Howl & Growl: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set

by Various Authors

  The Naughty List Presents:

  Howl & Growl: A Shifter Romance Boxed Set

  (Limited-Run Amazon Exclusive Romance Collection)

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  (c) 2014 The Naughty List, Respective Authors & Copyright Holders

  This work of fiction is intended for mature audiences only. All characters represented within are fictional and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The works appearing in this collection are the property of their respective authors or copyright holders and used by The Naughty List with their explicit permission. Do not reproduce illegally.

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  ~~ Table of Contents ~~

  Curves for the Lonely Wolf

  By Caroline Knox

  Guardian Wolf (Black Mesa Wolves #1)

  By J.K. Harper

  Alpha Wolf (Black Mesa Wolves #2)

  By J.K. Harper

  A Wolf in Geek’s Clothing

  By Amelia Faulkner

  Claiming Their Royal Mate, Part One

  By Andie Devaux

  Her Master’s Corruption

  By J.E. & M. Keep

  Soul of The Dragon (Her Dragon’s Bane)

  By Harmony Raines

  Alphas Divided

  By Jamie Klaire

  Touched by the Dragon Lord: Braving Darkness 4 (Book One)

  By Scarlett Grove

  Becoming His Mate: Douglas Mountain Shifters

  By Lillian Dante

  More FREE and Discounted Books from TNL!

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  Curves for the Lonely Wolf

  By Caroline Knox

  1

  Dara Davies didn’t have time to wonder why she’d transformed into a Golden Retriever. She was too busy running for her life.

  Goaded by terror and unaccustomed to her new four-legged body or her strange new senses, Dara fled across the small parking lot. She ran unthinkingly into the two-lane road and into the path of a pickup truck.

  The deafening blare of horn and squeal of brakes overwhelmed her. She crouched, paralyzed and with her ears laid back, staring at the oncoming vehicle.

  The truck swerved.

  It skidded to a halt half on the road’s shoulder and half on the red dirt embankment bordering the forest. The door flew open and a man leapt out. He rushed to her.

  “Stupid, idiotic mutt,” he growled even as he bent and scooped her up into his strong arms. He carried her off the road. She could hear the thunder of his heart beating fast against the velvety flap of her ear. The hard muscles of his arms and his large, tightly pressing hands felt right. She craned her neck to look up at his face. She’d never seen the man before, she was sure of it, yet she could have sworn she knew him.

  Dara huddled against his broad chest, which smelled pleasantly of wood and clean sweat.

  As he was about to put her down, he caught her gaze and froze. He stared at her face.

  Dara had a close-up of his face too. It was a ruggedly handsome face, bronzed lightly by wind and sun. She could see he hadn’t shaved his chiseled jaw and chin in some time. But it was his eyes that held her. His compelling dark sapphire eyes seemed to pierce her through, paralyzing her anew, though it wasn’t with the same sort of fear she’d felt a moment ago in the middle of the road. He fascinated her.

  She wagged her tail, approving of the humor lines at his mouth and near his eyes.

  He kept looking at her like she’d done something unexpected. It seemed she puzzled him. His mouth was parted with surprise, showing strikingly white teeth in his sun-kissed face.

  Then he did something odd. He put his strong nose right behind her ear and inhaled. It was a long and deliberate sniff. Then he snuffled at the ruff of fur around her neck.

  It tickled. She wriggled, her fear evaporating in the grip of this superb male who grasped her and sniffed her and tickled her so nicely. She licked his nose, liking him very much.

  He breathed her scent in, his nostrils flaring. “I finally find you. And you’re a dog? You’ve got to be kidding me.” The man started to laugh. The laughter held a tinge of despair that made Dara go still and intent as she stared at him curiously.

  Two familiar voices shouted with anger nearby. It was the dangerous men who were givers of pain. Dara started to tremble even as the more familiar voice yelled, “I’m going to fire that fat, lazy bitch. I can’t believe she let the dog get away. Wait, there’s the dog!” She heard footsteps getting closer.

  The man holding her stopped laughing. He’d felt her trembling. “Are they chasing you? You’re scared of them.” He came to a decision quickly. “I’m hanging onto you for a bit longer.”

  Dara nodded her head, then, feeling mixed-up, wagged her tail. He moved efficiently toward his truck.

  The men’s yells increased in volume but Dara no longer understood the words. Something strange was happening to her. One moment she remembered life as a human woman, a sometimes-unbearable existence as a veterinary assistant and single woman in a small mountain town. A lonely life filled with anguish about her large, curvy body. Then in the next moment, she was living in the present, utterly doglike and unburdened by civilization’s rules and expectations.

  She could smell so much. Intense pine, varieties of soil and foliage, and other animals. Odors to which she had no name. Mystery filled the air. She could still catch the lingering scent of Goldilocks, the female Golden Retriever who’d escaped with her, further out in the forest. And of course Dara marveled happily at the wonderful scent of the protective male who saved her from the Bad Men.

  Her eyes closed to slits to better savor his incredible smell. His scent was better than the toasted marshmallows she adored when the mountain weather turned cold.

  Dara cocked her head. What were toasted marshmallows? The memory of them started to fade.

  When he tossed her into the cab of his truck, she tripped and fell on the seat, still unused to her legs.

  He threw himself into the driver’s side a moment later, muttering to himself. “Isn’t that just how it goes. You look for years, then you just about turn your mate into roadkill. Zack, you’re the only werewolf in the country who gets into this kind of trouble. Now what are you gonna do?” He noticed Dara staring with fascination, and offered her a crooked grin. “Don’t mind me. I started talking to myself after the first few years alone. I have to say, I’m a great listener.”

  She liked the sound of his voice, but an itch on her side distracted her and she twisted her body to gnaw at it. The awkward challenge of reaching the spot absorbed her. Then she looked around. Zack’s truck smelled pleasantly of oils, gasoline, and him. She saw a pair of brown boots tucked under the dash. She had the urge to chew on them.

  “Hey.” His hand on her back stopped her from jumping down to the boots. He looked from the boots, to her. “You’re… you’re not just a dog, right? You’re a woman too. Aren’t you?”

  At his words, Dara shuddered. Her vision wavered and her senses flip-flopped, confused. She remembered being Dara Davies: veterinary Girl Friday, curvy woman, determinedly optimistic despite all reasons for the contrary, believer in truth and justice, savior of helpless animals. Or at least she had been all that, such that it was. Until she’d witnessed her boss, the vet, take a bribe to return an abused dog to its owner rather than
reporting the crime. Until the cretin of an owner himself tried to yank Goldilocks away from her, making the dog scream… which made Dara start screaming… and then the world had turned inside-out and the vet was attempting to catch her with the snare loop on the catch-pole he liked to use with unruly dogs.

  Was that what she was now? An unruly dog? How the hell had she turned into a dog?

  She whimpered, her gaze sharpening on the man who’d nearly run her over. Zack.

  Dara tried to ask her questions but it came out as barking.

  Suddenly the men who’d chased her pounded on the truck’s door, making her yelp.

  The owner mashed his face against the glass, distorting his nose. He snarled, “You can’t take my dog. I’ll call the cops. You won’t get away with this.” He smashed his meaty fist against the glass. Dara heard an ominous crack.

  She backed away from the monstrous face and pressed against Zack’s sturdy, warm body. She felt his muscles jump as he started the truck and jammed the accelerator down, making the vehicle’s powerful engine roar. The truck leapt forward. Dara sprawled half-across Zack’s lap and clung for dear life as the truck pealed in a half-circle that pointed it back up the highway. Zack was heading uphill toward the few remaining roadside towns and the vast wilds of the mountain’s higher elevations.

  Exactly where Dara feared most to go, for very good reason.

  She scrambled away from Zack. She pointed her golden snout at the setting sun that she could still see through the broad trunks and green needles of the redwoods and sequoias. She howled.

  “Stop that, please. This isn’t the time or the place for that… stop with the noise, seriously, I can’t concentrate. Damn it, fine. I’m going off the main road so your friendly owner back there won’t see my truck, so will you please shut up now?

  Dara stopped howling.

  “You’re definitely a woman,” Zack grumbled as he piloted the truck around a barrier chain and up a narrow dirt road. He drove a few miles, wending through the trees and foliage, then parked behind a grove of large redwoods to hide the presence of his truck. He cut off the engine.

  Then he turned to glare directly into her eyes. Dara flinched. The color of his irises seemed to glint with a fierce yellow hue that owed nothing to the disappearing sun. “Okay. Listen up. I can scent you’re my mate. If what I’ve heard about the dog-shifting phenomenon is accurate, we don’t have much time. I want to help you.” Zack’s stare became hypnotic, especially when he reached out and slowly grasped her by the ruff of her neck. Instinct made her want to lower her gaze, roll onto her back to expose her belly, and submit to him.

  Dara fought the instinct. The remaining part of her that was human resisted such a humiliating position, and in fact considered Zack a crazy man. She was his mate? He was delusional.

  Her human impulse was to flee. Sure, he was an incredibly attractive man and exactly her ideal fantasy material. His handsome, well-muscled body had moved with such easy grace as he’d carried her away from harm, and the elemental force he exuded compelled her fascination despite herself. But he was a whacko. A stranger. She didn’t get out much, or meet too many people in the small town of Lone Rock. She was sure she’d have remembered Zack.

  But… she’d turned into a dog.

  Zack seemed to know why.

  The warring instincts—submit to the dominant man or flee the crazy man—reduced her to helpless whining. She lowered herself onto her belly and covered her head with her paws.

  His voice, deep and sensual, sent ripples of awareness through her. He spoke musingly, as if to himself. His words disturbed her. “I don’t know if mating will even work. I’m not an alpha. First we’ve got to get you shifted back into human form. After that, I’ll have to take your virginity right away. That’s supposed to switch you around to imprint you on wolf-shifting, by marking you with sex. You see, wolves mate for life… hey, hold on. I guess nobody ever told you about your werewolf heritage. You’re not supposed to be reacting this way. Not to a mate.” He sounded hurt.

  Dara had already broken free from his warm hand. At his words, her eyes had rounded until they felt as if they’d pop out of her head. Her instinct to flee took over her mind entirely. She turned, grasped the door handle with her teeth and simultaneously flung her canine body against the metal until it fell open. She tumbled awkwardly onto the soft dirt of the forest, still unused to balancing on four legs.

  She gained her feet a second later and was running as fast as she could away from Zack.

  2

  The sound of a door slamming behind her spurred Dara on. She heard a large body crashing through the foliage, unseen and terrifying. Even though her four legs carried her over the ground faster than she’d ever moved before, she wasn’t as fast as Zack. Her progress through the forest ended abruptly when he tackled her flank, sending her rolling.

  The breath knocked out of her, Dara went still and watchful. Her attacker emerged from the shadows. It wasn’t Zack.

  She didn’t at first credit what she saw. A large gray wolf stalked her. The muscles moved sinuously under its lush pelt as it slid noiselessly over the ground, graceful and deadly. Its huge head and yellow gaze turned her blood to icewater in her veins.

  When its lips skinned back in a snarl, Dara cried out with fear.

  The wolf stopped. Sighed. Then before her eyes, it transformed into Zack. It happened in an instant. One moment the wolf, and the next, an equally intimidating and very naked Zack walked over to her. He sank to his knees and just looked at her as if baffled by her. “You didn’t know me as a wolf? You couldn’t smell who I was? Don’t you know anything at all about werewolves?”

  Dara tried not to look at his nudity. It was difficult to miss. Zack was a generously endowed man, a beautiful man, and clearly at home with his nude body in a way she’d never been with her own. She looked at his muscular shoulders, his strong arms, his well-defined chest. A handful of thick white lines that looked like old scars crisscrossed his abdomen. A light trail of hair led Dara’s gaze downward, toward his impressive manhood.

  She thought she was beyond fear, or embarrassment, but when Zack leaned over her to grasp her head in both hands, she whimpered.

  “Take it easy. This is a little weird for me too,” he said, his mouth mere inches from her nose. His gaze held hers levelly. He sighed again. “All right. Werewolf 101. I’m a werewolf. Surprise.” His wry smile made her tail stir into a wag that she stopped the moment she became aware of it.

  He noticed. The yellow in his eyes intensified. “What else can I say? We’ve got so little time. You’re my mate. That makes me respond to you in certain physical ways, in spite of your, um, being a dog. Which is obviously a problem. Also, you’re kind of trouble in other ways. People are chasing you, for starters. And the thought of your being stuck in this dog form forever makes me upset. Your being stuck will happen if we don’t fix it soon. All of which makes it tough to suppress my animal instincts to protect you and claim you and fix you, and things like that.

  “Now… I want you to change for me. Show me you can. It’s vitally important. I’ll help as much as I can, even though I’m not an alpha. Do it now.”

  Dara cocked her head. She felt his intensity. Then she fell into his eyes and felt something surging from them out at her, over and through her. It tickled her nerve endings and raised her fur into tufts and hackles. If Zack wasn’t an alpha among wolves, he was surely something that was just as good, Dara thought wonderingly, mesmerized anew by the power in his eyes.

  The force coming from Zack was purely masculine. It insisted she was a woman, not a dog, and it was time to change. With Zack’s gaze compelling her, calling to her, and his large hands holding her face firmly, she had to agree.

  Then she was as naked as he and lying on her back, getting a close-up of the most attractive male physique she’d ever seen in person. Her fingers – they were fingers now, she noticed – twitched with the urge to caress him, stroke his hair, and pull him more firmly again
st her. The urge to touch him shook her with its power.

  She resisted it.

  His hands still grasped her face. Zack’s skin seemed hotter than normal, almost seeming to burn her where their bodies touched. His hands traced her features wonderingly, then slipped from her face down onto her neck to her bare shoulders. His expression as he took in her naked body was one of delight and lust. She’d never had a man look at her quite that way. A small sound escaped Dara’s parted lips.

  His fingers paused at the sound, then trailed sinuously over her ample breasts. He rubbed gently at her nipples as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

  The pleasure of it stunned her. Warmth surged under his lightest touch, surging through her body to erogenous zones she didn’t even know she had. Everything in her itched and burned for more of his magical touches.

  Dara wriggled away from Zack in pure self-preservation. She should cover herself before he noticed how large her body was. “What… what did you do to me?” She wasn’t sure if she meant the way he’d forced her to shift back into her woman form, or the exquisite sensations he’d evoked in her. How could she be responding so strongly to someone she barely knew? And what, exactly, had happened to her?

  Zack’s eyes had gone pure yellow. His pulled his magic fingers away from her nipples. It seemed to pain him to do so. It certainly pained her.

  His voice emerged in a rough growl. “The shifting back was your doing. You did it. I’m just enjoying the results. Which is part of it too.” He dug his fingers into the soft earth on either side of her body. “I don’t even know your name,” he said savagely. “I don’t know you yet it’s challenging not to mate with you immediately. As you can see.”

  Dara could indeed see, or rather feel, the heat and rigidity of Zack’s enormous erection against her leg. Her own innocent body wanted nothing more than to be taken, pounded, used… Dara gasped, surprised by her own desire.