to take over the Society, greeted her, his voice dripping with ugly nastiness that defied his dark, good looks. “Hello, Sarah. I’m going to give you a gift. See, your father won’t give me the codes to the casino safe. He says the council will kill him. So I now have his two daughters and his wife. I’m going to kill one of you
and rape the others while he watches. Sooner or later, he will either give me the codes, or I’ll kill all of you. Now, here is your gift. You get to decide who gets killed and who gets raped.”
***
Kole cursed. He’d reached the edge of the warehouse too late to stop their entry. Thanks to a couple of pack wolves in a power play, Kole had been seconds shy of reaching Sarah before she’d gotten into the car with Riley, but he’d sensed her worry and her unease. Unwilling to wait on the backup he’d called for the instant Riley had turned into the warehouse district, Kole eyed the broken window above his head and launched himself up to the ledge. He settled silently on the other side of the wall, in a dark hallway, pausing to draw his weapons. His knife was silver and his gun was loaded with the same silver that would kill a wolf if it touched the bloodstream. He crept down the hall toward the entrance of the warehouse.
The instant he was inside and he heard the rebel bastard Derek’s familiar voice, he knew this was worse than he’d imagined. He inched his way down the hall, bringing Riley’s back into view, but unable to see the rest of the warehouse and what he was up against.
“So,” Derek taunted Sarah, his voice pure evil. “You choose. Who do I kill and who do I rape? But wait. Before you answer, remember. Once you’re dead, you don’t come back. Rape, well, you might even enjoy it.”
“Me,” Sarah said, her voice terse. “Kill me.”
Kole knew what a loose cannon Derek was and he wasn’t waiting to find out if Derek would shoot Sarah. He threw the poison blade at the back of Riley’s skull, and closed the distance between them so quickly that he’d shoved Sarah behind him before the bastard ever hit the ground.
“Run!” he shouted at her, drawing a second gun.
He fired at the wolves and three of the four went down, but that bastard Derek managed to get away. Kole turned, aware that Sarah was still behind him.
“I have to untie them!” she shouted, but he grabbed her.