by Hettie Ivers
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Warmest Regards,
Hettie
Acknowledgements
To my awesome professional editor big sis: Thank you for un-dangling my modifiers, un-splitting my infinitives, and for leaving editing comments like, “Did you really mean for Kai to sound like a serial killer/cannibal here? I’m just checking.” You are the best, and I love you dearly!
To my amazing saint of a husband: Thank you for raising our son these past several months while I was either working at the office or at home lost in my head writing about werelocks. I love you like crazy and I am forever thankful for how supportive you have been of this hobby of mine.
To Shannon, Sheena, Lauren, Joan, Shani, Paige, Jen, Chelsea, Alicia, and Eagle-Eye Erin: Thank you for being early readers/beta testers/bouncers-of-ideas at various points in this process for me. I sincerely appreciate your honest feedback and your kind encouragement for this story! A special thank you to Alicia and Sheena for tweaking Tobias’s cockney accent.
A HUGE thank you to Sheena for tirelessly spreading my name, banners, and covers all over Facebook on a daily basis. I don’t know what I did to deserve your support, but you’re beyond amazing, and I really appreciate you!
To the “Werelocker Room” ladies (I still crack up whenever I see that name pop up in my social media alerts, btw): You ladies rock! Thank you for your awesomely thorough dissection and analysis of this series. I’m so not worthy, but I sure do appreciate your love and fascination with my werelock characters!
To the ladies of the H.I. Readers Anonymous Group: There’s nothing quite like having a virtual village of like-minded women to keep me giggling throughout the day. THANK YOU for your awesome friendship and support, werelock character chats, and for the countless hours of fun, laughter, and fantastic female camaraderie!
THE REMEDY is coming…
Ready for Remy & Jussara’s enemies to lovers tale?
His throat worked. Awareness slowly broke across his features. It only made Jussara’s pulse beat faster. “My God,” he murmured, more to himself than to her. “I should’ve …”
He should’ve realized.
He should have known.
His hands dropped from the fencing on either side of her. Rather than feel relief as he took a step back, affording her space, Jussara’s stomach knotted and her cheeks flushed with a different kind of heat as Remy’s brows pulled together and his jewel-green eyes assessed her with an emotion she’d never wanted to see from him: pity.
“It was never about disdain for your own species,” he said, his gaze uncompromising. “It wasn’t so much blind arrogance that your mother instilled in you as it was …”
It was fear.
He didn’t need to say it. So he didn’t. He could scarcely believe what an idiot he’d been. For all this time. It was so obvious. And he was supposed to be an empath!
But Jussara had been such a raging spitfire bitch for as long as Remy had known her. Even now, as he watched, her emotions shuttered—while her irises flashed a warning yellow.
Remy’s fists clenched at his sides as he fought a mad urge to reach out and comfort the woman who looked as if she was about to hiss and swipe at him like a cornered animal. He saw now that Jussara must’ve lived her whole life feeling cornered and on the defensive within their pack.
He tamped down the crazy impulse to take her in his arms and swear to her that she had always been safe here—that no one in their pack had ever meant her harm. Because it was a lie. And Jussara was hardly naïve or stupid enough to believe it.
Remy himself had lobbied to snuff out Jussara’s life before she’d been born. Her lineage had marked her as an enemy within their pack from day one. Even now, when she was arguably more accepted than she had ever been, Alex had asked Remy to spy on Jussara’s emotions—because Alex still didn’t fully trust in her loyalty.
And Remy didn’t trust himself at present not to do something he’d regret as the scent of Jussara’s heat cycle mingled with that of her rising anger … and underlying fear. She intoxicated him—with her savage yet regal beauty and her stormy emotions.
She was an empath’s wet dream. She was also pure poison. And he wanted to suck and fuck every last deadly drop of her.
“I’ll walk you back,” he offered instead.
“I’ll walk myself.” She planted her palm against his chest and shoved as she pushed off the fence behind her.
He staggered back several paces, but quickly regained his balance, and his hand instinctively latched onto Jussara’s wrist as she made to pull away and run off in the direction of her house. Remy questioned whether his sanity had finally snapped when he found himself twisting Jussara’s wrist behind her back and leveraging his body weight to pin her front against the iron fence.
She growled and lashed out at him with her free hand, drawing blood as she raked her nails across his face. If anything, it made his giant erection that was pressed against her jean-encased ass even harder.
He obviously had a death wish, because he had no intention of backing down and walking away now.
It took longer for him to capture and pin her second wrist behind her back to join the first as Jussara’s true panic set in, causing her to twist and thrash wildly against him. He narrowly dodged a crack to the nose when she reared back and attempted to head-butt his face with the back of her skull.
He sensed the moment she intended to shift into her wolf form to aid her escape, and he didn’t hesitate to use his superior rank within the pack to his advantage. “You may not shift, Jussara,” he ordered. “You will remain in human form until I say otherwise.”
He didn’t command her submission, though. Didn’t so much as suggest she stop fighting him. And she didn’t. She managed to head-butt the underside of his jaw, stomp on his instep several painful times, and land multiple kicks to his shins that would’ve shattered the bones of a human man—all while throwing profanity and death threats at him.
Remy welcomed the abuse. Perhaps, because he felt guilty for his recent spying on her. Guilty for how he’d behaved toward her and her late mother since the moment he’d first learned of their arrival in Morumbi.
But more than that, he welcomed the abuse from her because he understood her need to deliver it. Remy knew no matter how imperative it was that Jussara allow herself to be vulnerable with someone right now, she couldn’t actually handle the thought of being vulnerable.
If he was going to seduce her, he’d have to make her feel that she had control over the situation. And God help him, he was going to seduce her. Even if it meant Alcaeus killing him.
The fight didn’t leave her until finally he wedged his free hand between her body and the iron fence to cup her sex through her jean shorts.
She froze—her entire body going rigid as immediately she recognized that if she continued to struggle, squirm, and kick, it would cause her overly sensitized, throbbing clit to rub against his hand. And then she might truly lose it—in an entirely different way.
Remy had smelled how wet she was before. Now he could feel it through the fabric of her shorts. He waited, listening intently as her heart rate sprinted and her labored breathing became even more erratic.
“I’ll tell Alcaeus,” she threatened breathlessly at last.
Predictable.
Desperate.
Delightful.
It took effort to keep the smile that broke on his face from his voice as he tightened his grip on her wrists pinned to her back and asked, “Will you?” He rolled his hips—and his erection—against her ass. His mouth dipped to graze the shell of her ear. “And then what will happen, Juju?”
He’d never called her Juju before. Had never planned to—not until a few nights ago when he’d entered her sex dream and had witnessed the way she’d responded to her dream version of him address
ing her by the pet name. When he heard her breath catch and felt her pelvis unconsciously tilt into his hand, he knew he’d made the right move in using it now.
“He’ll kill you for touching me.” Her voice was shaky, despite the underlying confidence in her words.
“Probably,” he agreed. “Suppose I don’t care?” He pressed a kiss to the side of her head, pausing to inhale the earthy sweet fragrance of her hair. “What if I think that helping you through your heat cycle tonight would be worth facing Al’s wrath?”
Her swallow was audible. “You’re not thinking clearly. You’re reacting to my scent.”
A chuckle escaped him. “I do believe you’re worried for my safety. That’s quite touching.”
“I don’t give a fuck about—”
“I’ll make you a deal.” His fingers flexed lightly against the seam of her shorts, causing her to mewl. “What if I promise to let you use me however you want through your heat cycle—just as you would one of those random human men in town that you intended to pick up and fuck tonight?”
Excerpt from SLIP OF FATE
(Werelock Evolution, Book 1)
I wasn’t sure what I’d expected to find when we approached the foyer, but the scene we came upon was far worse than any I could’ve envisioned.
There were more people gathered in the semi-cylindrical receiving area than before. We entered the open room, and Alessandra deposited me on my feet in time to see Felix suspended by his throat against a wall, his feet dangling at least a foot off the ground, his broken arms hanging uselessly at his sides.
A tall, dark-haired, formidable man in a tuxedo was holding him up by the neck with just one hand. Felix’s eyes bugged out in horror and his face went from red to purple to blue while the cruel man, whose face was turned from me, proceeded to mercilessly crush his windpipe.
My first instinct was to scream at the faceless, heartless man to stop and let him go, but the words died in my throat and ice coursed through my veins as he leaned in closer to my dying abductor and rasped, “No deal, Felix. I’ve no need of Raul’s worthless sister. Not as bait, as a trade for your son, or otherwise.”
He spoke in a forbidding, deep whisper, presumably meant for Felix’s dying ears, yet the words were clearly heard by everyone in the otherwise silent hall as they resonated off the stone walls.
“Raul’s dead,” he hissed. “I saw to it myself days ago. And thanks to you, his sister will be dead soon, too.”
Time and space ceased to exist as I sought to reconcile the meaning of his words. Raul was dead?
“So you’ve wasted your time,” he sneered, “forfeited four lives, and shortened your son’s allotted time left by coming here and interrupting my dinner.”
He’d died just days ago?
Raul was dead?
I’d never borne witness to much violence in my lifetime, let alone seen a man murdered right before my eyes, and yet I barely registered the visual of Felix’s eyes rolling back and becoming lifeless as the final vestiges of his very being were squeezed from him.
I don’t know how long I stood stock still, my own eyes wide and glazed over with terror, before the dark-haired devil whom I knew had to be the infamous Alex turned away from his fresh kill to visibly sniff in my direction like some depraved, wild animal honing in on his next unfortunate prey.
As his cold, dark eyes alighted upon me, they widened perceptibly. Felix’s dead body was dropped like a sack of trash a millisecond later as the dinner party host I’d so erroneously assumed would be civilized turned his imposing frame in my direction.
He was darkly handsome like Alcaeus, with facial features that more closely resembled Remy’s, but with none of the playfulness or boyishness of either of the two men. And his eyes were unlike any of his siblings’. They were a deep, dark shade of brown. His jet-black hair was cropped short, and he was expertly groomed and outfitted as if he’d stepped off the pages of GQ.
On the surface, he appeared the perfect male specimen. I was certain many of the girls I’d gone to school with would’ve fallen all over themselves just to gain a moment of his attention. But beneath his polished veneer, I knew he was just a monster. A brute who had murdered my brother. And never before in my life had I wished more horrific, fatal harm upon another human being as I now fervently hoped to befall him.
As he breathed deeply in and out, audibly inhaling as if to suggest he could actually smell me from across the foyer, he seemed to regard me much like Alessandra first had—as if he was encountering an apparition.
Then his eyes widened further, and I could’ve sworn the most unfathomable expression of pure elation and inconceivable rapture transformed his confused, horrified features for the briefest of moments.
Strangely, it reminded me of the expression on the face of this lost little boy I’d helped once at the mall—his look upon laying eyes on his mother when they were at last reunited. It was an odd amalgamation of unmitigated joy mixed with relief juxtaposed against the profound terror of realizing one’s own supreme vulnerability for the very first time. The face of one who’d just been saved but would never be the same again for that rescue.
Only in this case, the man before me still appeared hopelessly lost. And judging from the way his expression swiftly morphed into that of unadulterated rage, I wasn’t sure he’d wanted to be found at all—much less saved.
“Fuck,” Alessandra swore under her breath at my side.
Fuck was right. I was sure if eyes could spit fire, Alex’s would have charred me alive already.
And then they did. Either I was going completely mad or his irises had turned a bright golden yellow color as they glowered wildly at me.
Alessandra whisper-swore again as every single pair of eyes in the room seemed to fixate upon me in marked disbelief.
Alex’s lips pulled back into a snarl, and a deep, unearthly growl vibrated up from his chest and ricocheted off the walls.
“No,” he ground out in a low, deathly grim rumble that sounded more animal than human. “Not mine!”
I hadn’t a clue what he’d meant by that proclamation, but I was pretty sure any small chance I’d had of surviving the night had just evaporated.
“This … can’t be happening,” Alessandra stammered cryptically. “You’re … human … you’re Raul’s sister … ”
“Fuck me sideways!” I heard Alcaeus’s voice buoyantly exclaim. “No wonder she smells so good and I feel so protective.”
My eyes darted to where Alcaeus stood a few feet from Alex. He was grinning from ear to ear like a man who’d just won the lottery. Earlier he’d wanted to save me from Alex. And now, right as I was about to be murdered in cold blood, he looked ready to celebrate.
“Well, isn’t this just a juicy slice of poetic justice?” He chuckled, slapping a thoroughly unamused Alex on the back.
“Alex, please meet Raul’s little sister and my new best friend, Milena,” Alcaeus introduced with a flourish.
“She’s injured,” he added happily to the otherwise silent, tension-saturated room. “Head trauma,” he informed the incensed-looking Alex with glee. “You might want to get right on that, in fact, because Remy and I weren’t able to get her to cooperate long enough to heal it.”
“Alcaeus, please stop?” Remy’s distressed voice implored. He was standing on the other side of the room. He didn’t seem to find the situation as funny as Alcaeus did. “This is not the time to antagonize him. Think of Milena.”
My eyes darted back and forth across the room from Remy to Alcaeus to Alex. Remy was right. Whatever Alcaeus was doing seemed to be exacerbating the situation and escalating Alex’s level of ire. His face was flushed and he’d begun growling at the mention of Remy and Alcaeus’s failed attempt to heal my head injury. But Alcaeus waved off Remy’s warning.
“I mean, sure,” Alcaeus broadcast to the room as he absorbed Alex’s every strained reaction with relish, “she enjoyed me licking her inner thighs all right, and she most definitely enjoyed Remy kissing her
,” he said with a mischievous wink in Remy’s direction, “but in general she doesn’t much care for warlocks creeping around inside her head. Isn’t that right, my dear?” He looked to me for confirmation.
I shook my head in bewilderment. Alessandra was now swearing like a sailor next to me. Alex hadn’t ceased growling; his unearthly yellow eyes raked over me as he fisted his hair and his whole body shook with barely suppressed fury—the personification of a geyser ready to blow.
“Alex, please?” Remy beseeched, “I beg you, please don’t hurt her. None of this is her fault. Take your anger out on me.”
Alcaeus snorted. “He’s not going to hurt her. He might be a stubborn, bitter asshole, but he’s never been stupid.”
I didn’t know what the deuce was happening or what they were talking about. All I knew was that Alex had begun cursing a blue streak and yanking at his tie until he’d torn it to shreds in frustration from his neck. He’d just managed to shrug out of his fancy tuxedo jacket when suddenly with an angry roar he burst from his own skin before my very eyes!
Buttons went flying and expensive-looking fabric was torn to shreds as an enormous, viciously snarling black and grey wolf took the place of the enraged man faster than I could blink.
Werewolf!
Almost all the other occupants in the room parted and backed away, bowing their heads in deference to the beast and affording him greater space as with hackles raised he took his first horrifying step forward in my direction.
My mouth fell open and I instinctively took a miniscule step backward. Alessandra’s hand shot out and captured my wrist.
“No! Don’t move,” she warned.
The beast increased his growling and snarling the moment she grabbed me, prompting Alessandra to swear and release my wrist.