by Thorne, Elle
Iron Flats Rebel
Shifter Realms
Elle Thorne
Contents
Iron Flats Rebel
Prologue
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
Afterword
Shifter Realms
The Shifters Forever Worlds
Thank You So Much!
About Elle
Elle’s Newsletter
Copyright © 2020 by Elle Thorne
All rights reserved.
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Iron Flats Rebel
Darby’s a wolf shifter’s human daughter. What’s that meant in her life? Her father views her as a flawed individual. A failure. So when her human mother and her shifter father split up, he had no interest in her.
What’s it do to a girl? It creates an obstinate streak which gets caught up on all the wrong priorities. She wants to prove herself to her wolf shifter father by infiltrating the Crooked Arrow Ranch shifters and getting information for her dad. She’s got no plan. She’s shooting from the hip.
Jared’s riled up about the rule-breaking going on at Crooked Arrow. They have brought human mates. Now how is this supposed to fit into the rules on the Virginia Range? Granted, the rules are more of an understanding built on respect. On his grandfather’s principles.
The rules state:
Shifters keep a low profile.
Shifters do not kill humans.
Shifters do not attempt to turn humans. Lore says it’s myth a bite can turn humans. Others say it takes witchery.
Back to Jared. Back to those rules. How can shifters keep a low profile when they are mating with humans for frack’s sake? And what if other packs find out about this? Shifters mating with humans doesn’t guarantee shifter babies. It makes it a coin toss.
Prologue
In the semidarkness of her bedroom, illuminated only by the sliver of a moon slipping through the curtains and the nightlight in the corner of her childhood bedroom, Darby Moore swiped her tears away.
She shouldn’t have let Ellie see how upset she was. Darby was the oldest sister. She should have held it together so Ellie didn’t witness this breakdown. Not to mention, Ellie might tell their father. Then he’d solidify his opinion of her. She was truly a loser. She didn’t belong in the Silver Peaks pack. She didn’t belong in any pack. She should be living among humans, as a—she sniffled—human.
Ellie took Darby’s hands in hers. “You can’t leave the pack. What will we do without you? What will you do without us?”
Darby stared at her in disbelief. The question wasn’t really what the pack would do without her. They didn’t need her—her father reminded her of that fact daily. Whether or not she needed the pack could be determined only after she struck out on her own.
“I can’t be here. No self-respecting wolf in the pack will have me. Father has lined up mates for everyone, but no one will have me. I’m worthless. I belong in the human world.” She sniffed again. Simply saying it was distasteful, much like eating dirt.
Ellie snarled, a sure sign her wolf was close to the surface. Her eyes shone silver in the dim light of Darby’s bedroom. “You belong with family.”
“Tell that to our father.” Darby didn’t mean literally. No one told Peter Moore anything. Ever.
It was only an expression, after all. No one could change Peter Moore’s mind once it had been made up. And he’d made his mind up long ago that this daughter of his, an offspring of his mating with a human, was flawed and didn’t belong with the pack.
Darby was lucky he hadn’t pushed her to face the trials of the gauntlet on her way to banishment. Best thing she could do would be to leave on her own accord before she was shoved out, bloody, beaten, defeated, possibly maimed. Or, dead. She’d seen a gauntlet result in death.
Ellie’s face lit up with an idea. “What if you told him?”
“Tell him what?” Darby stared at her sister in disbelief. As though she’d ever tell alpha Peter Moore, who reigned over the Silver Peaks with an iron fist, anything.
“Well, not tell him,” Ellie corrected herself.
Exactly what I thought. She didn’t mention it to her sister, though.
“What I mean is show him!” The excited gleam was back in her eyes. She practically bounced on her heels, kneeling next to Darby on the window seat.
Darby shook her head in confusion. “What’s that even mean?” Here, she’d wanted to hold her sister, to love on her, knowing she’d not get to see her ever again, and, instead, her sister had some cockamamie idea she wasn’t giving voice to.
So, how do you know they’re cockamamie? her inner voice rebuked her.
Oh, stifle it, she told herself.
Ellie jumped up, too thrilled to be contained. “You prove it, silly! You prove to him you’re useful to the pack!”
“Right.” Darby’s eyes narrowed. “And what do you propose, exactly?” Crazy baby sister.
“You’re beautiful.” She stroked Darby’s blonde curls, then ran a fingertip over her cheek. “You can go get information about an enemy pack. Bring it to father. He’ll love you again.”
“Riigghhtt.” As though getting info for her father would do anything for her. Surely, Ellie had lost it.
Ellie took her by the shoulders, shook her so soundly Darby’s teeth rattled. Her little sister didn’t understand her own strength sometimes.
Information about an enemy pack.
Could it be so easy?
Chapter One
Jared Dorsett needed to cool his ass down. The best way to do so would be to drown it in some ice-cold Jim Beam Honey. The perfect follow-up would be to sink his dick into a wet, warm, inviting—hell, he’d take a sweet pussy or a wet mouth at this point. A little bit of companionship, one which meant nothing, seemed the perfect way to get his aggression out. Not to mention his anger. It’d get his mind off shit he didn’t want to keep dwelling on.
He pulled himself up short; those thoughts were dangerous. If he found a willing human to sink into, he’d probably hurt her. His kind wasn’t known for tenderness, especially not when angered. Plus, wasn’t that what he was angry about to begin with? His brother Keith—alpha of the Crooked Arrow pack—had become lax in their conventions. What happened to the good old days? The days when they kept their bloodline pure.
No humans. Their grandfather had drilled the edict into their head from the moment they were old enough to walk.
“Female humans are fine for dipping your wick into,” Grandpa Dorsett would say, “but find a wolf shifter mate to bear your pups.”
Jared had thought this was the mantra by which Crooked Arrow would be run when Keith took
over as alpha not long ago. And Keith took himself a female shifter for a mate and had a perfect little son who would one day carry on the tradition.
But lately? Jared’s eyes narrowed. Not quite so. Things had changed.
First, Keith had let Luke bring home a human called Rachel. They were all lovey-dovey and talking about pups. It was a bitter pill to swallow.
Then his alpha brother had suckered Jared into going to help with a problem that ended up being another human situation. Maisie Malone—a complete human—had sex with some no-account shifter from another region and had given birth to a wolf pup shifter called Cash. Wouldn’t you know it, Judd had fallen for her, and now they lived at the Crooked Arrow Ranch.
Sure, granted, little Cash was a cute bugger, but still. His mother. Ugh. Another one! Human! What was their ranch—their pack—coming to? Humans.
And Jared had gone to battle to help out, killing shifters who merely wanted their blood back. He wasn’t sure that was justified, but hey, when it came down to it, he was one of the pack’s soldiers. He did as he was told.
But Keith’s decisions were driving Jared out, slowly but surely. Maybe he’d be happier as a roving loner.
A scent struck him. He raised his head subtly, inhaling deeply. He so wanted to use his flehmen response to suck the air in, but that’d get him attention, seeing as how he wasn’t alone. He was in the Ace of Clubs, a local bar in Reno which was on and off frequented by shifters. Sure, there were humans here. Several of them. Mostly women because Ace of Clubs had a reputation for having beefcakes, and the ladies of the area who wanted a diversion knew where to find one which could deliver.
Back to the scent.
He let the aroma sit on his olfactory senses, drinking it in. Female. Yeah. Damn. Female mixed with wolf. Not a local wolf. He’d have known. He knew all the local shifter women.
He closed his eyes and drew in another lungful, then let it rise upward while he savored it. A female in heat? His dick responded instantly, thumping against his jeans, constrained, wanting to be let loose. Wanting that. Whatever that was.
His wolf’s drive to mate had suddenly become stronger than his own. It wanted a mate. It felt the pull of nature, of the moon, of the tides. The surrounding air grew thick with his own need, matching the one delivered by the scent which made him heady and hard. Hard as he’d ever been in his life.
This was primal. More primal than he’d ever been.
Chapter Two
Darby had pulled on her favorite dress—a red sleeveless creation which emphasized her curves—and a bra that thrust her breasts out there as an offering. She’d tamed her curls enough to create a just-fucked look she hoped would grab the attention of the one man she trusted would show up.
She’d heard the alpha of Crooked Arrow had a single brother who enjoyed occasionally plowing through the women at Ace of Clubs. It was remarkable how people talked after a shot or two. The males at the bar didn’t care for him because he “pulled all the pussy.” Their words. Which, of course, gave her a great sense of distaste. Who cared about a damned man-ho? The women sighed, and she was pretty sure they’d line up to give him a chance. Even more distaste. Yuck.
She’d been waiting for him to come in for a week. She’d done her reconnaissance. Had seen a distant photo of him. He appeared attractive enough. Buff, not bad looking, but who could tell from a distant grainy photo taken with a cell phone?
Remember your mission, she reminded herself. She studied her image in the mirror. Pushed her boobs upward to make them more inviting. She didn’t do too badly in the breast department. Wasn’t built like a brick house, but her size seemed to fit her body type well enough. A touch of powder at her hairline to hide the nervous sweat at the task before her.
She dabbed a little of the scent Ellie had given her, placing her fingertip against the tiny bottle’s opening and letting the liquid dribble to her finger, then applying fragrance behind her ears and in her cleavage.
“This will be the milkshake that brings the right boys to the yard,” Ellie’d told her with a wink.
“What the hell is it?” Darby had said after spritzing the air and sniffing it.
“It’ll help with the cause, let’s leave it there.” Ellie had waggled her eyebrows in a mock-pervy way which sent them both into peals of laughter.
Darby pulled herself back to the present, and sadness flooded her being at the thought of Ellie. She’d been away from her for only two weeks, and already she missed her hellishly. She swiped a tear away impatiently. She had a task. There was no time to cry now.
She’d noticed the wolf shifter called Jared Dorsett when he came in. She’d walked by him to verify he was the one in the picture. She really hadn’t needed to. The other women in the bar were buzzing with excitement about his appearance.
In a bar full of shifters, he did stand out. He was beautiful. Not only muscle-wise. Nope, he was much more than a sexy body. He had the kind of face a woman wanted to wake up next to for an eternity. Every morning for the rest of her life.
With one last glance in the mirror, she sucked in a deep breath to calm herself—man, that pushed the girls out, way out, almost out of the dress—and headed for the door.
No sooner had she stepped out of the softly lit ladies’ room and into the dimmer bar—with Keith Urban crooning in the background—than she felt the heat of a gaze on her. Someone was tracking her. Was it him? She glanced to where she’d seen him last.
Gone.
Gone?
Gone!
Panic set in. Her pulse quickened.
Damn it.
Darby needed him not to be gone. Not to have left. She was running out of funds, and she didn’t want to have to reach out to Ellie for money to stay in Reno longer while she waited for Jared Dorsett to come around the Ace of Clubs again.
Walking fast toward the door, she scanned the room for his white shirt and brilliant-blue eyes. Eyes that practically glowed in the dark, thanks to the silver shifter swirls in their depths.
Where did you go, Jared Dorsett?
An arm grabbed her, snakelike and blurry fast, pulling her into an alcove. A body pressed against hers. Before she could think to react, she was in a man’s arms. A big ass man, with a beard and with silver in his eyes—
But not Jared Dorsett!
“Where you going, she-wolf?”
If he only knew.
“How about some company?” He leaned close, the bourbon on his breath strong, pungent. Cheap bourbon, at that. She didn’t have a problem with budgeting, but man, it surely didn’t smell good on him. He put his hand on her waist, letting it rise over her ribcage, almost cupping her breast.
Fury seethed deep within her.
“Let me go,” she said through gritted teeth, trying to glance around the wall that he was, which not only blocked her way out, but also her view of the bar and the exit.
His hand crept higher.
“Let me the fuck go.”
Suddenly, he was gone.
Cool air washed over her face, taking the putrid smell away. The roughness of his beard touching her face vanished. The urge to slump against the dark alcove wall was strong, but so was the need to find out why he’d—
“Oh.”
Oh, my. The man was fracking delicious up close and personal. The man. Jared Dorsett stood before her—the shifter who’d proven bothersome stood to the side, Jared’s fist wrapped in his shirt.
The shifter gulped. His Adam’s apple took a sharp jerk upward, then back down. He raised his hands slowly. “Didn’t know she was yours, man.” He raised his chin, half in acknowledgement, half in defiance.
Jared Dorsett hadn’t said a word. Not a one. He removed his hand from the man’s shirt and wiped it on his jeans. Jeans that fit his quads—muscular, athlete quads—like a glove. Which said nothing about the way it fit his glutes. Glutes that Darby had a perfect side view of. Oh, yeah. The man could fill out those jeans.
Whoa. Back down, she cautioned herself. You’re here on
a mission, not to fulfill some ritualistic mating thing like… the she-wolf he accused you of being. Which she most assuredly was not.
With a final throat clearing, Bourbon Breath backed away, hands partially up, palms outward in an I’m-not-going-to-jack-with-you manner.
Jared turned those blue eyes on her.
She melted. She’d never felt this before. Hadn’t believed it could happen. Would never have believed it could be. She’d known wolf shifters galore. That was what her father’s pack was, after all. Countless muscular, hunky, sexy wolf shifters. So it wasn’t the wolf shifter thing.
No, this was strictly a Jared Dorsett thing.
His eyes were on her, and she felt like prey. Or a prize. Or both. Her emotions conflicted, and she wondered if it showed on her face. She fought for composure but couldn’t feel her face. What the hell?
He tilted his head, his nostrils flared. The song turned to something croonier… a different Keith Urban song? She couldn’t have said. Her entire focus was pinpointed on the six-foot-four, two-hundred-something-pound, muscle-strapped, kissable-face man before her.
His nostrils flared more. His eyes were dilated.
Then it hit her. Whatever Ellie had given her, it was getting to his wolf. What the hell was in the potion? It was fiercely potent.