by Piper Fox
Kidnapped by Her Mate
An Ironhaven Pack Romance
Piper Fox
Contents
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Late Night Molotov Cocktails
Hot-blooded
Temptation for Two
The Power of a Mate
Epilogue
Also by Piper Fox
About the Author
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Late Night Molotov Cocktails
Lexi had had it up to her nose with the damned Bellemare mayor and his bullshit, low-balled offers for her ranch.
He could’ve at least had the decency, the respect, to send an offer that covered the value of the land.
Propping her shotgun up against her shoulder, she stared down the latest representatives sent by Mayor Dickhead. “I suggest you get off my land before I find out how fast you wolves can run with buckshot in your asses.”
“Now, ma’am, there’s no need for that. We’re just here to talk.” The guy in front barely looked more than eighteen, holding his hands up like he was in a hostage situation. “The Mayor just wants us to deliver this offer.”
“You can deliver it up his ass. You’re not leaving it anywhere on my property.” Her finger twitched on the trigger, tempted to fire off a round just shy of their feet.
She wondered if wolves could dance.
Mayor Dickhead’s voice wafted over to her. “Come on, Lexi, we both know it’s just a matter of time before you sell to me. Bellemare needs the expansion.”
“And you can have it over my dead body, Zain. You have no authority here, on Ironhaven land.” She shifted the muzzle of her shotgun toward the mayor, perturbed that he was lurking in the shadows.
At least the Ironhaven Alpha didn’t hide behind bureaucracy or titles. If Merrick wanted something for the town, or something for anyone else, he came right out and said it himself. He didn’t make the pack betas to do his dirty work.
“It won’t be for long. You’re the last holdout. It’s just a matter of time, so you may as well give in.” He stared her down, his eyes flashing red.
It was the only sign that the man in his tailored suit was a wolf. Lexi couldn’t help but wonder when the last time he even shifted. Even Roark, who went years before shifting again, looked more beastly than the man standing in front of her.
“And I’ll keep holding out. So, why don’t you take these boys and get back over the border, before I call in the Ironhaven Alpha? Maybe we should see once and for all who the real Alpha is around here.”
Zain scowled as he took one more step toward her porch. “It would be in your best benefit to sell, Lexi. It’s an awful lot of land, and a huge house for just you. Surely, you’d be more comfortable in something more suited for one?”
Lexi let a shot fly, just over Zain’s head, for that comment alone. Although she would’ve preferred to fire it off a little lower, just to wipe that smug smile off his face. “Like I said, I’ll continue holding out.”
Zain backed up again, and barked at the other wolves, “Come on. She’s clearly not in a hospitable mood.”
Lexi kept her shotgun aimed at their backs until their tires crossed the property line and their taillights faded into the dusk light.
She shook her head as she headed inside, leaving the shotgun by the front door just in case.
She couldn’t believe the audacity of the Bellemare pack. It was bad enough that they came around, harassing her when she set up a stand to sell her produce, but to show up this late in the evening, when she needed to finish her chores around the farm.
But then, of course Mayor Dickhead would show up when she was busy. It was like he had a sixth sense about her work schedule.
She wouldn’t have put it past him to have one of those young wolves spying all day, just to find when it would be the least convenient for them to stop by.
Grumbling under her breath, Lexi pulled on her cowboy boots and tried to ignore the pangs of truth in what Zain said.
It was a lot of property, more than she could really take care of on her own. She’d often daydreamed about having a partner, a family. People who would love the land as much as she did.
As much as her parents had before they passed.
Parting with the land, no matter the price Bellemare was willing to pay, would be like giving up a piece of herself. A piece she wasn’t willing to part with.
Shaking her head, she considered calling up the sheriff’s department. Maybe asking for a few deputies to drive past more often, just to keep the Bellemare pack at bay.
But it was her land, and at the end of the day, she was going to be the one to protect it.
Lexi finished getting ready and had her hand on the knob of the back door when she heard the glass break.
Cursing, she ran for the front of the house, only to skid to a stop when smoke hit her nose.
“No. No, no, no.” She grabbed a scarf from the back of a chair and wrapped it around her face, trying to find the source of the fire.
Soon, the whole living room was a haze of grey as she stared in horror at the carpet, the curtains, the couch, all ablaze. Coughing, she dropped to her knees and crawled to the front door. Her lungs burned, her knees ached, and her eyes felt like they’d been blasted by a dryer on high heat. None of that even compared to the pain of watching the home she grew up in, the home she’d made for herself after her parents died, go up in flames.
The wait between dialing 911 and the sound of sirens in the distance seemed to take forever, as the fire licked at the front of her house, devouring everything in their wake.
Lexi held her breath as the bright red and white engine pulled across the yard and firemen started piling out. They moved in a flurry of action, pulling hoses, spraying water, calling out orders back and forth like a well-oiled machine.
Lexi was so focused watching them, hoping there would be something left of the house to salvage, she didn’t notice the hug hulking man walking up.
“Ms. Perry, can you tell me what happened here?”
She swallowed as she looked up at him, her mouth suddenly dry. Of course, in her trauma, the fireman who showed up would have to be him.
Garrett Tyler was by far the hottest firefighter on the force. And he knew it. The man rarely wore a shirt, and any time he washed the engines outside the station, he drew a crowd of the most eligible women in Ironhaven, even though they tried to pass it off as going about their daily business.
He wasn’t the only wolf in the department, but he was the only one who had a recurring, starring role in her fantasies. Ones that made her regularly stock up on batteries.
And now he was talking to her.
“I was getting ready to go feed the horses, and something crashed through the window.” Her heart was in her throat, thinking about all the damage.
He reached out and cupped her shoulder with his oversized hand. “We’re doing everything we can. Just take a breath.”
Lexi shook her head. “It’s my everything.”
“I know it’s hard.” He gingerly wrapped his arm around her shoulders and turned her away from the blaze. “Is there anyone who’d want to hurt you?”
She cursed and then she was coughing. “You think this was intentional?”
“I could sugarcoat it, but I’ve seen the way you are around town, when you come in. I’m guessing you prefer candor.” He shook his head. “It smells like gasoline. And some sort of grain alcohol. Unless you water your flowerbeds with fuel, this was targeted.”
Lexi broke his hold on her and let out a frustrated scream. “Are you fucking kidding me? Oh, I’m going to kill them.” She wheeled around. “You know, this wouldn’t be a fucking issue if your damn Alpha would just take care of the Bellemare issue.” She jabbed two fingers into his rock-hard chest. “This rivalry between the packs doesn’t just affect him and the fucking wolves. But do any of you really see that? Does the Sheriff do more than just send out a couple teenagers around once in a while to help with the harvest?” She rolled her eyes. “Of course not!”
“If you need more help around here, you know you’d have wolves lining up for the first apples from your orchard every season.” Garrett’s lips quirked into a half smile before he let his face fall stoic again. “Of course, I’m sure there would be plenty of wolves who’d take a bite out of your sweet curves instead.”
Lexi’s flush shifted from anger to another kind of heat, and she looked down, away from his overly golden-brown eyes, his chiseled jaw. “You can’t just flirt with me and make me forget that someone lit my house on fire.”
“Believe me, Ms. Perry, when I start flirting with you, the only thing as hot as fire will be between us.” This time, he didn’t try to hide his smile as he grabbed her elbow and pulled her in close, almost close enough to touch. “But it’s working, isn’t it?”
Lexi forced her eyes to look up from his strong, firm lips, to meet his gaze. She didn’t need to think about his kiss. Or his teeth. No matter how much she knew she’d be working in that bite into her fantasies once she got her house back in order. “The only thing distracting me from the fire behind me right now is knowing that the next Bellemare wolf who steps foot on my property is losing a body part. And if it’s that damn mayor, I’m taking his head.”
Garrett chuckled. “I have no doubt you could, Ms. Perry.”
She hated that he really was disarming her anger some, that for a few seconds at a time, she forgot that everything she loved was getting reduced to kindling and ash. And she hated that as close as he was standing, all she could smell was a scent that was one hundred percent man—musky, manly, and something she wanted to rub up against.
After an eternity, the remains of her house were still steaming, but the fire was out. And the front half of her home was completely gone.
Staring at it felt like a knife to her chest, but she didn’t feel like she could look away. How was she going to rebuild? How was she supposed to keep living like this?
“Do you have somewhere you can stay? I’ll get the sheriff to assign some deputies to keep an eye on the place. Chuck and Trevor can come by, look after the horses. You’re not alone in this.”
“You don’t have to fuss over me, Garrett. Wolves from both packs have had a hand on my property long enough, and no matter how much you all scent the borders, the Bellemares keep coming back, keep sniffing around.” Lexi shook her head and sighed. “I’ll stay somewhere else tonight, but I’ve got to figure this out on my own.”
The rest of the crew was loaded up, and one of the other firemen whistled at Garrett to join them.
“If you need anything, you call me, all right? I’m pretty good with my hands.” That damned smirk came out again, and once more it almost felt like Garrett was flirting.
If only. Lexi had no doubt he had his pick of the women in town. She’d heard plenty of the gossip flying from the rumor mill about the firefighter and his kissing abilities, but none that had stuck. She was certain he was just flirting with her to distract from the dismal situation.
Not because there were any real feelings there.
Hot-blooded
Garrett couldn’t help but watch Lexi as she disappeared into the night.
The curvy blonde spit more fire than a dragon, and when she was riled up, her eyes almost glowed like a wolf’s. He had no doubt she was going to do something incredibly stupid as soon as she was alone again.
“We calling in an arson expert, or what?” Kris, another firefighter, lightly punched Garrett on the shoulder, drawing his attention away from thoughts of Lexi and her stubbornness. “I saw your nose twitching out there.”
“We can call him in, but we’re not going to be able to trace much. And if we mark it arson, she’ll probably just have more trouble with her insurance than it’s worth.” Garrett sighed. “This is a pack problem. I’ll talk to Merrick once we get back to the station, make sure we get some wolves looking out for her.”
Kris shook his head. “You know, your brothers in the department care about you as much as your pack does. And I haven’t seen you look at a woman like you were looking at Lexi. You got the hots for her?”
Garrett chuckled. “I’m not looking for a mate any more than you’re looking for a wife. She just needs someone watching out for her. Someone protecting her.”
“And you think that someone should be you?”
“Don’t see anyone else lining up. Trevor and Chuck do a good enough job during the day, helping her with the land and with the horses, but…”
“But you want to be the one with your eyes on her at night. Or maybe it’s your tongue?” Kris waggled his eyebrows at Garrett. “Maybe this one you’ll finally kiss on the lips.”
Garrett shrugged, knowing full well he wouldn’t go there with Lexi Perry. Or any of the women in Ironhaven. Mates brought trouble. They distracted wolves, made them miss signs, and they had the single greatest power at breaking an otherwise unstoppable beast.
Even watching Roark find the woman who made him whole again, made him heal, wasn’t enough to damper the pain of seeing his brother lost to the grief of losing a mate.
He appreciated that some of the wolves had found mates and that the pack and the town were healing after everything that had happened. Ironhaven deserved to heal and move forward again. Though, Garrett wasn’t sure if they should be celebrating yet. They didn’t know if the curse was still lingering and whether it was just a matter of time before the new mates were taken too.
He hoped and prayed that the curse was over, but he wasn’t willing to risk it.
Instead, Garrett stayed with safer options. Women who didn’t make his wolf antsy. Women he was in no risk of planting a hungry, rough kiss on.
But Lexi was a different sort of woman altogether.
Curvy, sexy, and so completely immune to the things that the rest of the town seemed to drool over.
The engine pulled in at the station and Garrett hopped out, stripping out of the heavy gear as he made his way inside. His shift was almost over, and he fully intended to go back and make sure Lexi really had gone somewhere else for the night.
Kris and the rest of the crew headed off in all directions, and as quickly as Garrett could, he called and set up patrols with the sheriff’s department and with the pack. The way he figured it, humans and wolves both would be better than just one.
As soon as he could, he hopped in his red 1967 Chevy Camaro and headed straight back to the scene of the fire.
“Damn it, Lexi!” He growled over the roar of the engine as he pulled up. The woman was hauling charred beams and ashen, misshapen chunks of her home into piles.
As he killed the engine, he let out a roar of frustration before he stormed over to her. “What in the hell are you still doing here?”
Lexi rolled her eyes at him and kept working. “I told you I’d sleep somewhere else. I didn’t say I was leaving right away.”
Garrett snarled at her as he grabbed her wrist and made her drop the board in her hands. “You were in a house fire, Lexi! This isn’t just a regular bout of spring cleaning. Those fucking Bellemare wolves aren’t just going to stop at a little destruction of property.” He hauled her against him, her soft curves colliding against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her like a boa constricto
r surrounding its prey. “You’re not fireproof.”
She scoffed, “And you’re not my keeper, Garrett. I’m a grown woman, not a child. I don’t need some playboy fireman who can’t even keep track of his shirt telling me what to do.” She stomped on his foot. “Now let me go so I can get back to work.”
Garrett didn’t even think about it as he just raised his hand and swatted her across the ass. It wasn’t particularly hard, but if she was going to act like a petulant child, he’d treat her like one.
He wasn’t expecting the moan that followed, though. Gods, was she into a little rough play? The image of her tied to his bed, completely at his mercy, with those supple, thick curves shaking with need and from the force of his cock filled his head, almost a demand from his wolf.
Like the beast within craved this human.
His wolf had always been ambivalent toward the women Garrett bedded. How was it, after one quick swat on her ass, now he wanted more?
Testing the theory, or maybe just because he wanted to test her reaction, he smacked her ass again, a little harder this time.
There was no denying the moan this time. Or the way his wolf perked up more at the new scent in the air of Lexi’s arousal.
“Let. Me. Go.” She stared up at him, as she pushed against his wall of a chest, her cheeks flushed red, her lips parted just slightly, as if they were begging for a kiss and for his tongue, or something bigger, sliding between them.
“Are you going to get in your truck and head to a friend’s house for the night?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re not my boss, Garrett.”
He smirked, wondering just how much she’d actually enjoy being bossed around by him. “Then I’m not letting you go.” He moved so fast, scooping her into his arms and over his shoulder so her ass was in the air.