Now it was my turn to taste myself on him. Sweet and salty and so, so satisfied.
“You were amazing tonight,” he said, his voice husky. “I’d been dreading today, because I didn’t know how I’d feel watching the guys take the field without me.”
“You were amazing.” He’d been so strong. I had no idea he was having doubts. “I’m glad you trust me enough to tell me that.”
“You’re the reason I got through this without doing something that could’ve destroyed my career,” he said. “When the guys showed up, I could’ve gone rogue again. But you give me something to play for. You give me something to live for.”
Chapter Sixteen
Matteo
Cameras and microphones in my face were an occupational hazard, but right now, I didn’t exactly have an occupation, so the fact anyone in the media still gave a shit about me after the Bloodhounds won without me was mindboggling. It probably had something to do with Tessa Williams leading the charge.
She might not be an official reporter anymore, but the rest of them stood in her shadow. Tessa was tenacious but fair—a perfect balance of both her daughters. And whatever she wanted to talk to me about, I trusted her more than anyone who clamored behind her for a soundbite.
“We’re surprised to see you here to welcome the Bloodhounds back to Holiday Falls,” she said. “The investigation into the threat to the team was ruled inconclusive. I take it you’re not one to hold a grudge.”
I’d never been interviewed by her before, but I was familiar with her style. She wanted to start a conversation, and I didn’t miss the fact that she dispelled the threat to her own daughter. “These guys are still my teammates, even if I didn’t take the field for the Championship. I wouldn’t miss the opportunity to welcome them back. Maybe they’ll let me hold the trophy.”
“They’re still looking at that thing with starry eyes.” She laughed. “Have you spoken with management about your future with the team?”
The infamous Tessa Williams dagger. “You’d probably know more about that then I do.”
“Wherever you wind up playing next season, you’ll be an asset to the team.” She winked at me before she withdrew, giving the other reporters a chance to ask their questions.
She definitely knew something. Jessica squeezed my hand and kissed my cheek before following her mother. She’d been restless all morning, nervous about pitching her series spinoff idea. I wanted to follow her, support her dream. But after I caused so much controversy around the game, she might be better off without me.
Jessica didn’t need me, but I sure liked watching her kick ass. She’d learned from the absolute best.
The reporters and the fans forgot all about me when the first team bus pulled into the parking lot. My heart pounded, and Tessa’s question weighed heavily on my mind. But all that was forgotten when Landon Fox, MVP quarterback, emerged with the Championship trophy high above his head.
As the crowd roared, I was able to forget that I hadn’t taken the field. In this moment, we were one.
I cheered as the Bloodhounds bounded off the bus, with their fists in the air—the same energy they had when they took the field. A few of them spotted me and pointed. Tyler Jones came over and gave me a high five. He was the future of the team. Like I hoped to be.
Coach Phelan was last, surveying the crowd slowly, and crooked his finger at me. Ducking under the makeshift fence, the crowd reached a fever pitch when they realized what was happening.
He put his hand on my shoulder. “You should’ve been on the field. I fought for you, and I want you to know that. I don’t win every game I play. But the important thing is, I know I have a lot more games ahead of me.”
“You’re a hell of a coach, and the best team won yesterday.”
“It’s easy when I have talented players on the field, and easier when my best players don’t get benched,” he said. “Management knows they were wrong. Overly cautious. They got lucky yesterday. Expect an offer for next season, Matteo. I won’t be the only coach insisting you’re part of the team.”
With that, he headed to the podium that in the middle of the parking lot. In the freezing cold, starlit late afternoon, the crowd hung on his every word. But I didn’t hear any of it. I was too busy thinking about what he said. What I’d do if they made the offer.
My life had changed since they left me in this parking lot. My priorities had changed. I had to decide what was best for my mate and my pack.
I found Jessica standing with her parents. Jasmine and Marcus were there too, and Carlos, Javier, and Rick stood behind them. This was where I felt complete. Like I wasn’t cheering from the sidelines. Another cheer rose from the crowd, and Jessica took the opportunity to grab me by the chin and kiss me.
“What did Coach say?” she asked.
“He apologized.” I’d had a lot taken away from me in my life, and no one had ever said they were sorry before. It meant a lot. “And that I could expect an offer for next season.”
Her face paled.
“Did you tell her your idea?” I asked.
She shook her head. “She’s in reporter mode right now. I invited her and Dad to our condo. So maybe we can all pitch the idea to them.”
I gave her a kiss. Landon Fox had taken the podium, which at one time would’ve totally distracted me. But now this beautiful woman was the center of my world. “This is your project. Whatever you think is best.”
“Do you still think it’s a good idea?” She bit her lip and turned away from me for a moment to join the crowd in cheering for Landon. “Now that you can probably play here next season?”
“Yeah, I do.” At one time, I thought playing football was the only way to have a future. A legacy. I’d made my dream come true, and now it was time to concentrate on putting my pack together. They needed me to fight for them, to make sure they finally had a safe place to call home.
The condo complex was rocking after the homecoming celebration. All the players finally had a license to celebrate all their hard work all season. After all the controversy, we definitely got some attention showing up with four unknown wolf shifters, but no one dared question it when Coach Williams walked into our condo behind them.
“We know Marcus, but not your other friends,” Tessa said as soon as the door closed. “You wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with why Matteo didn’t make the trip, by any chance?”
Jessica sighed. “Way to make things awkward, Mom.”
“We need to know if we walked into a threat.” She gave the guys a once over.
“This is Carlos, Javier, and Rick. The surviving members of the Wyoming pack. The guys who kept my ass alive as we hid out in South Dakota, while I ran drills from memory,” I said. “That’s my backstory. I couldn’t tell Coach, or anyone else, because I had to protect these guys. They came to find us, because they found out Marcus was alive the same way I did. The video from the shelter.”
Jasmine beamed every time we mentioned the video.
“And when we went looking for him, some of the Sawtooth pack questioned his identity, thinking he could be an enemy. So we came here to find Matteo, and our methods could’ve used a little work,” Carlos said.
Tessa huffed out a breath. This woman might be human, but she had the instincts of a wolf. “You can say that again.”
“We’ve spent years in hiding, just recently having access to modern technology. Mostly to keep tabs on this guy.” Carlos tipped his head toward me with a grin. “The last thing we wanted was to keep him off the field.”
“You’re lucky the Bloodhounds won,” Coach Williams growled. “Matteo was missed.”
Tessa raised an eyebrow. “What’s the threat to the Sawtooth pack?” This woman didn’t miss a beat.
“Oh you know, anarchy, an uprising—the usual pack politics.” Jessica landed on the couch with a sigh. “But I have an idea to put a stop to it.”
“What’s that?” her mom asked.
“The Real Werewives of Sawtooth Forest
.” Her voice shook on the last words, but her face lit up. “A lot of the guys in that pack are pissed off because the she-wolves got sold off. Mates would probably improve their disposition. And these guys need a pack. They’re ready to fight for the right reasons.”
“And we’re ready for mates.” Javier wiggled his eyebrows.
“The shelter videos keep going viral,” I reminded them. “Viewers are already familiar with the shelter, and the women who work there. They love The Real Werewives of Alaska. I think they’d be hungry to see more of an existing pack, and what their struggles are. And especially their victories.”
“I can help you find contestants, just like I was before,” Jessica added.
“The network has been talking about a spin-off,” Tessa said. “But the Sawtooth pack isn’t exactly out in their community. So we’d have to be sensitive to that. We’d have to talk to them before we pitch it to the network.”
Jessica bounced up. “You’re saying there’s a chance?”
Her mom gave her a hug. “If I’ve taught you anything, I hope it’s that anything’s possible.”
“What about Matteo?” Coach Williams asked. “Coach Phelan plans to offer you a contract for next season. I know you’re going to say that you can be in both places. But Tessa and I just tried that. It’s harder than you think.”
“My dream already came true. I got to play with some of the legends of the CFA.” I put my arm around Jessica. “But now it’s time to build my pack. With my mate.”
**
Thank you! I hope you loved Jessica and Matteo’s story as much as I loved writing it. As you know, big doings are brewing in Granger Falls in the way of a second season of The Real Werewives of Alaska. Tessa decided to make Jasmine and Jessica’s love stories the first two episodes, but what about the rest of the season? We’ve got three new wolves that need a pack, and of course, mates. What will Carlos, Rick, and Javier’s role be with the Sawtooth pack?
We’re about to find out. Carlos is first up, but he never thought he’d star in an episode. He’s got reasons, and I’m not one to spoil. But when he meets she-wolf Willow, a single mom who’s recently gained her freedom, he knows he’ll do whatever it takes to help her find her place in the pack.
Protected by the Rogue Wolf is coming April 17!
You can preorder it now!
Or keep reading for a sneak peek...
Let’s stay in touch!
Newsletter—get a free book for signing up, and exclusive bonus content from all my books. Never miss a new release or a sale.
Kristen’s Backstage Pass—hang out with me in my Facebook reader group.
Bookbub—Just want to hear about new releases without all the other jazz? This is your hookup.
Willow
“Come on, we’re going to be famous.” My new best friend Luna loved leading me places I would never dare go myself. Like to the red carpet that had been set up outside of The Redheaded Stepchild. My ex-husband forbid me from going to the rough and tumble bar on the outskirts of town. Which made me wonder what else he’d been hiding from me.
Barrel lights crisscrossed in the parking lot, accompanying the tour bus that proclaimed The Real Werewives had come to town for their second season. The ink on my contract was barely dry and I was questioning everything, just like I had been ever since I left Tate.
Our alpha, Shadow Channing, changed the course of the pack when he said that she-wolves that had been “contracted”—oh hell, no need to be polite about it anymore. I’d been sold—to their mates were free to leave the arrangement. After twelve years of marriage to one of the most prominent members of the pack, I shocked everyone by asking for my freedom.
That freedom came with a price, like my family and friends refusing to support me in this new phase of my life.
“The protesters are here.” They’d been everywhere lately. If I hadn’t already been uncomfortable enough in this tiny blue dress and these impossibly high heels. Now my stomach roiled.
Walk past them with your head held high, my she-wolf pleaded. Your freedom is on the other side of that carpet.
My wolf had been waiting patiently for this very moment and she refused to let me blow it.
“Of course they are.” Luna fluffed her short electric blue hair and winked at the protesters. “Shadow Channing freaked out the humans in town by announcing that some of us go boom! furry on the full moon. The rest of them are just haters because we had the lady balls to do what they didn’t. It’s our job to show them we can have everything they won’t admit to themselves they want.”
Luna had figured out a way to avoid marrying her mate by enacting a clever series of loopholes that kept her mostly away of Sawtooth Forest until it was safe to come back. She was a few years younger than me, and now that she was back, I had a feeling she’d be scooped up by some waiting wolf immediately. Which led me to my second doubt.
“We just got out of our contracts. Should we really be Real Werewives?” I kept reminding myself I was doing this for my nine-year-old daughter. I’d rather explain to her that I fought to keep her from being sold to a wolf she didn’t love than explain that I’d sealed her fate for a paycheck.
“Absofuckinglutely.” Luna tugged on my arm and we started the endless walk past the angry mob with signs. The fact that it was people I’d invited into my house and once considered friends hurt the worst. “We finally have a chance to find our fated mates. The wolves we were destined to be with. You watched season one. There was hunk after hunk to choose from. I’d be happy to wake up next to any of those guys.”
She always made me laugh, and I never appreciated it more than I did right now, when people I knew yelled at me, and held signs that said Willow Go Home. Others yelled beast! and held anti-shifter signs. Some of them were strangers, but the ones who really scared me weren’t. People I’d worked with on the Parent Teacher Association and taught yoga for years suddenly saw me as a monster.
Prove them wrong, my she-wolf said, and I was starting to believe she was right.
“Waking up alone isn’t that bad, either.” I laughed nervously, turning away from the protesters to the second scariest thing in Granger Falls at the moment—the press line. Light flashed in my face and a new set of strangers called my name.
“What are you looking for in a fated mate, Willow?”
When I was a little girl, we had a book in Sawtooth Forest that explained how wolves found their fated mates. It was my favorite bedtime story, until the night my mom explained why she couldn’t read it to me anymore. She said my fate had been decided and left me with so many questions as she walked out of my bedroom, clutching the book to her chest.
“Someone who takes out the garbage without being asked and doesn’t snore.”
That got a laugh out of everyone. Tate had always rolled his eyes at my jokes. His family thought I was crass. Of course, they’d never said it to my face, but it had ways of getting back to me.
“What do you want to tell all those protesters?” another reporter asked.
I wanted to tell them a lot of things that would get beeped out on national TV. But that would support their theory I wasn’t good enough for my own happily ever after. And my daughter, Hazel, would never let me live it down if I swore on camera.
At nine, she was already obsessed with reality TV. Especially the videos that had recently gone viral from Forever Home Animal Shelter that had inspired this season of The Real Werewives.
I was doing this for her. But I wouldn’t tell the reporters that. Tate had already fought me for full custody and lost. He didn’t need any ammunition for another fight. This was bigger than just me and my girl. It was for the future of our pack.
“I want them to know that everyone deserves a chance to find true love.”
Tessa Williams, the executive producer of The Real Werewives, waved me into the club. She was technically my boss now but I was still a little star-struck every time I saw her. Before The Real Werewives, she’d been a reporter for the C
ontinental Football Association. This woman took no shit and was basically my hero. That was another reason I wanted to be on the show—to channel some of her tenacity.
“Fantastic job out there,” she said when I came inside.
“I almost threw up in the parking lot when I saw the protesters.” I hoped no one recorded that.
“Believe it or not, they’re confirmation you’re doing the right thing.” She looked out the door, and waved Luna inside. “You have an incredible opportunity to set a new precedent for the next generation of she-wolves in Sawtooth Forest. Those people with the signs are angry because they know those young girls will fall in love right along with you.”
“This is amazing.” Luna had stars in her eyes when she joined us. “Who ever thought Hollywood would come to Sawtooth Forest? This is our lives now.”
“Your lives are about to change. A camera crew will be following each of you tonight, but first, I was hoping to bring you into the confessional to get your impressions before we really get down for to business.”
That was when it hit me, I was actually doing this. I’d signed on to have every gritty detail of my life exposed to a national audience, who’d dissect it over watch parties and bottles of rose, just like Luna and I had done with the first season. I’d contracted myself in a whole new way—to go on dates with potential forever mates. Things would get steamy, and we’d probably head into a hot tub—I’d be going on national TV in a bathing suit—and then we’d signal for the cameras to shut off before things got too hot.
Holy crap, things were going to get hot. With a wolf who wasn’t Tate. Possibly my real fated mate.
“Yeah, I’ll do it.” If I waited too long, my nerves would get the best of me. And that whole almost puking in the parking lot thing might actually happen in front of a room full of hot wolves.
Tessa’s face brightened. The Werewives in season one notoriously gave her a hard time about pretty much everything. “Great. Follow me. Luna, don’t let things get too wild. You’re next.”
Trained by the Rogue Wolf Page 10