by Amy Green
Anna flopped down onto the sofa next to her. She just felt so tired. Moving wasn’t the problem; she’d brought only a few things from Shifter Falls, and she could be packed in a few hours. But really, that was what was so depressing. She was moving from one place she didn’t really want to be, to another place she didn’t really want to be. So she could go to school and finish a thesis she didn’t really want to write. And then get a job she didn’t really want to work at.
“Are you okay?” Gina asked.
“Gina,” Anna asked, “if your boyfriend lived far from here, would you go?”
Gina dipped the brush in her nail polish, and her eyes narrowed in thought. “It depends,” she said. “How far are you talking about?”
“Physically, not that far I guess. But a place that feels like a different world.”
Gina didn’t seem to think this was a weird answer. “Is he serious, or is he just looking for sex?”
“Say he’s serious,” Anna said. Understatement, she thought.
“So he lives far away, but he loves me? And he wants to commit to me, forever?”
“Forever,” Anna said.
“Then I’d go,” Gina replied.
“But it’s a risk,” Anna argued. “You’d be moving away from your life here. School. Your family.”
Gina narrowed her eyes again, but this time she was looking at Anna. “There are such things as phone and internet,” she replied. “It isn’t like you—like I—would be dead.”
Anna skipped over the fact that she’d come awfully close. “So you’d go.”
“Anna, I plan to make a life,” Gina said. “My own life. Not my parents’ life, not my professors’ life. My own. With my man. And my kids, eventually.” She gave Anna a look that said she knew they weren’t talking about Gina at all. “Tell me, does my boyfriend want kids?”
The thought made Anna’s heart stop for a second. Yes, Ian would want kids, if she did. That much she knew in her bones. Just like she knew he’d be the best father she’d ever seen. Her knees went a little weak, even though she was sitting down. “Yes,” she managed. “He does.”
Gina gave her a small smile. “Is my boyfriend hot?”
That was an easy one. “Very.”
“Nice,” Gina said, her grin widening. “Is my boyfriend good in bed?”
“Like you can’t even believe,” Anna said, unable to stop smiling back at her.
“And he’s nice to me?” Gina asked. “He treats me well?”
“Yeah, he does,” Anna said. “You’re the most important thing to him. He says there will be no one else for him, ever.”
“Jeez, Anna,” Gina said. “If you don’t take this guy, I will. What’s his number?”
That made Anna laugh. “I know. But it’s sort of complicated.”
Gina shrugged. “Life is complicated,” she said. “It’s also short. What’s the point of being afraid of it? Love is love. If you love him, go jump him so hard he doesn’t know what hit him. Then work it out.”
The minute she thought about doing that, it was like a weight was lifted. Anna felt a hundred pounds lighter. What had she been thinking? She’d left most of her belongings in Ian’s apartment anyway, because she wanted to go back. Because she’d never wanted to leave.
“Oh, my God,” she said to Gina, her blood singing with excitement. She was going to see Ian again. “I think I’m going to do it.”
“That’s the spirit,” Gina said, punching her shoulder. “Go pack.”
31
Shifter Falls looked familiar, even after two months. Anna remembered the route through town to Ian’s apartment, as if she drove it every day.
Most of the snow was gone, replaced by thick, cold slush that was the staple of a Colorado spring. But there was a hint of warmth in the air that meant warm weather was coming. If you closed your eyes and breathed, you could feel it.
She pulled into the parking lot behind Nolan’s video rental store—it was empty, with not a single other car in sight—and got out, carrying her backpack. She hadn’t even approached the back door before it swung open.
“Anna!” Nolan said, a grin splitting his face. He wasn’t holding the shotgun this time. “You’re back!”
“I am,” Anna said, her heart beating wildly in her chest. “Is he home?”
“Not right now, but soon. He went for a wolf run.”
She hadn’t expected this. “Is it okay if I wait for him?”
Nolan grinned at her again. “I think he’d like that. I’ll let you in.”
He’d tidied the apartment, she noticed when Nolan had let her in and left her. It looked slightly less… bachelor-like, as if he’d spent a lot of time here. There was food in the fridge—not just the food Nolan’s wife had brought—and his bed was made. There were stacks of papers on the coffee table and a blanket on the sofa next to it. Anna glanced at the papers and saw that they were all to do with pack business. So he and his brothers hadn’t killed each other, and were at least making an effort to work together and run Shifter Falls. She pictured Ian sitting here, the blanket over his shoulders as the snow came down outside, reading and working. I should have been here helping, she thought. But no matter. She was here now.
Her belongings, that she’d brought in her car that very first day, were all stacked neatly in the spare room. He hadn’t unpacked them, but left them in their boxes and bags, as if he wasn’t sure she’d be back. You can’t promise anything, he’d said to her.
So the first thing she did was unpack them.
Then she did what she’d wanted to do a long time ago: She got naked and got into his bed.
He’d scent her first, she knew. He’d see her car in the parking lot, but he’d probably scent her even before that. By the time he got to the back door he’d not only know she was here, he’d probably also know that she was naked and she wanted him.
That was the nice thing about seducing an alpha werewolf. It didn’t require any subtlety.
She lay back and relaxed, and she heard him about fifteen minutes later. He banged the downstairs door open and ran up the stairs. The door of the apartment flew shut behind him with a crash.
He appeared in the bedroom doorway, out of breath. He was wearing a leather jacket with a gray t-shirt beneath it and worn jeans. His hair was slightly tousled from his run, and he had a shadow of stubble on his jaw. His green eyes blazed as he stared at her. He was the most gorgeous man she had ever seen, and she was so turned on just looking at him after two months away that he could probably smell it.
She had the covers pulled demurely up on her chest, and she left them there. “Hello,” she said to him. “Come here.”
“This,” Ian growled, “is the best fucking thing I’ve ever seen.” Then he got on the bed and kissed her.
He smelled like snow and woods and wolf, and he kissed her passionately, almost harshly, devouring her and biting her lips. She opened her mouth to him, and it was so good that she pushed the covers down and hooked her legs over the backs of his thighs as he pinned her down. Now he was fully clothed and she was completely naked, feeling the rub of his jeans and the cold leather of his jacket. She tangled her hands in his hair and kissed him harder.
Ian broke the kiss. “You’re going to kill me, Anna,” he rasped. “Two fucking months.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I belong here. I missed you. I love you. Mate with me.”
He looked into her eyes, his beautiful green gaze on her. “Are you sure?”
She slid her hands down and undid his belt. “What part of finding me naked in your bed is unclear?”
He kissed her again, slower this time, exploring her, tasting her. She undid his jeans and slid her hand into them, feeling how hard he already was, and he moaned gently into her mouth. “Hurry,” she said in his ear, loving how much power she had over her big alpha wolf. “I don’t want to go slow.”
“I can tell.” He nipped her neck, his stubble rasping against her skin. “Don’t worry. I’m going to make
you mine before you can change your mind.”
But he pulled off his jacket, and then his shirt, and he tortured her a little longer, running his hands over her breasts, her body, drinking her in. He kissed her belly, and she opened her legs, letting him sense her. He slid his fingers into her and she gasped, lifting her hips off the bed as he gently bit her hipbone, making the skin burn.
“Ian,” she begged him.
“Jesus, Anna,” he growled. “Roll over. Now.”
She rolled over and lay on her stomach, listening to him take the rest of his clothes off. Then he spread her legs and knelt between them, rubbing his hands over her back, her shoulders, the back of her neck. He kissed her, leaving little bites on her skin, bites that burned and made her hotter. He rubbed a big hand over her ass and then down between her legs again, making her cry out. “On your knees,” he whispered in her ear.
She got her knees beneath her and he slid into her, filling her. It felt so good, so right. She was immediately close to coming, but he prolonged it, moving slow, making it build. He scraped his teeth over her shoulder, possessive, as he thrust into her, and every time he did she pulsed harder with arousal like she’d never felt before. This was unlike anything she’d ever done before. This was better. This was her mate, inside her, claiming her.
She gripped the sheets, close to the edge, and she knew he felt every pulse of her body, because just as she started to fall she felt his teeth on the back of her neck, sharp and almost painful. Then the orgasm hit, and it was so intense she closed her eyes and saw nothing but white sparks as she cried out and gasped for breath. He held her through it, still thrusting into her until she felt him come, too, with a low growl.
“Mine,” he said in her ear as she came down, still gasping. “You are mine.”
Hours later, they lay entwined, her back against his chest, his arm over her. Ian felt completely satisfied, his wolf finally quiet after months of torment. “What about Denver?” he asked, stroking her hair gently.
“I’ll have to finish,” she said. Her voice was drowsy, as if she could barely summon the energy to answer, and he smiled to himself. “I’ll probably have to go back and forth for the next few months, but it’s only temporary.” She flexed against him. “My home is here.”
“Okay,” he said. As long as she came back. He knew she would now. “And then?”
“And then I stay.” She turned and looked up at him. She was all dark hair and blue eyes and white skin. Miles of perfect skin. His Anna. She smiled at him. “I could get a job here. And I was thinking… maybe I could help you with pack business. If that’s allowed.”
“Anna,” he said, “a mate is a partner. An equal partner.” He ran his thumb along her lower lip, which was reddened from kissing him. “You’re a Donovan now,” he told her. “You’re pack.”
“I am?” The idea seemed to please her.
“You are,” he said. His mate, the mother of his children hopefully someday. She was a Donovan as much as he was.
“I like that,” she said softly as he ran his thumb over her lip again. “I like that I belong. I feel like I do.”
“It isn’t going to be simple,” he warned her. “You’ve seen this place. We have work to do in the Falls. But I could use your help.”
“I can’t wait,” she said, and he couldn’t help it. He kissed her. Because she was his.
Forever.
32
Brody Donovan sat on the crest of a ridge on the outskirts of Shifter Falls, looking at the mountains. Dusk had fallen, and the sky was purple and gray. The wind was cold and damp. Brody adjusted the baseball cap on his head and watched Heath come out of the trees toward the pile of his clothes.
“Jesus, cover that up,” he said, disgusted. “No one wants to see that.”
“I’ve never had a woman complain,” Heath said, pulling on his jeans.
“How was your run?” Brody asked, even though he knew the answer. He’d just finished a wolf run himself.
“Quiet,” Heath said. “I circled the whole perimeter of town. There’s nothing going on.”
Brody watched as Heath put the rest of his clothes on and came over, taking a seat next to him. “Quiet,” he said. “I know.” He squinted off toward the mountains. “And yet, you’ve been running every day. So have I. So have Ian and Devon.” He inhaled a breath, absorbing it slowly. “It’s like we’re looking for something.”
Heath was quiet for a minute. Brody thought he would argue, and then Heath said, “Something’s coming. I can feel it. I get up and it’s like there’s something in my blood that makes me run. Over and over. Like there’s a scent I can’t quite catch.”
Brody thought about not telling him, but then he changed his mind. His brothers needed to know. “Blood,” he said.
Heath looked at him. “Blood?”
“I can smell it,” Brody said. Since he’d become alpha, his senses had changed—not hugely, but he had become aware that he could sense things here and there that his brothers couldn’t. He was developing an alpha’s senses. “There’s blood on the air. It isn’t here yet, but it’s coming.”
“Where?” Heath asked. “When?”
Brody shook his head. “I don’t know. That’s why I run every day. That’s why we all do.”
“Fuck,” Heath said softly, watching the mountains and scenting the air. He was very different when he was alone like this, Brody had come to learn. When he was away from Shifter Falls and his bar, he was quiet, even thoughtful, as if he had something on his mind. Brody knew that the rumors were right, that Heath had stopped sleeping with women weeks ago. He couldn’t smell a woman on his brother now. He wondered what the reason was, but he knew Heath wasn’t ready to tell him. So he waited.
“What do we do?” Heath asked.
“We get ready,” Brody said.
Heath shook his head. “Blood in the air isn’t good.”
“We’re Donovans,” Brody said, looking toward the mountains again. “Bring it on.”
A Note From Amy
Thank you for reading Rebel Wolf! The next book will be called Lover Wolf, and it is Heath’s story. When hikers are murdered in the mountains and the deaths are blamed on shifters, the Donovans must solve the crime, and Heath’s love life gets complicated when he finds his mate in the worst possible place. To be notified when it’s released, join my newsletter here!
From the Author
Thank you for reading Rebel Wolf!
Continue on to Book 2 of the Shifter Falls series: Lover Wolf!
Werewolf Heath Donovan has always had it all. The favoured son of Shifter Falls’ hated alpha, Heath was given the easy life - and his looks have women falling at his feet. Now the old alpha is dead, and Heath runs Shifter Falls’ favorite werewolf bar. It’s hard work, but the women are still easy.
Except Tessa Keefe.
Not only is Tessa a blonde bombshell, she’s Heath’s employee. Worse, she wants nothing to do with werewolves - least of all Heath. Too bad the one woman Heath wants is the only woman in the Falls who can’t stand him.
Someone is killing hikers in the woods and framing werewolves for it - someone who also wants Tessa. If Heath can stay out of trouble, he’ll have to protect her - if she doesn’t wreck his life first. Because in Shifter Falls, no one is exactly who they seem…
*Standalone full-length book with NO cliffhanger*
Get it on Amazon now!
Coming soon: Warrior Wolf (Devon’s story) and Alpha Wolf (Brody’s story)!
If you’re looking for more werewolves, check out my previous series, Full Moon Rising. You can read the complete serial in one box set, plus the two follow ups, Blood of the Alpha Part 1 and Blood of the Alpha Part 2.
You can find me at my website, on my Facebook page, or you can click “Follow” on my Amazon page to be notified of new releases. And you can always get the latest news and releases from my email newsletter!
Thanks again for reading,
Amy
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Amy Green, Rebel Wolf (Shifter Falls Book 1)