by Skye Jones
Wolf in the City
Shifters of the Glen - Book Three
Published by Skye Jones
Copyright 2016 Skye Jones
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced or used without the written permission of the publisher.
All events depicted are fictional and any resemblance to places and persons is coincidental.
This work of fiction is intended for adults age 18 and over.
Editing by Lisa A Hollett at Silently Correcting your Grammar
Cover Design by DW Art and Design
Interior Layout by Rachel Medhurst
This book is dedicated to all the readers who have supported my writing. I am so incredibly grateful.
Acknowledgements
Thanks as usual go to my amazing critique readers, JM Stewart and Kimber Vale. You guys always make my stories better!
My editor Lisa A Hollett, who is simply fantastic.
To Rachel Medhurst for her formatting skills!
At the end of this story is a sneak peek of book four in the Shifters of the Glen series. This book is Boyd’s story, and was very close to my heart as I was writing it. Enjoy the snippet!
CONTENTS
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Epilogue
Wolf on the Run Preview
Prologue
Jake’s wolf growled and stirred, restless and demanding. It wanted gone from this hellish, hot place, where the pounding music upset its sensitive hearing. Jake tried to soothe it. He wanted gone, too. Half an hour more, and then he’d leave.
He stood off to one side in the heaving nightclub and used his position to look around and scent the air. He’d been in the city for two weeks now and not one single empathine sighting. He’d been to all the sorts of places people gathered…and nothing. His father, Adam, wanted to see if they could find more of the incredibly special humans who helped calm their inner wolf.
This impromptu trip to Edinburgh had been his dad’s idea, and at first, he’d happily agreed. An odd sort of restlessness made him relish the chance to get away from the pack for a while. And he loved Edinburgh. The gothic splendor always impressed him anew. But he’d had enough now, and both wolf and man yearned for the wilderness once more.
The pack elders might have more luck than he. They’d been going through the family trees of the two empathines who now lived with them to try to find more of the special humans, but so far, nothing.
The strobe lights flashed, and his head pounded harder. He looked like a creeper, a guy in a club alone. No friends with him. Women shot him heated stares, but once they figured out he’d come alone, they instead flicked the odd concerned glance his way. From hot guy to creepy weirdo, simply for not having a friend with him. The human mind worked in mysterious ways. Not that he cared. He didn’t want them, either.
He needed another drink. Weaving through the crowds, he headed to the bar. A man jostled him, and Jake bit back a growl.
“Keep your hands to yourself,” a female voice demanded, and the guy muttered a curse under his breath before moving off, out of Jake’s way.
About to move around the woman, Jake froze. In front of him stood the most gorgeous human. Tall and curvaceous, she wore a bright green dress which flared out around her hips and stopped short on her thighs. Her golden skin shone under the bright lights, and her dark hair glistened with shots of gold.
His wolf gave a low grunt of appreciation. She smelled divine, too. Her natural scent hit him, a shot of vodka to his senses. She wasn’t empathine, but gods, she smelled like all his dreams come true.
Jake let his gaze roam back up her body until he hit her eyes. Golden, warm-colored eyes, full of hostility. They were narrowed at him, and she cocked her head to one side.
“Seen enough?” she snapped.
Oh, he admired her spirit. He stood at least five inches taller than her, despite her own height, and must outweigh her by a lot. Not that she appeared skinny; the girl owned curves aplenty. Curves that made his mouth water.
A man walked by them and gave the goddess a smile. Jake’s wolf growled low and deep. He wanted her. It couldn’t be a long-term thing. The only humans accepted at the compound these days were empathine, but he wanted her. If only for a night or two.
“Can I buy you a drink?”
“Ha-ha. You can go back to your friends now and have your laugh at the big girl.”
Big girl? She looked healthy and curvy and lush.
“You’re not big.”
“Oh, really? Didn’t you get the memo? These days, a size fourteen is considered plus size. All the guys I know spend hours at the gym and won’t look at you unless you’re a size eight. The only ones who are interested are idiots, such as that dick who thought he could feckin’ well touch my arse.”
Jake gritted his teeth. He’d kill the fucker. But first, he needed to buy this foulmouthed angel a drink.
“No joke and no friends. I’m alone.”
Her eyes widened a touch and lost some of their hostility. “You came to a club alone?”
He shrugged. “Yeah. I don’t know anyone here, and I’m staying on business for a few nights. I found myself bored.”
“You’re either brave or weird, coming out in the city all alone.”
“Where are your friends?”
She pointed to the seating area where two girls were being slobbered all over by a couple of boys who looked too young to be out at night without their mummies. “They’re necking on with those idiots.”
“What’s your name?”
“Caitlin.”
He smiled. “Caitlin, I’m Jake. Won’t you come and join me for a drink? You’re in a busy place; your friends are just over there. You’ll be safe, and I only want a drink and to have a chat with you.” For now. He’d work on getting more later.
“Why?” She wrinkled her nose, and her brow furrowed as she watched him.
“Because I admire the way you look, the way you hold yourself. Why does a man ask a woman for a drink?”
She stared at him for a beat longer and then gave a short nod. “Okay, one drink.”
He grinned and motioned for her to follow him as he cut a swath through the drunken revelers.
Chapter One
I stared at Jake as he ordered me a glass of prosecco. He’d said he admired the way I looked and held myself. Yeah, I’d take it with a pinch of salt. His remark about why any man bought a woman a drink rattled around my mind. Why, indeed? There were many reasons—some better than others.
This man seemed too good to be true, looks-wise, at least. He was a man, too, not a boy. All man. With his height, his build, and the charisma he threw off like heat from a furnace. All the other guys faded away in front of him. Pale imitations of the potent masculinity he held in check. I’d noticed him an hour ago as he’d stood leaning against the wall, one leg bent as he sipped at his drink. I’d briefly thought about how lucky some woman would be if such a fine specimen singled her out. Apparently, I didn’t trust him choosing me.
Among my small group of friends, I’d always been at the bottom of the pile when it came to getting asked out. I knew I wasn’t hideous, but I carried some extra weight, and somehow, I’d ended up with two best friends who looked like they’d dropped off the Victoria’s Secret catwalk. To top it off, they were genuinely nice
girls, so I found it hard to be jealous of their stunning looks.
Jake turned to me, drinks in hand, and jerked his chin toward the stairs in the middle of the room.
“Let’s go and sit in the VIP area. It’s quieter.”
I watched the back view as I trailed after him. Nice. I’d never particularly been an ass girl, but wow. Jake might yet convert me.
Jake looked a fair bit older than most of the boys I’d gone out with. Early thirties, maybe? Which made him around ten years older than me. A tiny frisson of excitement ran through me. Ooh, I might be about to have an encounter with a hot older man.
As we neared the stairs, I tapped Jake on his arm, feeling the solid muscles through his shirt. “I don’t have VIP access.”
“I do, which means, as my guest, you do, too.”
The VIP thing didn’t impress me much. I didn’t like flashy guys who threw their cash around. Didn’t trust them as far as I could throw them. Yeah, seemed I had trust issues aplenty when it came to men. Not surprising after Daddy Dearest ran off with a woman half his age, leaving Mum and me alone to fend for ourselves. It broke Mum’s heart, hence the move from Ireland to Scotland when I reached thirteen. My mum couldn’t stand to keep bumping into the happy new couple.
We approached the glass doors to the VIP area, and the bouncer opened them, nodded at Jake, and let us pass.
“Let’s sit here.” Jake led me to a small seating enclave right next to the large windows looking down over the club below. “You can see your friends this way.”
I liked the way he thought about making me comfortable. “So, you’re not from here?” I asked as we sat.
“No. I’m not a city kind of a guy, generally.”
“Really?” I sat forward. His clothes looked like a city-boy outfit, smart dark jeans, a fitted shirt, and black dress shoes. “I’m not a city girl, either. I’ve lived here since the age of thirteen, but I miss the country. I grew up in Ireland, in a tiny village near the coast. I still miss it.”
“Why did you move?”
“Oh, Mum wanted a new start.” I didn’t feel comfortable airing all our dirty laundry, so I kept the answer simple. “We’ve got family here, so she decided to up sticks and bring us to the city. She’s on a holiday at the moment out in Greece.” I smiled, thinking of her soaking up some deserved sun with her best friend. I turned the conversation back to him, wanting to know more. “So do you live out in the country?”
“Yes. I live and work in a…it’s a sort of eco-commune.”
Nothing could have surprised me more. His ridiculous good looks came with a side of polished style, and he spoke with a strange, almost accentless inflection. I’d marked him down as maybe a city slicker from London visiting Scotland for business.
“You don’t look like someone who lives in an eco-commune.” I took a sip of my drink and smiled as the crisp, cold bubbles burst on my palate.
“I don’t usually dress like this. You’ll mostly find me in old jeans, a tee, and some work boots.”
My kind of guy.
Which brought me right back around to why such a gorgeous guy showed any interest in me. He’d have his pick of any girl here. There were some stunning women out in Edinburgh’s premiere night spot this evening.
“I’m a veterinary nurse.” I smiled as I answered. It may not be glam or well-paid, but I loved the work. Pity about my a-hole of a boss.
He coughed and choked a little on his drink. “Sorry.” He reached for a napkin from the table and dabbed at his mouth.
“Why so surprised?”
“Not surprised as such, rather…it’s an odd coincidence is all. We’ve had a couple of young women join our commune recently, and they both owned particular skills which fit what we needed. You’d fit, too.”
“Don’t tempt me!” I laughed and took another sip of my drink, relaxing more in his company as we chatted and the prosecco worked its magic. “My boss is an ogre.”
Jake fixed me with his shrewd stare. “I’m not joking. You would fit well, but it’s not an invite. We’re particular about who joins our community.”
For some reason, his words deflated me. Why, I had no clue. It’s not as if I wanted to run off and join his commune. Still, for a moment, the idea intrigued me, but he’d shut me down and reminded me I wasn’t good enough for his hippie tribe.
“It’s not like that.” Jake nudged my arm. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way. Only, we take a lot of flak from the outside world for the way we live, and we’re off-grid, probably breaking some laws, to be honest. We guard our privacy closely. Nothing personal.”
His self-deprecating grin melted my hurt feelings.
A group at the table next to us was getting rowdy, and two of the guys started a heated debate about something I couldn’t quite catch. I turned to look at them and then back to Jake and rolled my eyes. He rolled his in return, but his gaze flicked over my shoulder to the men, his eyes narrowing.
“Why don’t we swap places?” he asked.
“How chivalrous.” I tossed my hair over my shoulder, deciding on a little flirting. “Shall I squeeze past you?”
Jake’s deep blue eyes regarded me, and I swore they appeared to change color at the outer part of the circle. As if icy blue edged in, chilling their color. It must have been a trick of the club lights. I glanced up at the ceiling and winced in pain as something hit my side hard.
I fell into Jake, who caught me and righted me, but a heavy weight leaning into me made breathing difficult.
“Get the fuck off her.” Jake snarled the words out, and I turned to see a guy half sprawled against me.
“Sorry, pal. Accident.” He only just had the words out when another of the men at his table piled onto him, punching his face. The action sent the man’s head whipping around, and he caught my jaw with the side of his rock-hard skull.
Blinding lights flashed in front of my eyes, and my head filled with excruciating pain. Oh my God, it hurt!
Dimly aware of movement on both sides of me, I shook my head in an attempt to throw off the dazed and confused feeling I had going on.
Jake leaped over the table—like some sort of Olympic athlete on all the performance-enhancing drugs and barreled into the guy who’d punched the heavy dude still half sprawled on me. With a quick, one-two punch to his gut and face, Jake laid the man out. Then he turned and grabbed the one still lolling around on the sofa, pressing me down with his weight. As if the bloke weighed nothing, Jake pulled him up by his collar and off me.
The glass doors to the VIP crashed open, and two bouncers ran in. They hustled over to us and pulled Jake off the guy who’d been using me as a human pillow. Not wanting Jake to get the blame, I forced myself up and joined the fray.
“He didn’t do anything wrong.” I tried to squirm in between the bouncer and Jake. My words came out garbled, and my ear and jaw on the left side of my face throbbed with intense pain.
“We saw what happened.” The bouncer held Jake back with one arm and the other man with his other arm. His colleague dealt with the other men, pulling and pushing three of them toward the doors. Two more huge guys burst in, dressed in all black, and helped by taking a man each.
“As I said, I saw what happened,” the bouncer by us said to Jake. “They were hurting your woman, but you shouldn’t have hit him. Next time, let us do our job.” He looked Jake up and down. “Some pretty fancy moves you’ve got on you there. You a fighter?”
“No.” Jake shook his head. “I’m not.”
“Okay.” The bouncer frowned and looked as if he didn’t believe a word. “Not seen anyone move as fast since we had a couple of MMA fighters in here, but…whatever.”
Jake turned away from him to look at me and winced. His finger trailed down my jaw, soft as a feather. “Think we need to get you looked at.”
My face hurt more and more each second that ticked by. My jaw and ear screamed, and an odd, high-pitched sound drove me mad. As if someone was running a pneumatic drill right next to my head. All
down the side of my face, sharp, electric shocks of pain zinged up and down my nerves.
I nodded, not wanting to try to speak again.
“Come on. Did you bring a jacket?”
Another nod from me, and he gathered up my bag and took my arm. “We’ll go and tell your friends you’re going to the hospital, and then we’ll get your coat, okay?”
Tears gathered in my eyes as the shock wore off and the pain ground on.
“Hold on, Cait.” His voice gentled, and he put his arm around my shoulder, guiding me through the crowd.
We reached the model crew, and Gemma saw us first. She gasped and clapped her hand over her mouth. The two guys and my other friend, Laura, looked to me.
“Babe! Oh my God, what happened?” Laura jumped up and stared at my face.
“A fight broke out in the VIP room.” Jake still held his arm around me as he spoke. “A guy got pushed onto Cait, then his friend hit him, and he caught her with his head. I think she needs to go to the hospital to get checked out.”
“And you are?” Gemma came up to us and narrowed her eyes at Jake as she shouted to make herself heard over the music.
“Jake.”
“Okay. Thanks, Jake, but we’ll take it from here.”
“You’ve got a car?” Jake asked.
“No… We can get a cab.” Gemma raised her chin.
“At this time of night? Good luck. I have a car. I can take Cait to the hospital.”
“Alone?” Laura sounded scandalized.
Jake sighed. I felt it against my side rather than heard it.
“Look.” He raised his voice above the pumping beat of some new dance tune. “Why don’t you come with us? I’ll drive us all to the hospital. Let Cait get checked out, and you don’t have to worry about her being alone in the company of some male stranger.”
They looked at one another, glanced at me, and then nodded. Two minutes later, they’d ditched the lads and joined us at the coat check.
Jackets all recovered, we left the club and the cool air hit my face, making me wince as the wind brushed over my throbbing jaw.