Heart of a Wolf
Page 1
Table of Contents
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
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Heart of a Wolf
A Wicked Series Book 2
By
K. D. Friedrich
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Heart of a Wolf
Copyright © 2018 K. D. Friedrich
All rights reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Ebook Edition, 2018
K.D. Friedrich
P.O. Box 365
Bethpage, NY 11714
Editing by Laura Latulipe
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either, the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Heart of a Wolf
Copyright
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
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Acknowledgments
About the author
Other books by this author
Chapter 1
"This was not what I meant, when I said I like it rough," Winter Leery muttered to herself.
Nope, in her sexy fantasies, the bindings that tied her wrists were silk, not rope, and the room smelled of roses, not dust and sweat.
Once again, she tugged at the restraints tying her to the headboard of the minuscule rusty cot. For a group of no-good thugs, they sure knew how to tie a knot. They certainly didn't learn the skill in the Boy Scouts. She doubted morals and merit ran high on her captors’ list of qualities. Based on the way they dodged her defensive moves, she pegged them as military or mercenaries.
Winter's groan echoed against the neutral-colored stone walls. Being stuck in the same position for so long gave her an excruciating cramp in her thigh. In an attempt to ease the ache, she shifted. The change in position offered her momentary relief before the spasm returned.
"I need to get the hell out of here." She gritted her teeth.
Winter wrinkled her nose at the incessant mildew stench clogging her senses. She glanced around at her prison. No windows lined the damp cinder block room. Her only light came from a dangling bulb hovering above her. Rows of rotted wooden shelves clung to the wall on one side. On the other, she found a pile of cardboard boxes. No words or logos decorated the cartons to give her any hint of her location or who might have taken her.
Not one to surrender, she tried to summon her magic and like the dozens of times since they shoved her in this cellar, she found her powers bound by an unseen barricade. Add on top of that, her inability to reach the natural elements and she was as helpless as a human.
Winter shivered. If she had to guess, she'd peg the temperatures in her jail around twenty degrees. Outside, she heard the wind whistling through the trees. Maintaining her body heat had become difficult.
Witches, like most supernatural beings, had the ability to maintain their body temperature regardless of the weather. Even under extreme conditions. But she was tired and drained. Staying warm had snuffed out the little bit of strength she possessed. If she remained in this freezing cellar much longer, she'd die from exposure. Not exactly a fitting way to go for an elite guard.
Tears threatened to spill over her lashes. "Suck it up, soldier," she mumbled to herself. "Think."
She hadn't cried in almost ten years and she didn't plan on starting the waterworks now.
The men who tied her to the bed had been newly turned vampires. She recognized their stench right away. Newborn vampires smelled ultra-sweet, like a cross between melted sugar and roses. Humans tend to like it, but witches and shifters, not so much.
They attempted to force-feed her the second they tied her down, but she refused. Instead, she snapped at their hands like a rabid dog. She smirked at the memory of their shocked faces. Due to her small size and dainty appearance, many men underestimated her.
Huge mistake.
Then two witches arrived and she tried to hide her shock. The quad had spoken to one another with obvious hatred and mistrust but remained civil. Their interaction was the weirdest thing she'd ever seen. She had expected a fight to break out at any moment.
Most vampires, especially newborns, didn't hang out with witches. They were vulnerable and stayed close to their own kind. The older ones, well, they held discriminating views about mingling with non-vamps.
She found the alliance between the thugs odd and disconcerting. The vampires in her unit, including her boss, Magnus, were forward thinkers when it came to integration. They, like her, were sworn to protect everyone, no matter the species. She trusted them with her life.
Her kidnappers, however, were poster boys for supernatural segregation. Yet, they plotted together without spilling blood.
Weird.
She’d breathed a sigh of relief when they left her.
Winter licked her dry bottom lip and cringed. Old blood that had trailed from her mouth to her chin had since dried and crusted. One of her witch captors had slapped her hard enough to rattle her teeth in her jaw. Guess he didn't appreciate a woman with a sharp right hook or a well-aimed knee. Too bad for him she possessed both.
Did he really think she would let them tie her down without a fight? The punch hurt like hell, but defying her captors’ orders made taking the hit worthwhile. Besides, Winter's training told her to never give in without a fight.
She never went against her education.
Ever.
The hatch creaked open, snatching her out of her thoughts in a
n instant. One of the big witches from earlier skulked down the steps with another tray. He spared her a glare and then frowned when his gaze zeroed in on the damage to her face.
"Are you gonna be nice, sweetheart?" He waited for an answer. When none came he sighed. "You still got that stubborn glint in your eye."
"Sorry, I'll try to be more easy-going the next time I'm kidnapped by a group of lowlifes."
The Neanderthal grunted. He shook his head. What the hell was he annoyed about? He wasn't the one taken from his home and thrown in a damn stinky cellar, like an old sack.
He frowned at the food she refused to eat earlier and dropped the new tray beside the old one with a loud clang.
"Don't know why he bothers? Ain't like you're gonna eat this one either."
"Can't exactly eat with my hands tied, now can I?"
"Until you learn some manners, that's how they'll stay, damn females don't know their place anymore," he grumbled.
She chuckled. "Well, I know my place shouldn't be tied to this stank mattress, asshole."
His gaze narrowed. "You got a filthy mouth."
"Yeah, fuck you."
The goon laughed. "You're something else, aren’t you?"
Goddess, if her mother ever heard her fresh mouth, she'd bind her lips shut with a silence spell. Profanity came with the territory. Working in a field predominately male had a way of rubbing off on a girl.
With a grin, the witch picked up the sandwich and held it close to Winter's lips. "The boss wants you to eat. He doesn't like to be disobeyed."
"Guess he'll have to live with disappointment just like the rest of us."
He shoved the sandwich in her face, smashing it against her bruised lip. She locked her mouth shut, ignoring the sharp pain. Her training screamed at her to refrain, even though her belly ached for food. Never eat from an enemy's plate. You don't know what's in it. She'd rather starve to death than find out.
"Stupid female." He threw the crumpled sandwich on the plate. "I don't have time for this. Starve for all I care. I don't know why the boss wants you anyway. You're nothing but trouble." He grunted, waving her off as he turned his back on her. "The vamp will make use of you way before you die of starvation. There's plenty willing to pay for a fine piece of ass like yours. I heard what he's got planned for you." He threw her a wicked grin over his shoulder, making her stomach twist into a knot. "If it's not to fuck you, then it's to cut you up and see how you tick."
She knew what he said was true. Since the world learned of supernatural beings, much had changed and not in a good way. Humans have become greedy with the need to learn about supernaturals' powers and skills. Witches, shifters, and vampires had all fallen prey to humans trapping and dissecting them.
Then there were the purists, those who despised integration. No matter their species, purists had formed underground organizations. These cults set out to destroy any who approved mixing of any kind. They had become terrorists, instilling fear to force their will.
"Have fun, sweetheart." He tossed her a final smirk, stomped up the stairs of her cold makeshift prison, and left her.
"Damn it," she cursed when the large wooden hatch closed her in again. "Goddess, guide me out of this mess," she prayed.
She received no response.
She wondered if the council was right. Had the God and Goddesses made a mistake forcing the supernatural community into the open?
Maybe, their deities regretted their decision as well. The Goddess to the witches, Flidais, had made an appearance often during the first few years of the introduction. However, she hadn't been seen in months. She disappeared along with her brother and sister. With the trio of deities nowhere to be found, many witches, shifters, and vampires have considered themselves abandoned.
The Goddess's last words to Winter's sister, Summer, drifted in her head. In order to smooth the way for progress, one must walk a jagged path. The Goddess never said anything outright. Whatever her meaning, one thing rang true. Growth wouldn't be easy for anyone.
Society as a whole had become a strange sense of organized chaos that threatened to ignite at any given moment. With a fuse dangling in every corner, Winter wondered who'd be the first one to light the end.
A bright side did exist at least. Due to all the disorder, the need for skilled guards had skyrocketed. Being the kind of witch who liked to keep busy, she never suffered a dull moment.
She turned her head away from her only exit. Fury gave way to fear. Her stomach growled again even though it rolled with queasiness.
How she could desire food and feel sick to her stomach at the same time eluded her. She glanced at the destroyed sandwich and shut her eyes as a hunger twisted her stomach with another powerful cramp.
Goddess help her, she starved for a bite.
"Damn that shifter for tricking me." Her love of shifters put her in this predicament. They trapped her by using her one true weakness against her.
For two strenuous years, she trained with one of the most highly respected leaders in the vampire community. Magnus Blue and his men molded her into a soldier, educated her in all forms of weaponry and combat. Yet, all her training meant nothing when confronted with a wounded shifter she had found lying a few feet from her door. She reacted without thinking, a critical error that cost her freedom, and perhaps, her life.
Her family had no idea of her career choice. They didn't know how she risked her life policing the supernatural community and they never would. Not if she had her way.
To her family back home, she would stay that innocent little girl they remembered, because if they found out about her career choice, they'd force her to give up what she loved, they'd force her to go home, and she'd never be the same again.
A decade ago, when she jumped off that bus at the university, she had no idea she'd become one of the best animal linguistics experts in the country, not to mention a lethal fighter capable of taking down a perp twice her size.
Did they laugh at her when she stepped foot in the training facility? Hell yes, they mocked all five feet two of her. Her size didn't diminish her instructors' tactics. If anything, they were harsher, pushing her to her breaking point, yet she didn't snap. She grew stronger. Better.
The fact that she’d let a kidnapper manipulate her so easily, after years of training and hours of painful instruction, infuriated her. She should have been vigilant, damn it! Throwing a wounded shifter in her path should not have completely disabled her training. Yet, when she saw the young bleeding wolf, she fell to her knees before him without regard for caution, needing to soothe and protect. All she saw was a wounded creature in need of care.
She closed her eyes. By now, her unit would know about her abduction. Aric, her good friend and unit leader, rarely let a day go by without checking in with her. He'd have every guard searching for her, including Niles Peyton, the local alpha, and his pack. Soon, her family would join the hunt, along with their local pack.
Their involvement would mean an end to her secret life.
She sighed. Maybe being tied to a bed wasn't so bad, compared to her father's wrath and her mother's disappointment once they discovered the truth. She'd rather face off rabid shifters and feral vampires than deal with her overprotective family. They'll demand she give up the work she loved, and then force her to come home and face the one person that could truly shatter her perfectly set plans.
"Tristan," she whispered. His name remained as sweet and bitter on her lips as the day she left home.
She'd never admit it to anyone else, but Tristan's betrayal had been the deciding factor when she opted to go away to school. For months, she had wrestled with the opportunity to study abroad, contemplated the good and bad points until her head and heart ached. In the end, he had made his feelings, or lack of them, clear. Therefore, she moved on, intent on keeping her pride intact.
An unexpected flash of his crooked, arrogant grin popped in her mind as clear as if she just witnessed the sexy gesture. Golden eyes with a touch of chocolate me
rged into warm amber. The same alluring shade that had stolen the hearts of many females, including hers.
Ten years older, Tristan had always been a strong and powerful presence to her, mature compared to boys her age, a born alpha with the stature and masculinity to back up his title.
Damn him for engraving himself into her brain so deeply, for affecting her after all this time in such a profound way.
And she thought herself pathetic back then? Years later and a hell of a lot smarter, she'd still follow him around like a foolish pup. One quick smirk in her direction would melt her into a giddy pathetic puddle.
In her defense, what she felt wasn't pure foolishness. They were mates. True mates. Destined partners set up by fate and the Gods, even though he had never looked at her that way, his reaction to her verged on annoyance rather than adoration.
Regardless, she had loved him. She would have given away all she owned to feel his arms surround her for just a moment. To have him look at her the way a man looked at the woman he wanted, desired, to feel his lips against hers, to taste him one more time. She would have gladly offered her last breath.
But that was years ago. More than a decade if she had to give an estimate, and time had changed her from the pathetic child who followed Tristan's every word to Winter Leery, master animal linguist and all-around badass bitch, a title given to her by her good friend Jane and her fellow guards that patrolled the east end district of Long Island.
She liked to think she had moved on with her life. Dates may have been few and far between, but she'd gone on them. In fact, she had been seeing lead guard Aric on and off for years. They had met as teenagers. Not long after she left home to study her gift, their friendship grew to a physical one. Their relationship was never anything serious, more a friends-with-benefits arrangement.
Although, it had been several months since they slept together.
They were just having fun, nothing more. Both of them knew this.
Aric's heart belonged to another, a human he could never have. With his parents’ prejudiced views and high society standards, there was no chance of Aric taking his feelings for the human any further than distant adoration.