Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Newsletter Signup
About the Author
Other Books by K.C. Stewart
On the Edge by K.C. Stewart
© 2016 by K.C. Stewart.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover Design © L.J. Anderson, Mayhem Cover Creations
Editing by: Dare to Dream Editing
Whiskey made me do it.
Chapter One
Valek Firemourn: You get through that quest yet?
Glilee Lunamaul: No. Damn thing is taking forever.
Valek Firemourn: If you come into town I can join you.
Glilee Lunamaul: I would but I’ve already got the cave cleared. I really don’t want to do that again.
Valek Firemourn: Offer stands if you need it.
Glilee Lunamaul: Thanks, V.
Valek Firemourn: So is your friend talking to you yet?
Glilee Lunamaul: Not really. None of them are.
Valek Firemourn: I’m sorry Glilee Weed.
Valek Firemourn: Have you tried talking to them?
Glilee Lunamaul: Not really.
Valek Firemourn: You’ll need to do better than nothing at all if you want some kind of outcome.
Glilee Lunamaul: Stop being all logical and shit. It’s annoying.
Valek Firemourn: My apologies.
Glilee Lunamaul: I just don’t know where to start.
Valek Firemourn: “I’m sorry,” is typically a good place.
Glilee Lunamaul: Bite me.
Valek Firemourn: I wouldn’t lead with that.
Glilee Lunamaul: You are no help!
Valek Firemourn: Hey, I gave you my advice. You chose not to take it. I’m sorry is the simplest place to start when apologizing. You could also try: I was a bitch. I’m a horrible person but you love me, so please forgive me.
Valek Firemourn: Just a few suggestions.
Glilee Lunamaul: I’ll take them into consideration.
Valek Firemourn: In all seriousness Glilee, you should at least try.
Glilee Lunamaul: I am. It’s just hard. Every time I see one of them I freeze and choke up. For the longest time they would barely even look at me, now I can’t look at them.
Glilee Lunamaul: Maybe I should just cut my losses and move on.
Valek Firemourn: What does that mean?
Valek Firemourn: Glilee?
Valek Firemourn: Are you saying you are leaving me before we have even met?
Valek Firemourn: Dammit woman! Talk to me.
Glilee Lunamaul: Can we just move on?
Valek Firemourn: We most certainly cannot.
Valek Firemourn: Explain what you meant.
Glilee Lunamaul: You’re bossy.
Valek Firemourn: Damn straight. I keep it hidden most of the time but you bring out the bossiness in me.
Glilee Lunamaul: Lucky me.
Valek Firemourn: Yes, lucky you. Now talk.
Glilee Lunamaul: I’m not leaving. I tried that in college and it didn’t work. But maybe I’ll leave Andora. What I do, I can do anywhere.
Valek Firemourn: And what is it that you do?
Glilee Lunamaul: Nice try.
Valek Firemourn: I’ll break you one of these days.
Glilee Lunamaul: You are welcome to try.
Valek Firemourn: Where are you thinking of going?
Glilee Lunamaul: I’m not. Not really. There are plenty of small towns all through the park I can move to but I don’t know if I have the courage to start all over.
Valek Firemourn: As opposed to having the courage to admit you were wrong and apologize?
Glilee Lunamaul: Both options suck, I know.
Valek Firemourn: I think you are just making excuses now. Next time you see your friends just tell them. You will feel better for it in the end.
Glilee Lunamaul: I’ve got to go. The quest needs my undivided attention.
Valek Firemourn: Sure it does.
Valek Firemourn: Good luck, Glilee Weed. Hit me up when you want to tackle that co-op mission.
Glilee Lunamaul: Will do, V.
*****
“You think you can handle this?” Owen, the Alpha of the Adirondack Pack asked Vince as they finished eating their lunch. Just a handful of people made up the lunch crowd so their small corner of the bar was fairly secluded from prying ears.
“Do I have a choice?” Vince retorted.
His smile was all bite. “Nope,” he said with his infamous pop. “None at all.”
He could have worse jobs within the pack and it was only a matter of time before he had found a place. Vince had been there for a few years now and had survived on the outskirts going almost unnoticed. But not any longer.
“Cobie can’t stop singing your praises and you were great with the pups on the last run. I wouldn’t put you in charge of training if I didn’t think you had the knowledge and the patience to deal with it.”
Vince rubbed his nape. The compliment was unexpected but nice. He really didn’t have any reason not to do it. Vince enjoyed working with Cobie. The kid was going to make a great wolf once he grew up a bit, might even give Owen a run for his Alpha spot someday.
A woman laughed over by the bar. Vince knew the sound like his own heartbeat and his eyes skittered over to where Lee was perched on a stool wrapping silverware while talking to his cousin Sam. The laugh was genuine but still there was sadness in her. Lee always had a part of her that ached but lately he had seen it more and could hear the strain in her voice. Not that he experienced these observations first hand. Vince rarely had the opportunity to talk to her. With anyone else that he had seen her with, Lee was a fount of personality but when he came around she was skittish and awkward. He didn’t know why he made her so nervous. Out of respect, he kept a distance.
That didn’t mean he could keep his eyes off of her, though.
Lee’s beauty stuck him stupid almost daily. Her hair was short and choppy, hanging just above her shoulders. It was the color of wildflower honey, dark blonde with a hint of a blush. She had these light, expressive eyes with dark tendrils like bourbon. Her athletic body was looking more like a twig these days, bordering on the edge of too skinny. He rarely saw her eat—especially lately—which bothered the hell out of him.
“How’s Sam been?” Owen asked as he saw the direction of Vince’s gaze.
“Well, he just bought a house down on Maple. I’m going to be helping him move two weeks from now.”
“Good for him.”
Lee’s eyes flashed to Vince and then back to Sam and smiled. Just once he wanted that smile directed at him. But he’d just have to settle for those brief flashes of her eyes that seared him.
“How’s Mira? I haven’t seen her about lately.”
He grinned like a madman lost in the best of fantasies. “Mira is good. She has almost broken down and agreed to move in with me. I’m giving her to the end of the month to take the necessary steps or I will be moving her in one night with or without her knowledge.”
“Man,” he chuckled, “I think you’ve meet your match with that one.”
“Don’t I know it.” Since bringing her back to town a few months earlier, Owen and Mira had been inseparable and deliriously happy. They could all feel it. It seeped through the bond giving the pack a perpetual giddy feeling. Even on a bad day, Vince found it hard to find the morose in life.
“Her mom is coming into town later today.” Owen blew out a breath of air and leaned back in the booth. His big frame took up the majority of the seat. “It’s going to be an interesting few days with her here.”
Vince laughed. “Good luck with that.”
“Well, I met her previously but not surrounded by pack. She’s going to stay with Tyson and Sadie which is going to help. Last thing I need is for her to be going to dinner at the pack house and someone change around her.” Owen took a swig of his beer. “Really don’t want to have to explain that one just yet.”
“Better you than me.”
“It will happen eventually, once I can get a better judge of character on her. I don’t think she would ever do something stupid with our secret, her daughter is one of us and her other is dating an alpha after all. She’d be a complete moron to go to the government.”
“But,” Vince supplied.
“Yeah but.” Owen rubbed a hand over his beard. It wasn’t as long as Vince’s but it wasn’t a patch of stubble either. Mira commented on how much she had liked his one night and told Owen in a drunken babble that she found beards sexy. Owen hadn’t shaved since.
“Can’t be too sure is all. I need to go pick up Mira then head over to help Sadie wrangle Tyson in. The dog is having doubts about Ann staying with them. He thinks he doesn’t have the control yet.” Owen rolled his eyes.
Vince knew he struggled with his wolf but he had never seen a more in control man in his life. He had no doubt that there was nothing to fear from Tyson as far as Sadie’s mother was concerned.
“If he’d just come back into the pack he could borrow our strength. He should know that.”
“Yeah, he should but he’s a stubborn bastard.”
Weren’t they all?
Owen stood and sent a small salute to Chuck. ”I’ll call you later and we’ll talk about a schedule for these pups.”
“Sounds good. Bye Alpha.”
“Fuck you,” Owen said with a smile. He really hated being called that outside official pack functions.
As Owen left, Vince’s eyes stole to Lee again. She was cashing out and heading over to the clinic like she did every Tuesday afternoon. She kissed Sam goodbye on the cheek and made her way around the bar. She had to walk right past him in order to leave. Her step faltered for just a second when she caught him staring. But tough as nails Lee didn’t let that slow her down for long. She held her head high and Vince thought there was a little extra sway in her hips as she marched right by him without another glance.
He watched her go, not caring to hide his attentive gaze. One day he would figure out why she was so skittish around him and then, there would be no place safe enough for her to hide from him.
*****
Why did his gaze have to affect her so harshly? Lee practically stumbled when she caught him watching her. Vince Steinbeck was ruggedly handsome. He had this farm boy look about him that said his body had been made from sun up to sun down hard work. Add in the inky black tendrils of hair that were thicker and silkier than many women she knew and a full beard that was in the sweet spot of lengths and you had a man who made flannel sexy.
Lee had been crushing on the wolf since day one. She’d never said more than a handful of words to him at a time, but that was entirely his fault. If he stopped looking at her like what she had to say was interesting then maybe she could get passed his cognac eyes and actually verbalize just how stupid he made her brain. That’s why they got along so well online. When she wasn’t looking at him, she could talk to him.
He just didn't know he was talking to her.
It had started innocently enough. Lee had never purposefully deceived him. She just never told him the truth either. She had seen Vince in a coffee shop a few towns over where he was with a few guys all playing Rhylith. Lee had died and gone to gamer heaven when she found out he was a player too. After eavesdropping long enough she got his name and a few days later she found the guts to message him. Lee was going to tell him who she was but they had so much fun that first day that she didn’t want to ruin it by telling him her name. The pack was tolerant of her but most of them stayed away. The males were especially absent from her life. She didn’t want him to be the same way.
At age seven, Lee had been in an accident. A car had hit her while she was skateboarding. Back then she had been a bit of a tomboy as she hung out with Owen and Tyson. They were a few years older than her and she idolized them. They let her tag along most of the time but she suspected that had more to do with Owen’s father, Jett, than anything else. He had been alpha at the time and was always looking out for the pups of the pack. They had been helping her learn how to turn without falling off. She was trying to impress them when she pushed herself faster down the street. Tyson had screamed her name right before she blacked out. A car had come down the alley and t-boned her. Her fifty pounds had nothing on Mr. Cowen’s three-ton pickup truck. She was thrown across the street through a fence. She woke with several inches of a white picket protruding from her abdomen and two very scared boys hovering around her. To save her life, she had to lose her uterus and many other organs that made her a woman.
Since she was unable to bear children, she was no use to the males. It may sound harsh but so was the reality, one she had come to terms with when she was a teenager. Dating had been a wake-up call. Owen had been the only one to not see her as a burden. Lee had settled for dating humans but she knew she wanted a wolf for a mate.
Vince was meant to be a father. Ever since he took up with the young wolf, Cobie, he had gotten the attention of every available female in the pack. It pissed Lee off. Not that she ever had a chance with the man, but now he had his pick of anyone. If it wasn’t for her inability to have children, the fact that she had been lying to him for a few years now would definitely push him away. No matter how much he asked her to reveal herself, she knew that everything would be over when she did. Lee was just selfish enough to continue the lie for her own benefit.
Whether he realized it or not, he knew her better than anyone else. Lee was herself online. It was just her voice in a blind room of people and that was the beauty of the fantasy. Lee could be anyone and she chose to be herself, the person that didn’t have to put on a thick armor just to leave her house. Few people ever got to see her for who she really was. Even fewer yet were still friends with her. She had done some pretty hurtful things to those she cared for and now she was alone because of it.
And she deserved every moment of the heart-wrenching solitude.
Maybe she would pick up and move. The pack lands were large enough that she could find somewhere more secluded from the pack and start over. Vince hadn’t liked that idea last night. She didn’t say it in so many words but he had understood her meaning. Sadie had done it and she was better for it. Maybe that was what she needed to do too. Get out of the faces of those who she hurt and become someone new.
Chapter Two
Owen picked up Mira
and then headed over to meet her mom. This wasn’t their first meet and greet, but the introduction had been a memorable one. Months ago, Owen had driven to her house to find, convince and possibly kidnap Mira. Their relationship had ended before it began with her crazy notion of rushing things and being different from one another. There was also the part of her walking in on Lee and him looking disheveled and guilty, but that had been a misunderstanding. Owen had let her go. It was a mistake on his part and one he went to fix. Ann had been home at the time and before she would tell him where Mira was, he had to prove himself.
He passed her test, it really wasn’t hard when he told her that he loved Mira and was there to rectify a mistake he made by letting her go. Ann hadn’t stood a chance against his charm or determination for finding her daughter.
They hadn’t seen each other since that meeting. Owen had stolen her daughter away, just as Tyson had done with Sadie. Part of him was a bit nervous to meet her again. Especially now that he was trying to get Mira to commit to another level. He wanted her to move in with him but she was hesitant. She didn’t want to rush things, which he could respect but only to a point. She slept at the pack house five days a week, the other two he spent at her apartment. It was stupid what they were doing and he wanted it fixed. Owen went as far as offering to build her a house separate from the pack house for them. Mira’s stubbornness mirrored his own, however, and she turned him down time and again.
“How was Vince?” she asked while putting down the window.
“Good. He accepted the position without complaint.”
Mira snorted. “Like anyone would complain to you.”
“They do.” Owen prided himself on being approachable. It was one of the qualities his father had drilled into him. If his wolves couldn’t come to him when they needed someone, then he had no use being Alpha.
“Don’t sound like a kicked puppy.” Mira lifted her aviator sunglasses to look at him. She was leaned back in the seat with her bare feet crossed and hanging out the window. Her hair was a dirty blonde today. A few loose strands blew around her in a whirlwind.
On the Edge (Adirondack Pack Book 3) Page 1