Wolf Fated

by Nicole R. Taylor

  Marini’s expression hardened.

  “Did you ever love her?” A tear slid from my eye as the revolver shook in my hands.

  He stared at me and said nothing.

  “Answer me!”

  “Once,” he said, devoid of emotion. I drew in a shaky breath as he took another step towards me. “But she was stupid, just like you are now. Getting into bed with Chaser, planning a coup with Gasket, murdering Rick. Look at what you’ve brought down on the pack. You’re not better than me…you are me. You are my daughter. You are a Marini, Betty, but like you said yourself. You’re half her. Half murderer, half stupid. You’re damaged goods, little girl. That’s why you’ll never be able to pull that trigger.”

  My breathing quickened and rage boiled through my veins. He never loved me. He never cared. There was nothing inside him but greed, hate, and depravity.

  “You’re right,” I said, tossing the gun, which clattered to the ground. “I can’t pull the trigger.”

  Marini smirked. “Come with me and we’ll take down the Hollow Men together. Come with me, Betty, and I’ll show you what it’s like to be a Marini.”

  “It’s like I said,” I began, feeling the power of the moon come to life inside me, “I’m half you, Dad.”

  My body erupted in an inferno of pain as I turned, my limbs twisting and reshaping faster than I thought possible. My clothes ripped and fell away, fur sprouted, teeth elongated, and I lunged.

  I collided with a stunned Marini, knocking him flat on his back. My paws held him down and I snapped my jaws at his throat, the wolf taking control of the hunt.

  Warmth burst into my mouth as I tore flesh, ripping apart the werewolf beneath me. The one-time alpha of the Fortitude Wolves shredded like soggy paper until his struggle ceased.

  Standing over him, I watched as his blood bloomed from his chest, staining his shirt, and leaking into the grit underneath him. His gaze met mine and he let go of his last breath, the sound passing through me like his ghost had rushed through my body on its way to Hell.

  Lifting my head, I looked to the moon and howled.

  The alpha was dead.

  Chapter 27

  Chaser

  “Sloane!”

  I watched her sprint into the bush after Marini and sprang into action. I’d barely taken a step when a hand grasped my ankle. Looking down, I saw Rocket clawing at me, blood seeping from between his lips.

  “Bastard,” he rasped. “I’ll kill you, you piece of shit.”

  “Get the hell off me.” I aimed my gun, but he knocked my knee out from underneath me, and I stumbled.

  The shot went wide, ricocheting off the hard ground and disappearing into the darkness.

  Rocket lunged and knocked me to the ground. We fell in a heap, the force dislodging my grasp on my gun, and it skidded across the packed dirt of the clearing, but I didn’t need it. His movements were sluggish as we struggled, and it didn’t take me long to get him on his back.

  He was weak—the gunshot must’ve clipped an artery. Soon the blood loss would cause him to lose consciousness, and it would all be over. This was a last-ditch attempt to get another blow in before he bit the dust.

  “Coward,” Rocket exclaimed, thrashing beneath me. “You were never Fortitude.”

  “Of course not,” I said, curling my hands around his neck. “I was bound by magic, arsehole.” I squeezed, my face contorting as his eyes bulged.

  He deserves it, I thought. He deserves what he’s getting and then some.

  “Chaser!”

  I glanced up at Gasket, who’d appeared out of the smoke, and Rocket coughed beneath me. Just kill him, a voice in the back of my mind said. Just end it already.

  “We need him alive,” the wolf commanded.

  I felt the will of the talisman bear down on me and with a roar of frustration, I smashed my fist into Rocket’s temple and he went slack. With any luck, blood loss would get him before he woke up.

  Gasket eyed him before grabbing me. “We need you around the side,” he said. “We’ve got the rest of them boxed in.”

  I wiped the sweat off my forehead with the back of my arm. “How many?”

  “Hard to say, but we’ve got more.”

  “Where’s Sloane?” He glanced around, his forehead creasing. “Where is she?”

  I narrowed my eyes and nodded towards the bush. “Marini got out.”

  “What?” He took a step towards the darkness, but it was my turn to hold him back.

  “I want to go after her, too, but we’re stuck here. She knows what she’s doing.”

  “Are you sure about that? It’s her father out there.”

  My lip curled. “If you’re implying she’ll hesitate, I’d think again.”

  He snarled before pushing me off him. “We need to end this. Now.”

  He didn’t have to tell me twice.

  I picked up my gun and followed the old wolf around the corner of the cottage, ducking behind the row of cars and joining the others.

  I counted over our remaining men, knowing Hopper and DeLuca were out defending the women in the desert. We were down a few, but I knelt beside Spike, Watts, Stewie, Bones, Ram, and Ratchet. Behind another car were more faces I didn’t know but were on our side of the divide.

  “Rhodes?” I asked.

  “He was shot,” Spike said. “Butcher’s got him.”

  I nodded as Gasket peered around the end of the car.

  “It doesn’t have to be this way,” he called out over the expanse. “Throw down your weapons, and this can all end right now.”

  A voice echoed from behind their barricade. “Eat shit!”

  I raised an eyebrow. “That was creative.”

  “Fortitude as you knew it is over,” Gasket went on, ignoring my sarcasm. “We can’t go back now. Only forwards. Marini was leading the pack on a path to destruction, and you know it. Is that how you want to live your lives? Murdering for sport? That was never the Fortitude way.”

  “EAT. SHIT.”

  “I think they like the taste of shit,” I said, leaning against the car.

  “Courage in adversity,” Spike said with a sigh.

  “They’ve lost a lot of wolves,” Ratchet noted. “There’s gotta be only a dozen of them left.”

  “You want to shoot it out?” Ram asked. “We’re running out of bullets.”

  “So are they.”

  “Wait.” Spike slammed his fist against my shoulder, forcing my attention to shift from the standoff behind me to the darkness in front. “You hear that?”

  In the distance, a howl echoed on the wind and the entire clearing seemed to fall into an eerie silence—even the renegades froze.

  We stared at the shadows, every one of us tense, waiting to see what would emerge from the darkness.

  Finally, a wolf slunk out of the tree line, its jaws coated in blood. Her coat was almost black, with patches of chestnut, her eyes shining a rich copper. She was sleek, beautiful, and terrifying all at once.

  Sloane.

  Thumping Gasket on the chest, I went to meet her, my panic flaring as I ducked low in case the renegades opened fire. It was an emotion I hadn’t felt for a very long time, and it unsettled me to my core. Was she hurt? Did Marini…

  “Sloane?” I stood before her, but she didn’t shift.

  She stared up at me, her eyes sharp and calculating.

  “You know what to do,” I murmured, standing aside.

  She padded across the clearing, passing the wolves who’d pledged their allegiance to Gasket, and into the open. All eyes were on her, all of them stunned, and some trembling.

  She stood in the light of the burning cottage, the wind buffeting her fur, and even I felt the power of her presence. Everyone here couldn’t deny who she was anymore.

  The wolf who could turn at will. The wolf who had control over the moon itself.

  She’d killed Marini, his blood was all over her, but it was the bond of the alpha that forced them to see.

  The renegades mur
mured amongst one another, their voices rising. Some threw down their guns and fell to their knees, while others backed away. They made their choices and one by one, they moved.

  Some wolves submitted and others fled. It was that simple.

  Engines roared into life and I raised my head, the light from multiple headlights blinking across the clearing.

  “They’re on the run!” someone shouted, breaking the spell.

  “We can’t let them go,” Watts said.

  Sloane took a step towards me, her body quivering, then she turned.

  It was over in a second, her limbs elongating and snapping, her fur shedding, until she stood in front of the pack naked, smeared with dirt and blood. She blinked, dazed by the light, then collapsed.

  I rushed forwards and caught her in my arms before she hit the ground.

  Gasket slid to his knees beside us and pressed his palm to Sloane’s forehead. “She’s burning up.”

  “She…” I was having trouble reconciling that she’d torn apart her own father, and by the looks of it, so was she.

  “Go,” Gasket said. “Get her out of here.”

  I glanced at the retreating wolves.

  “They’re not your problem,” Gasket said. “Sloane can’t stay here. They know the truth and will use it against us. Against her.” He pressed the talisman into my hand. “Protect her, Chaser.”

  I nodded as he rose to his feet and strode across the yard, silhouetted by the fire. He lifted his fingers to his lips and whistled, the sound slicing through the air. “Everyone with me!”

  As the roar of revving engines filled the clearing, I scooped Sloane into my arms and carried her to the nearest car. The convoy tore out of the yard and onto the road, pursuing the remaining renegades towards the highway as I bundled her into the passenger seat.

  Fastening the seat belt, I paused, combing her bloodied hair away from her face with my fingers.

  The things she’d been forced to do… Her transformation… No wonder she’d collapsed. She wasn’t made for this. Killing her own father. No one should have to do that. No one at all.

  “It’ll be okay,” I murmured. “I’ll get you out of here.”

  Chapter 28

  Sloane

  I was vaguely aware I was dreaming.

  Cool air was blowing on my skin, making a strand of my dark hair flutter back and forth in the breeze. The tickling sensation on my neck roused me further, though I fought it with all I had. Waking wasn’t something I wanted to do right now. Out there, beyond my closed eyelids, was reality. And reality sucked.

  Despite my struggle, my eyes cracked open and I swatted at the stray hair, tucking it behind my ear. Raising my head, I glanced around the unfamiliar room. Was I dreaming? This place looked a hell of a lot like one of those nondescript motel rooms Chaser and I had stayed in during our road trip.

  The ceiling was slathered in that awful popcorn plaster I’d become so familiar with, and the closed curtains had a putrid floral pattern. The laminate floor was bubbling where it met the white walls, and there was a mildew stink that seemed to cling to everything—even the scratchy sheets on the bed were rank with it.

  Hell, this was one of those awful ‘…and then she woke up and found out it was all a dream’ plot devices movies used. I didn’t want to one-star review my life, but it was better than acknowledging the last two months were real.

  I pushed up, my head feeling like it was stuffed with cotton wool. Picking at my hair, I sniffed it. Smoke…and blood. I wet my lips. They tasted like blood, too.

  “Chaser?”

  Movement from across the room startled me. A chair scraped back, and he was there.

  “Sloane.” He sat beside me, his hand combing through my tangled hair.

  “It wasn’t a dream, was it?” I whispered, my eyes gritty and dry.

  He shook his head. “No. It was very real.”

  “Where are we? For a moment, I thought…”

  “We’re at a motel near the New South Wales border.”

  I jerked away from his touch and scooped the musty sheets around me. “But…”

  “We weren’t followed,” Chaser said, his forehead creasing. “No one knows we’re here.”

  “You’re doing it again,” I exclaimed. “You’re—”

  “Shh,” he murmured. “Listen to me. I won’t let anything happen to you, you hear?”

  He reached for me, and I let him pull me into his arms. Nestling into his neck, I clutched onto his T-shirt, feeling the hard plane of his chest. His heart was thrumming wildly underneath my palm. Ba-boom, ba-boom…

  “I killed him, Chaser,” I murmured. “I…”

  “I know.” His hand soothed over my back.

  One half of our revenge plan had come to fruition—albeit, not as planned—but at what cost? Had I shaved a piece of my soul off the moment I tore out Marini’s throat? He was a monster, but he was my father. He was my father.

  “What happened?” I asked with a shake of my head.

  “The renegades retreated,” Chaser explained, giving me a rundown. “We had the upper hand, but when you came out of the bush as a wolf… Some bowed to you, and some ran. Gasket and the others went after them, and I brought you here.”

  “The talisman?”

  “I have it.”

  I breathed deeply and pressed my hands over my face. “Good, I…” I hesitated. I’d expected more bloodstains, but my skin was clean. “Did you…?”

  “Bathe you?” He smirked and ran his hand through my hair. “Sure did.”

  “Pervert.”

  He chuckled, his smile changing his entire face. It was so startling, I hesitated, the thought triggering something else inside me. I’d changed, too.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Because I… Does that mean…? Am I alpha now?”

  “Technically, but they’ll follow Gasket until you’re ready.”

  I tensed. After everything that’d happened, I knew I wasn’t cut out for it. The bravado I’d had when I’d arrived at the compound was foolish and arrogant. I was the wrong choice if all it took was my abnormal abilities.

  “It’s his now,” I whispered. “I want him to have it.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, one hundred percent. Maybe one day, but not now. The pack will be reborn under Gasket for the better.”

  Chaser nodded. “Yes, it will.”

  Liberated from Marini’s psychotic rule, those who were left would flourish with Gasket at the helm. It would take a long time to build the pack back up, but maybe they’d become something better than they’d been. A true family.

  “What if they don’t find the renegades?” I asked. “They’ll come back for us, won’t they?”

  “They’ll always have it out for you,” Chaser replied. “You, me, Gasket, and the others.”

  “Good. If they come calling, I’ll be ready for them.”

  “You and me both.”

  Lifting my head, I rubbed my eyes, uneasiness making my stomach roll with nausea. “So what now?”

  “We rest, regroup, and plan,” he replied. “Nothing has to happen today.”

  “The Hollow Men…”

  “Sloane…” Chaser sighed and lowered his gaze as if he were suddenly shy.

  “Don’t do that.” Cupping his cheek, I gently lifted his chin. “You being vulnerable is too weird to handle.”

  He snorted, his lips quirking. “What have you done to me?”

  “I didn’t do anything,” I whispered, my heart swelling. “It was the stars, remember?”

  His lips met mine, and my arms snaked around his neck. Warmth spread through me as his tongue swept over mine, his touch electrifying my skin everywhere his fingers went. Up and down my spine, along the curve of my neck, sparking on my cheek. Finally, he pulled back, lingering as if he didn’t want to be parted from me.

  “Do you realise we don’t have to pretend anymore?” I asked, my lips brushing against his.

  “Yeah.” His admission w
as a sigh so heavy, it rooted itself in my soul.

  It’d taken a long time to get here, but now… We had one last hurdle before forever. The Hollow Men.

  He and I both knew it without having to utter the words. We’d talked about it at the compound and out in the bush under the stars where Chaser had shown me part of his soul. We’d talked about our future, but neither of us saw one unless our last enemy was put down and our demons were laid to rest.

  Chaser and I couldn’t love until both our pasts were buried. And he couldn’t truly be free until he was released from the magic binding him to the talisman.

  I combed my hands through his messy hair, not afraid of my feelings for him anymore. “We have today…then tomorrow, we begin.”

  “Tomorrow,” Chaser echoed.

  Tomorrow…

  OTHER BOOKS IN

  THE FORTITUDE WOLVES TRILOGY…

  Werewolves and vampires are embroiled in a war for supremacy and a troubled woman is in the centre of it all…only she doesn’t know it.

  Packed with suspense, action, and supernatural secrets, this series is sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats…

  Wolf Called #1

  Wolf Fated #2

  Wolf Hunted #3

  WOLF HUNTED

  (Fortitude Wolves - Book Three)

  A werewolf civil war. A vampire blood ritual. To stop both, werewolf Sloane will have to go to war.

  Barely escaping with their lives, Sloane and Chaser are on the run.

  The Fortitude Wolves are split down the middle, the Hollow Men are on their tail, and the threat of death hangs over their head at every turn. Their only choice is to keep their heads down and find a way to end the madness once and for all.

  Short on friends, Sloane is backed into a corner with little hope remaining. Her only way out is through a maniacal vampire who wants to sacrifice her in a blood ritual—which isn’t her idea of a happy ever after.

  But in the darkness of the Australian bush, an unexpected visitor may have the answer she’s been searching for. An answer to a question she never dreamed of asking.