Mine Furever
Terry Bolryder
Contents
Author’s Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Sample of Midnight
Also by Terry Bolryder
Author’s Note
This book is the second in my series, Built Fur Love! Each book is a standalone romance with a happy ending, but you might want to read them in order just in case!
Here’s the first! Happy reading!
Love at Furst Sight (Built Fur Love 1)
Chapter 1
“Mommy says I shouldn’t trust you.”
Grayson groaned inwardly at the interruption and turned to see one of the wolf children that was often running around in the dirt at the encampment where he was trying to help out.
About a month ago, Grayson’s friend Garrett had mated a woman who owned land in pack territory, and in order to keep the peace, Grayson and his friends had offered their construction skills to help an obviously struggling pack.
Something he was regretting almost every day now.
“Put your ears back in,” Grayson said gruffly. Not that there wasn’t something oddly adorable about a five or six-year-old with wolf ears and a tail to go with their sparkly brown eyes, but he was supposed to be helping these wolf shifters adjust to society.
Going around half shifted, even as children, wouldn’t help that.
The kid grumbled but closed his eyes to focus. Letting the fur retract, he looked like a normal human kid, except for the slightly longer canines that showed when he bared his small teeth.
“You aren’t part of the pack. You can’t tell me what to do.” The kid folded his small, scrawny arms, and Grayson waved for him to come join him.
“Come here and help me with this.”
The kid’s expression brightened, and he came closer curiously.
Grayson handed him a tool he’d been using to fix a loose running board on the outside of one of the trailers. “This is a screwdriver.” He pointed to the half-driven-in screw. “You take that and insert the pointy side here and turn.”
Grayson helped hold on to the tool, and the kid’s eyes screwed up in concentration as he turned the screwdriver clumsily a few times before stepping back in satisfaction. “There. I think it’s done.”
Grayson couldn’t help smiling as the kid nodded with pride at the crooked screw. “Nice job. What’s your name?” He couldn’t remember with the dozens of children running around out here, mostly covered in dirt and debris.
“Carter,” the kid said. “I live in trailer twelve.”
“Cool,” Grayson said. “Well, you don’t have to trust me if you don’t want to, but the reason I said you should put your ears back is because it’s safer that way.” He put a hand on Carter’s shoulder. “You’re special. All the kids here are. But the world out there can’t know about it, okay? So keep it secret.”
The kid nodded slowly. “‘Kay.” Then he waved and skipped off, running to join a group of his companions, most of whom were still eyeing Grayson warily.
As they disappeared into the woods, probably to shift and run amok, Grayson turned back to his work with a somewhat sad smile. Sometimes, for good and for bad, this place reminded him of his pack.
Perhaps there was a part of him that felt if he helped this pack hold together, he could make up for leaving his behind. For running when things weren’t working and assuming it would all be fine when he got back.
Instead, everything had fallen apart, the pack had disbanded, and Grayson, who had thought he’d return to everything, had come back to no family and no home.
There was a deep ache inside him whenever he thought of that fact.
He finished the work on the trailer and walked to his own double-wide that he’d brought out to camp in while doing work.
He could do a few more jobs today, but he deserved a break. He, Hunter, and Garrett had all made the promise, but of course, Garrett was busy sexing his new mate and Hunter was… doing Hunter things.
Which usually meant disappearing for long stretches of time when they weren’t working on a job. He’d seemed even more restless than usual lately, despite his always-cheery demeanor.
But Grayson wasn’t the one to ask about those sorts of things. He kept to himself and didn’t know how to sort his own emotional problems, let alone those of others.
He got lunch from his double-wide and walked out to the handful of camp chairs he’d set around a makeshift fire pit. It was a beautiful day, with a cool breeze overhead and beautiful sun shining down through the tall, leaf-covered trees.
The kind of day a wolf could get lost in, Grayson thought as he leaned back and closed his eyes, enjoying the forest air on his face, smelling of a thousand different life-filled scents.
Perhaps those wolf kids had the right idea after all.
“Hey, Grayson.”
Grayson recognized the feminine voice instantly and frowned as he reluctantly opened his eyes.
He wasn’t trying to be mean to anyone, but he wasn’t here to steal any mates and he wasn’t part of this pack.
Plus, he hadn’t felt any sign of his mate here, and he was sure when he did meet the right wolf woman, he would know.
But Candace didn’t seem to care about any of that, and Grayson was tired of trying to tiptoe around her feelings.
“Candace, you shouldn’t be over here.”
She ignored him, flipping her sandy-blond hair as she sat in a camp chair nearby. “You know what I want, Grayson. Mate me.”
“And I told you. You aren’t my mate. There are a bunch of nice males here, Candace. What about Brett over there?”
Candace’s eyes followed Grayson’s suggestion to where the mild, kind beta was discussing something with one of the parents in the pack.
Brett was a quiet man, the son of the current alpha, and while he wasn’t what anyone would typically picture as an alpha male, with his soft-spoken ways and polite words, Grayson had a great deal of respect for the man.
Especially for the way he patiently tried to help his pack acclimate to modern ways without ever losing his temper the way Grayson did. And the way he was dealing with the sickness and possible death of his father, which would cause instability in the pack.
Instability others would like to exploit, but Grayson was definitely keeping an eye on it.
Brett must have felt them watching because he lifted a hand to wave. Grayson thought he noticed a slight narrowing of his eyes at Grayson sitting with Candace, but he was polite all the same.
“Brett’s nice, but… he’s not like you. I want an alpha.”
“Give him a chance,” Grayson said. “Besides, I’m no alpha. Right now I’m nothing but a rogue.”
Candace’s brown eyes glittered. “Any female who looks at you can see you’re an alpha.”
Grayson sighed. “Nonetheless, you’re not the one for me.” He stood to go into his trailer because a pack of fairly restless males had begun watching from the other side of the clearing, and that was the last thing he needed.
Candace followed him over to the steps, batting her eyes at him. “Grayson, I don’t want to just stay here. I want more than this.”
Grayson bit the inside of his cheek, bitterness welling as he looked down at her. “Be careful what you wish for. I made that mis
take as well.”
Then he left her there, stunned, as he walked in his double-wide and shut and locked the door behind him. He sat in the large recliner that was his only and favorite luxury as he grabbed a whittling knife and a block of wood he’d been working on.
Keeping his hands busy always seemed to soothe him, so he started carving and chipping little pieces away until a form began to take shape.
A wolf’s head, howling up at the moon. It brought back images of other wolves gathering together, all their voices mingling. A feeling of togetherness that Grayson knew could never be his again.
If he was lucky, there was at least a female out there for him. Maybe another rogue who also had no one to hold. But he had no idea how to find her, and now that he was outside wolf norms, he didn’t hold a lot of hope.
He had set down his project and picked up a glass of water when he heard a loud knock on his trailer, making him jolt.
Angrily, he shoved the door open and glared down menacingly at whoever had dared to invade his space.
It was one of the teenagers, a cousin of one of the omegas of the pack. “We have an intruder coming,” the kid blurted, running a hand through his scraggly, shoulder-length hair. “They’re headed for our town.”
Town was a very loose way to describe this settlement of trailers and makeshift store, but okay.
Grayson set down his water and stepped out. “I’ll deal with it.” As the one who was best with humans, he didn’t mind dealing with tourists who needed to be turned around so the pack didn’t risk discovery any more than they already did.
Sometimes it was someone from town coming to check on them, but that was rare, as welfare checks in the past hadn’t gone well.
“Human or shifter, does anyone know?” Grayson asked, following the teen as they headed in the direction of Grayson’s truck.
“Scouts said human,” the teen answered. “A woman most likely. But no time to drive. Scouts said she would be here any minute.”
Grayson frowned and folded his arms over his chest. “Not a problem.” The scouts should have given them all more notice, but it would be fine. It was a human woman. The easiest of creatures to intimidate, at least for a grumpy wolf like him. Even when he didn’t mean to, in his experience.
Grayson would have her running back to civilization in no time.
So why, as he scented something unknown in the air and saw dirt clouds in the distance, did his wolf feel slightly on edge about this whole situation?
* * *
April gritted her teeth as her SUV lurched and bumped through the underbrush, struggling over fallen logs and jerking through divots that no civilized road should ever have.
Sure, her trusty old Outback was durable, but she’d never intended to put it through such a rough ride.
She stroked the dash as they hit another hard bump, sending dirt flying everywhere.
“I’m sorry, baby, but this is important,” she murmured, hitting the gas to get over a particularly large log.
Curse the old man who’d told her there were people out here who could probably help her. When she’d been sent out here, hired by the government to do research on the wolves in the area, she hadn’t known where to start.
She’d rented a hotel room in town and dropped off her stuff, but when she asked around, no one would admit to seeing wolves.
And only the one old man had come up and told her where she might find someone who could help her. Except, it seemed there was nothing out here but an abandoned road that led absolutely nowhere and was made to torture vehicles.
But she wasn’t going to give up that easily. The state had almost wiped out the wolf population due to jumping the gun on wolf reports and assigning bounties that encouraged hunters to go out for the kill.
As someone who had devoted her life to researching the incredible animals, she couldn’t just let someone step in and kill them without more information about how much of a threat they might be.
Plus, there was the possibility of discovering a new pack all on her own. All of her previous study had been with packs other people had discovered.
Her heart raced as she thought about naming and identifying the alpha male and female and the omega and all of the other members. Getting to know them, their unique habits and behaviors.
Though they were wild, wolves could be so very… human at times.
They cared for each other and their young, and whether they were traveling, hunting, or howling, they shared a sense of connection that was almost otherworldly.
Perhaps as a human who had always been on the fringe of things, she found that connection especially fascinating.
Of course, there was always the possibility that the reports were false. It wouldn’t be the first time someone saw a few wild huskies and thought wolves lived in their backyard.
But there were more reports than usual, albeit all from tourists and campers, with no info from anyone in town.
While she was lost in thought, the road suddenly opened up, the dense trees overhead giving way as she bumped into a clearing, hitting her brakes as she saw a settlement just up ahead.
She brushed her dark-brown hair back as she stared at the sight in front of her, almost feeling as though she’d stumbled on something from another time.
There were many trailers, a few small shacks, and trees all around the small settlement. Like a trailer park in the middle of a forest, except all the trailers were falling apart, and the people seemed to be nowhere in sight.
She parked her car a little way from the first trailer and walked toward the encampment, studying the buildings around her.
She saw repairs on a few of the shacks and trailers. Someone who knew what they were doing was clearly repairing roofs and patching siding.
But why here when it seemed to be a total ghost town?
Wind whistled through trees, creating a lonely echo of a howl, and she suddenly stopped, looking around her.
This looked like a scene from a horror movie, one where everyone started screaming at the heroine on the screen to run.
Yet she felt like she couldn’t.
She took another step toward the eerily quiet, totally still town.
The road curved around toward a group of trees that hid one side of the clearing, and as April neared it, the rest of the area began to come into view.
And a dark shadow popped out in front of her, suddenly blocking the sunlight.
April let out a squeak of surprise as she looked up at the tall, quiet man staring down at her, a look of consternation on his face, his huge arms folded over his chest tightly.
“What do you want?” he asked in a low growl.
He had a military-style buzz cut and features that would have been handsome if he didn’t look so mean. Gray eyes, sharp and metallic, like razor blades glinted down at her.
He was covered in tattoos down both sides of his arms and didn’t look like the type who got them simply to be a poser.
She guessed each one meant something, though she wasn’t sure there would ever be a person brave enough to ask.
He shifted impatiently, making his muscles bunch under his thin tee shirt. A tool belt was slung across his trim hips, and his powerful thighs were revealed in worn work jeans.
She guessed there were callouses on those strong-looking hands. Had he been the one doing repairs around here?
“Do you have a hearing problem? I asked you what you were doing here.”
“I… I’m doing a research project on behalf of the government. I need to survey the area, and someone said I could find wolves out here, and—”
“Go home,” he said sharply.
She gaped. She knew she’d been babbling, partly because she’d never met anyone as hot as him and partly because she’d never met anyone as mean as him, but he didn’t need to be so rude. “I can’t. Look, do you know something? Because if there are wolves in the area, I’m only trying to protect them. The government is going to put out bounties.”
“What kind of wolves?” the man asked, but his eyes were entirely honest. He knew something; she was sure.
The researcher in her awakened. “Gray wolves. Supposed to be an endangered species, but a lot of states are taking them off the list. They’re noble animals, and they don’t deserve to—”
“What are you, some kind of wolf groupie?”
She let her mouth hang open, offended. Then she snapped it shut. “I don’t need to justify myself to you. I… Look.”
He stared at her impatiently, and she wanted to be rude right back to him, but she knew she needed to be careful to get the information she sought.
“I was told the people out here might know something that could help me. If they’ve been seeing wolves, they might be in danger, too. If not, they might be able to help me protect the pack. I need your help, okay? Please? Just a short chat?”
He looked caught off guard for a moment, then took a deep breath. He cocked his head to the side, silver eyes glinting, a five o-clock shadow only making his face look more handsome and sharp.
“Fine.” He turned and waved for her to follow him, leading the way to a trailer that was a little way from the others, set back into the trees. It was a double-wide and in far better shape than any other structure.
When he reached it, he opened the door and held it for her, oddly gentlemanly as she went in.
But just as he gestured for her to take a seat on a nearby sofa and shut and locked the door behind her, she realized in her fervor to get info about wolves, she might have just made a mistake.
Chapter 2
“Sorry for the mess,” Grayson said, sitting down in his recliner so he could study this odd little human more closely.
Mine Furever Page 1