Her True Wolf

by Kamryn Hart

  Casey moved faster, determined to keep Otto from slinking into the river if he hadn’t already. He slowed when he saw a burly figure standing on the river’s edge. He was showing off his yellowed teeth with a satisfied smirk.

  “Your woman is feisty. I was wondering what the big deal was when I saw you walking past The Red Maiden only to peek in through the window. I got even more curious when I realized you do it every fucking night the cocktail waitress regulars call Firecracker was at work. The name fits her, don’t you think? Her hair. Her lips. Cherry red and delicious,” he taunted as he licked his lips.

  “Fuck off,” Casey growled. “Never touch her again.”

  “I’ll do whatever I damn well want, beta wolf. I’m the shifter in charge of complex C. The only alpha there. You can’t tell me to do anything. Besides, what are you so pissing mad about? If you really wanted your precious little Firecracker, you would have fucking taken her by now.”

  Casey had no desire to hear any more vitriol. He ripped off his clothes and called to his wolf. He shifted in record time. His bones and skin had never reformed so fast. It was like an explosion all over his body, energizing him as his wolf body took over. He didn’t even feel the pain in his bleeding left arm or the gash above his right eye. Otto hadn’t started shifting yet when Casey dashed forward, completely wolf. He had never confronted Otto before because he was an alpha, strong, and not worth it. But now he was worth it. For Karol, his Fated Mate, anything was worth it.

  Casey had been watching over her almost every day since the day he met her. He wanted to comfort her when her mother died. He wanted to talk to her so many times, but he never could bring himself to let her know he was there. He had this sinking feeling that he wasn’t good enough for her. That, like she said to him that night, she wouldn’t want to see him. The way she pushed him away that night was always in the back of his mind. He started sending her family money instead. He asked Isabelle to take a cut out of his paycheck and give it to the Lee family every month anonymously. She agreed to do it, but the family was struggling as much as ever like they weren’t even using the money he sent them. Maybe they were saving the money. He hoped so. They needed a bigger house.

  With protecting Karol the only thing on his mind, Casey leaped for Otto who was now in the process of shifting. Casey’s teeth were bared, ready to close around Otto’s neck and bleed him for what he did to Karol. But Otto was ready for him. He threw out his arms as he continued shifting, so Casey had to latch his jaws onto one of his arms instead of his throat. Damn it.

  Determined, he held on tight to Otto’s arm as Otto’s human skin grew hard and leathery with little scales, pushing back against Casey’s teeth. He let go and fell back when Otto was shifted all the way to escape his monster sized mouth. Otto snapped his jaws, producing a large clapping noise each time his jaws came together. Casey growled and his hackles rose. Otto growled too and slapped the water with his tail. He shimmied back toward the river, but Casey couldn’t allow him to submerge himself.

  Instinct told him he was crazy for running at a fucking alligator like this, but he had to make sure his Fated Mate was safe—no matter the cost. That urge to protect overpowered everything else. Otto opened his mouth wide, ready to catch Casey in his gaping jaws as he swung his head wildly back and forth, but Casey managed to jump over the alligator’s mouth and onto his ridged back. He swiftly turned around and dug his teeth into Otto’s thick neck. His reptilian skin made it so Casey couldn’t dig in as deeply as he had hoped. Fighting an alligator was no easy task, but Casey was determined and squeezed his jaws harder, digging as deeply as he could.

  Otto hissed as he thrashed about. Casey didn’t have a good enough grip with his teeth and slipped. He would have been fine, but Otto’s tail smashed into his chest like a thick metal chain, sending Casey flying into a tree. The impact knocked the wind out of his lungs and he collapsed onto the ground, panting to get his breath back. His ribs were bruised, but he was fairly certain he hadn’t broken anything. Otto was scurrying toward him the next instant. Casey forced himself onto all four paws before his body was ready. He managed to stagger a few steps, but he couldn’t get far enough away to stop Otto from clamping his jaws down on Casey’s left back paw.

  Luckily for Casey, Otto only managed to get his paw with the tip of his mouth. Casey ripped his paw out of Otto’s teeth, ignored the pain, spun around, and slammed into Otto with all the power he could muster. He managed to shift the alligator onto his side, and then he rammed into him again, rolling him over onto his back. Casey leaped onto his stomach and tore into Otto’s meaty throat. He got in some good damage this time before Otto managed to kick him off of his stomach.

  Casey backed away and stood panting as he watched Otto get back to his feet. Blood spilled from his throat, and he held his head low. Casey was ready for another attack, but the fight had left Otto’s eyes. Casey won this fight. He just bested an alpha. Otto scurried into the river and disappeared, forfeiting the fight.

  Casey dropped to his belly, feeling the pain in his paw, his chest, everywhere really. He craned his neck to assess the bloody mess that was his left back paw. It’d heal, but it would take some time. It was a bad bite. His flesh had been torn apart. He needed to make sure to wrap it up so it could heal properly, and then he would be fine. He’d have to take it easy on himself and probably take time off work. At least he made sure Otto wouldn’t bother Karol again. Otto knew Casey would kill him if he tried anything like that again.

  Willing himself to stand, Casey began to shift. He winced as the shift made his foot worse. He bit his lower lip to ease through the pain as he proceeded to put on his clothes and one sneaker. He opted for carrying the other and limping around for a bit instead of shoving his injured foot into his other shoe.

  He needed to go back to The Red Maiden. His car was there. He wanted to check on Karol. Finally talking to her and touching her again made him wonder how the hell he went so long without doing it. He had been a coward. It was another reason he probably wasn’t worthy of her, but he wanted to be. God, he wanted to be. For whatever reason, they were Fated Mates. If he wasn’t worthy now, that didn’t mean he couldn’t be down the line. That didn’t mean he couldn’t take a fucking step up now and make an honest effort to build a relationship with the woman he had been pining for from a distance. The woman who said she didn’t want to see him again.

  He couldn’t keep thinking about that. It was time he got his shit together. He had been hiding way too long. If he hadn’t acted like such a coward for so long, the Otto thing never would have happened.

  Karol was in his thoughts with everything he did. He couldn’t bring himself to move on or try to forget her, to play around with other women to ease the ache he had for Karol, the woman he was supposed to have but didn’t. It hurt to watch her from a distance, but it hurt worse not to see her. These last three years had been pure misery. He would only be satisfied after he and his Fated Mate were united like they were supposed to be. It was time he did everything in his power to win her over. If he had only done that to begin with, he would have spared himself all of this suffering.

  But what if she didn’t accept him?

  He shook his head, trying to escape the self-doubt as he limped back to the bar. When he got there, he noticed the sign was turned off. There was a light coming from the window, and the door was ajar. It seemed Casey must have broken one of the hinges when he flung it open earlier. The inside of the bar was a complete mess, not that it was appealing to start with. Now it matched its customers. Karol’s scent was floating around among the ruin, but it wasn’t very strong.

  “Look how much money she cost me! Of course, I fired her!”

  Casey knew the man shouting from inside was talking about Karol. She got fired? That was the last thing she needed, but he couldn’t deny he was also relieved. He hated that she worked in that bar where men constantly thought they could take liberties with her. More than once, Casey had wanted to storm into the bar and whisk
her away, but he never did. She always handled things before they escalated. She was proud and never asked for help. The last time she saw Casey, she told him she never wanted to see him again, so it took a situation this bad for him to finally step up for his Fated Mate.

  Fucking coward.

  He limped away from the trashed bar and sniffed the air to catch Karol’s cherry scent. It led him to her home, the place he was hoping it would lead him. She had dealt with more than enough for one night.

  It was dark outside and inside of the small house that was steadily falling apart. He really hoped they were saving the money he gave them for something new. Fixing up this place would have been pointless. He walked over to the window and peered inside of the dark living room. The blinds were down, but he could peek around them enough to see Karol sitting on the couch, crumpled in on herself and alone. Maybe crying. The sight squeezed his heart. It was a far worse pain than his bruised ribs. He wanted to go inside and comfort her, hold her in his arms and reassure her that she was safe now.

  He looked at the door to his right. It would be so easy to knock. It’d also probably give her a heart attack. Not to mention his foot bleeding everywhere. He would only cause her more trouble. He eased back from the house and took in a deep breath. Not tonight. He limped away back to the street close to the bar where he had parked his modest Toyota Camry. He would go back to his apartment, clean up his wounds, mainly his foot, and give himself the rest of the night to heal up. He would confront Karol tomorrow.

  Maybe she would be angry. Maybe she would be happy. Whatever the reaction, he was going to do his damnedest to prove he had nothing but good intentions. He wanted his Fated Mate to be happy. She deserved happiness. She had gone too long without it. He was willing to sacrifice anything for that—even if it ended in her rejecting him. Whether she accepted him or not, she would always be his Fated Mate, and he would always be watching over her from somewhere.

  He would always be hopelessly in love with her.

  Karol was home in the dark living room. She was hunched over on a sunken in cushion of a worn out couch with her hands pressed to her face, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall and never stop. She took in shuddering breath after shuddering breath until she regained control.

  She lowered her hands to her lap and stayed hunched over as she stared into the dark nothingness in front of her. She replayed the night’s events in her head, trying to process what the hell had happened. The strength of the jackass who attacked her. Casey’s strength. Casey showing up just in time to save her from out of nowhere after a three-year absence. And now she didn’t have a job.

  She and her family lived day to day. Paycheck to paycheck. How were they going to survive now?

  She barely resisted the urge to bury her face in her hands and cry again. The light flickered on, startling her out of her despair. She turned her head to the two bedrooms at her right and saw Mary coming out of one. She shut the door quietly and limped over to Karol, using her cane for support.

  “What happened?” she asked in a hushed tone. Karol made room for her on the couch, and she sat down next to her. Mary’s brown eyes were filled with concern as she reached out her hand for Karol’s ruined skirt.

  “Trouble at the bar. I got fired,” Karol said, keeping her voice surprisingly even. “I should go change in case any of the kids wake up and see me like this.”

  “Are you okay?” Mary asked.

  “Physically? Yeah. I didn’t get raped.”

  Mary’s face contorted into a look of pain as she hugged Karol. Karol did her best not to wince. Her back was killing her. She knew it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be fixed on its own, so she was determined not to make a big deal out of it.

  “But I lost my job,” she said forlornly. “What am I going to do about money until I can find another job?”

  “Karol, don’t worry about it,” Mary cooed.

  “Don’t worry it?! We can’t live without money.”

  Mary struggled off the couch. Karol watched her in confusion as she walked to the other end of the room to a corner and dug at a floorboard with her cane. Karol got up to see what she was doing. Mary managed to move the floorboard aside, revealing a stash of cash stored underneath.

  Karol’s jaw dropped.

  “What is this?” she asked in disbelief.

  “Isabelle has been bringing us money every month for almost three years now. She said she was giving it to us for someone who wished to remain anonymous.”

  Karol stared at the cash. There was enough there to take care of the family while she looked for another job. There was enough to think about putting a down payment on a house. But no.

  “We don’t accept charity,” she said, folding her arms.

  Mary sighed. “That’s why Isabelle’s been bringing the money when you’re not home and why I’ve been hiding it. Karol, dear, even you can accept help sometimes.”

  “And owe someone favors? No thanks.”

  Then again, she owed Casey a big time favor for saving her neck at the bar. She didn’t know what to think about that. But she knew she didn’t want to owe anyone else.

  Karol got down on her knees, an easy enough task in her ruined red dress, and began unearthing the money.

  “How are you supposed to take care of your family if you don’t have a job?” Mary asked, starting to raise her voice.

  “Quiet,” Karol hissed. “I’ll get another job in a week, and everything will be fine. I’ll take care of it just like I always have. Honest work. Honest pay. I’m not going to use someone else’s money.”

  “It’s Casey’s money,” Mary says abruptly.

  Karol blanched. “What? I thought Isabelle didn’t tell you who the money belongs to.”

  “She told me he wanted to be anonymous, but she said she wanted me to know. She said I’d know the right time to tell you.”

  Karol was furious. “Casey?!” she practically roared. “I like how you all just assumed I’d remember him. I met the man once. Once!” she raised a finger, but her reaction had already given her away, so she couldn’t pretend she didn’t remember who he was now. “Fine. I’ll give him back every single penny because there’s no way I’m going to owe a man any favors.”

  She didn’t want to owe a man anything intentionally at the very least. Not money. Casey saved her at the bar. If he was a creep, he could expect something in return for that. She didn’t think he was like that though. He didn’t feel like that with the way he fought for her so furiously. Maybe she was blinded by her own absurd feelings for him. She doubted, and the fear that he was a bastard like every other man she had ever met was one of the reasons why she never asked for help from anyone—especially a man.

  She didn’t owe anything to anyone but her family. And now she found out Casey had been giving them money for years on top of him saving her tonight. She didn’t understand anything. Why was she so happy to see him? She felt like nothing could hurt her when he was there, but now she was doubting his intentions. Was he doing all of this to trap her into something? He must have been. For some reason, he wanted her. And she, stupid girl that she was, wanted him. She couldn’t have him. She was already dangerously infatuated with him. She’d fall in love with him, but she wouldn’t be able to keep him. She couldn’t afford to play with fire.

  “I don’t believe Casey is that kind of man,” Mary said quietly.

  Karol got back to her feet and pressed her hand against her bruised back.

  “Let’s get you cleaned up,” Mary offered, “and then get some rest for the night.”

  “Fine,” Karol relented.

  Mary hobbled to the bathroom while Karol grabbed a duffel bag and shoved all the money inside. After zipping it up, she left it there in the corner of the room and met Mary in the bathroom. After shutting her and Mary inside, Karol slipped out of her ruined dress. Mary gasped as she lightly pressed her hand to Karol’s back. Karol winced.

  “That’s a bad bruise. Maybe we should take you to a d
octor.”

  “No doctors,” Karol said adamantly. “We can’t afford it, and I’m fine.”

  Mary pressed a cold wet cloth to Karol’s back. It soothed the pain some. Mary continued to hold the wet cloth against her back as Karol stood in front of the sink and cleaned her face. She gingerly brushed through her wild red hair, careful of her sore scalp.

  The bruise was the only wound Mary was worried about. She told Karol to sleep on her stomach and to keep the cloth on her back when she turned in for the night, then she left the bathroom. Karol finished cleaning herself up. Then she dressed in her favorite huge sleeping shirt and some sweats. She picked up her worthless work dress and threw it in the garbage. She ran the cloth Mary gave her under cold water again, wrung it out, and left the bathroom.

  She picked one of the two rooms where about half of her siblings lay asleep. She found Cora, the youngest, shivering on the cold threadbare carpet because she had squirmed away from Greg. She was using her bright orange hair as a blanket now. She always seemed to manage to travel across the room in her sleep. Dale, the oldest after Karol, had the bed tonight.

  Karol lowered to the floor, lying down on her stomach next to Cora as she pulled her shirt up far enough to settle the wet cloth on her lower back. She let out a sigh of relief, reached out her arm, and pulled Kora next to her. For now, she could relax. She was with the people she loved. Tomorrow, she would contact Isabelle and get Casey’s information. Then she would return his money personally and make sure he knew she didn’t owe him anything.

  She would also overcome her senseless feelings for him because they didn’t do her any good. Facing him was the way to do it.

  Chapter 5

  OATMEAL WAS THE DAILY breakfast at the Lee house. Most of the time it was plain. When they were lucky, they could add some fruit or some brown sugar to change the taste. Today was a plain oatmeal kind of day, and it would be that way until Karol got a new job. She needed to be stricter and tighter with money than ever before now that she didn’t know when money would be coming in again.