by Sam Crescent
Published by EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ® at Smashwords
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2019 Sam Crescent
ISBN: 978-1-77339-882-2
Cover Artist: Jay Aheer
Editor: Karyn White
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
MATED TO THE PACK
Sam Crescent
Copyright © 2019
Chapter One
Even as her feet were aching, Lucia didn’t stop. She couldn’t. Stopping would mean failure, and she didn’t want to die. There was no one left from her pack, and they’d all been ordered to run, to get as far away as possible. To survive. For two days straight, she’d been running, and she knew there would come a time when she had to stop. The pain in her body wouldn’t let her sit or stop. She needed to keep on moving.
Survival was what kept her going.
That and fear.
The sound of the bullets.
The screams.
The cages slamming shut.
All of it had scared her.
She had seen the hunger in their eyes. Their need to hunt. The scent of death clung to their skin, and she’d clawed at the filthy human’s neck before running. Covered in blood. Soaked in sweat. Terrified to her core, she didn’t stop.
Lucia knew she was running out of time.
There’s no way she could keep on moving.
Collapsing against a tree, she tried to draw in breath. Her entire body was shaking. The image of her pack getting cut, shot, and thrown into cages was just too much. Tears ran down her cheeks, and she pressed her face against the trunk of the tree. She wanted to scream, but any noise that came from her could draw attention, which was the last thing she wanted.
Keep moving.
She couldn’t do it.
Just as she was about to run, though, she heard it. The sound of footsteps. She didn’t know if it was an animal or the humans that had been chasing her. She couldn’t risk being caught. Not now.
Heart pounding, she had a split-second decision to make, so she turned on her heel and ran.
Don’t want to die.
She kept running, going through the trees, her feet hurting. She must have cut herself because the pain was so intense.
After a few minutes she realized they were not humans running after her. There’s no way they could be with how fast they were going.
One quick glance behind her, and sure enough, she saw the wolves. Four of them. They all looked the same in that quick glance, and she cried out, trying to gain speed, but she couldn’t do it.
She was dead on her feet.
Taking a quick left then right, she dodged a fallen tree. At first, she thought she had lost them and a quick look behind her made her smile.
Only victory wasn’t hers.
She ran straight into a hard wall. Stumbling to her feet, she glanced up at the wall to see a man. A tall, large, muscular man. His arms were folded, his face stern as he glared at her. Her mouth went dry as his grey eyes stared right back at her. They shone amber as he tilted his head back.
Male.
Pack.
Wolf.
Had the humans trapped wolf men to help them hunt the females?
It was all too much.
“You caught her,” another male said.
She turned quickly to see the four wolves suddenly turn into men. They were completely naked and didn’t do a thing to hide it.
“She smells like a human,” another said.
“She’s not human though,” the one in front of her said. “Are you?”
“Please, let me go,” she said. Begging was not beneath her. “I have to go.”
“Who are you?”
“Luther, bud, you’re doing that thing again where you freak us out.” This came from another man, but she didn’t dare look away.
“Please, I mean no harm. I just want to—”
“You’re the first wolf that has dared to enter our land in nearly three decades, and you think you’re going to be above answering questions?” Luther asked.
She figured his name was Luther.
His voice got darker, and the hairs on her arms stood on end.
“I mean no harm.” She got to her feet, staring up at the alpha.
For a long time, she’d been part of a pack of females. Very few males had been allowed in the pack. Only those that had been allowed to mate.
She’d been the child of one of the rare couples who’d mated. Her mother had once told her that the female pack was there to protect the women. That in the packs throughout the world, men abused their position, that females were vulnerable and exploited, but the pack she was part of, made her safe.
Until the humans came.
Her mother was slaughtered before her very eyes. Her mother had fought the human hunters like a wild beast. She’d been so proud of her, and now, Lucia was all alone.
Her father had been killed even before her mother. The hunters had come and completely ruined everything. She couldn’t even think of what she saw. Her parents’ last moments. The pain, the suffering. They would never be there for her again. Both of them were gone.
She didn’t back down to Luther. He may be an alpha to this pack, but he wasn’t to her. Straightening her shoulders, she stared into his eyes.
She suddenly saw two of him.
Two days of running.
Two days of constant fear.
It was all too much.
Her stomach clenched, and she felt dizzy. Taking a step back, she felt arms surround her. She tried to pull away, but she couldn’t.
The alpha in front of her looked concerned as he approached.
She didn’t do anything, nor did she say anything. Everything buzzed, and her body wasn’t doing what she wanted it to.
What the hell was happening to her?
She closed her eyes, and suddenly everything around her went dark.
****
Luther Knight carried the silly female back to his and his pack’s home. They were a pack. They hunted together, fought together, and were free to roam. Their land was their own. They were not brothers. None of them were related by blood, but they all took the same name, Knight.
They were the Knight pack. No one came through their land without permission.
Their fathers before them had made it so, and now they all belonged to them. Any human or animal who thought they could wander on their land was always taken care of. He wasn’t above killing to keep his pack safe.
Staring down at the blonde-haired female, Luther didn’t know what the fuck to do. They’d been out for a run when they’d scented her fear. It had clung to her like a damn virus, spreading far and wide. Not only had the fear clung to her, but the scent of humans had, as well as death.
“She’s covered in blood,” Ryan said.
“No shit!” Billy turned to glare at Ryan.
There were five of them. Himself, Ryan, Billy, Noah, and Luke. They were all fierce, all deadly, but out of all of them, he’d earned his place as pack alpha, and they followed him.
“Enough,” Luther said, glaring at each of them.
The female wolf had passed out, but that didn’t mean she wanted to wake up to the sight of two men fighting. That shit wasn’t happening, not on his watch.
“Please tell me someone can smell that?” Noah aske
d.
“What? You farted?” Billy asked.
“Fuck you. No, that smell. That sweet honey that is so mouthwatering it’s making my dick so fucking hard!” Noah glared over at Billy.
Now all four of his pack were finally taking notice of the scent he’d been tracking in the forest. They’d been out by their lake, goofing around and just having fun on one of the warmest days of the year when he’d caught the scent. It had been faint at first, but the moment he’d smelled her, his wolf had been on full alert, demanding he take notice.
So he did.
He’d followed the scent, and that’s when he caught sight of this female.
She wasn’t human.
There’s no way someone running fast as she was was a human female.
“She’s beautiful,” Luke said, finally speaking up.
The other four agreed.
Even beneath the mud and dirt, Luther saw her beauty, and she was absolutely stunning. The best-looking female he’d seen in a long time. Curvy too.
She had large tits, a full ass, which he’d loved chasing, and a nice set of juicy thighs. He couldn’t wait to have them wrapped around his waist, and he was rock-fucking-hard too. The wolf inside him was slamming against the walls of his mind, begging him to claim her, to take her, to fuck her, to make her theirs.
The feelings were so strong, so powerful that they shook him to the core.
“She’s our mate,” Ryan said. “Has to be.”
“You all smell that?” Luther asked.
“She smells like warm honey and cinnamon and all things good in the world. I just want to have a taste,” Billy said.
They all agreed, nodding their heads.
“She’s stunning,” Noah said.
“What does this mean, Luther?” Noah asked, turning toward him.
They all turned to him, waiting for an answer.
The scent of her was driving them all crazy. He noted each of them were highly aroused, as was he. In fact, he was struggling to fucking think he was so turned on.
“I think it’s safe to say that we’ve just found our mate.”
“Is it possible for us all to be mated to her?” Ryan asked.
“When you look at her what do you see?” he asked.
“Beauty.”
“Perfection.”
“Home.”
“Mine.”
Luther smiled. “That’s what I see.”
“Is it possible for more than one man to mate a female?” Billy asked this time. “That can’t be possible.”
“We’re not like other packs. We stick to our five. We don’t bring any outsiders in. We’re not a large pack with lots of females. We’re close.”
They’d always been that way. His father had warned him that depending on how closely he kept the pack would determine how their females would come. All of their fathers had different females but because of how sick they’d gotten during pregnancy and the dangers that surrounded it, none of their fathers had demanded another baby.
That’s why there were so few of them.
They were not a large pack. Running fingers through his hair, he had so much shit to deal with.
“When she wakes up, she’s going to be scared. We need to back the fuck off. Billy, you prepare her room.”
“She’s not sleeping with one of us?” Billy looked so damn sad about that.
“Not right now.”
“Ryan, prepare a bath.”
“On it.”
“Noah, you start some food.”
“What if she has any allergies?”
“She’s a wolf, figure it out.”
“Luke, get her some clean clothes.”
“What are you going to do?” Luke asked.
“I’m heading out there to track. I want to make sure that whatever had her running like the fucking wind knows not to come onto Knight land.” Human or not, he’d kill every last fucker.
He glanced back at the woman on the sofa, and she was curled up in a ball, looking so tempting. When she woke, they’d give her time to have a bath, freshen up, and feel normal once again.
He wouldn’t go too far.
He wanted to be here when she woke up, to look into her beautiful blue eyes and see her smile.
Heading out of the house, he took a deep breath, stripped out of his clothes, and allowed his wolf to come forward. It was time to go hunting.
He took off right to where he’d found their woman.
The scent of her was intoxicating, and he knew until they claimed her, he’d be driven crazy by her scent. If someone was chasing her, this wasn’t fucking good. Not even close. He had to be on his game. They all had to, otherwise they were all going to end up dead.
Chapter Two
The scent of bacon woke Lucia up. The memory of her fallen pack brought a sob to her lips, and she pressed her hands to her face to try to stop the pain. Sitting up, she realized she wasn’t on the ground but in fact on a soft sofa.
“You’re awake.”
She gasped, jumping away from the sound. Turning her head, she saw five men standing in front of her. There was a good distance between them all, but that didn’t make it any easier. Tucking her legs against her body, she tried not to freak out, but seeing all of their gazes on her, she was petrified.
“What are you doing?” she asked, staring at each of them.
“It’s okay.” The tallest of them all, with black hair and grey eyes, held up a hand. She recognized him as Luther. “We’re not going to hurt you.”
“Why are you all staring at me?” she asked.
“If I do say so myself, I think you’re rather pretty.”
“Shut up, Noah,” Luther said.
“Who are you all?” she asked. There were too many men.
“We’re the Knight pack,” Luther said. “You ran into our territory.”
Crap. She’d heard about them. They were one of the most feared and deadliest of all wolf packs. Anyone who ventured onto their land without permission was never seen again. They had all been warned in her pack to always avoid this pack, and now she was sitting on their sofa with five men looking at her.
Were they going to kill her?
“I’m so sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter. You’re going to answer my questions,” Luther said. He grabbed a chair and straddled it. He was so big, so scary. She didn’t want his full attention, and yet that was exactly what she got.
She tried not to shake from the sheer force of his stare. It was impossible not to be afraid.
“Luther, go easy.”
“Enough, Noah. I’m not going to kill her.” Luther’s gaze returned to her. “Now, I want you to answer my questions.”
“Why?”
“You stumbled onto my land covered in human and wolf blood. You passed out and looked like you hadn’t slept in days, and considering this is your fourth night here, I’d say you were exhausted.”
“Fourth night?” She hadn’t realized she’d been out that long.
“Yes. You’ve stayed on the sofa. We’ve washed you as best we could.” Luther pointed down at her clothes.
The stench coming off her was ridiculous and even made her feel sick. Staring down at her body, she groaned. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine,” the one called Noah said.
She smiled because she knew for a fact it wasn’t fine. She stank really bad. There was nothing nice to say about her.
Still, for four days they’d taken care of her, and even though her clothes were bad, her hands were not covered in blood. All this had been happening while she was passed out? Wow, she must have been way past exhausted.
“Thank you.”
“It’s nothing,” Luther said, taking charge of the conversation once again. “I’m only going to ask my questions once.”
“Okay.”
“Why are you here?”
“I … my pack was attacked.”
“I’m going to need a lot more than that. Are there more of you? Who at
tacked you? Why didn’t you stay and fight?”
Tears filled her eyes once again. She never used to cry so much, but staring at these five men and what she’d gone through, everything was all just too much.
“Humans. Hunters. They attacked my pack. We’re the only female pack for miles, and they came for us. There were a few mated couples, a couple of males, but we’d been together for so long. My pack was formed of mostly unmated women who had been cast out of their packs, and they’d formed one themselves. Only mated males were allowed anywhere near them. The humans, we didn’t even have a warning. They were there. They killed so many, and they were trying to take us. I was told to run. Ordered to. I couldn’t stay and fight.” She wiped the tears away that dropped on her cheeks. “I don’t know if anyone survived or not. They were … it was all too much.”
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” another of the men said, coming forward.
Before he could touch her, Luther caught his arm.
“Damn it, Luther.”
“I don’t care. We don’t know if she’s feral.”
“I’m not feral,” she said. “I just watched my entire pack get attacked. Most of them are dead, and I was told to run. I kept on running, but I thought I was being chased.”
“Humans were following you?” Luther asked.
“At first. I don’t know if I lost them though. Everything happened so fast, and I couldn’t control anything. They surrounded me.” She stared down at her lap, needing to forget. They were her people. Now they were gone. “I didn’t come to your pack to invade it or to hunt you. I didn’t mean to come this far. I just needed safety, and I was getting so tired. I’d been running for two days straight and I had to stop.” She looked up at Luther. His figure blurred. “I mean you no harm.”
Silence met her words.
“Go and shower. Noah will tell you where. You’ll find a clean pair of clothes. Do not even think of escaping. It won’t do you well.”
She nodded her head, getting to her feet. They hurt so bad, and she whimpered, nearly falling to the floor. Before she hit the ground, Noah had picked her up.