Soft Fate (Wolven Moon Book 2)

by Dany Rae Miller

  Jesus. I hope the giant wolf doesn’t do something dumber than trashing an apartment.

  Nash’s beast took Shavone’s rejection pretty fucking hard, tearing through the garage apartment like a — well, like an alpha with a broken heart.

  I head for the door. “I gotta find Nash.”

  “Now?”

  “Yeah. Right the fuck now.” I step over a pile of floorboards he sliced into toothpicks.

  “Hey!” Valerie puts her right hand on her hip. “I’m not cleaning up this shit by myself!”

  “I’ll call a contractor.”

  “You do that!” She shouts after me.

  Keys in my hand, I run down the inside stairs to the garage and fire up Hannah. We squeal out of the garage and out the back gate. I don’t want to, but the pull is too strong. My head turns to glance over at Cruz’s place. What a lucky damn bastard.

  Shavone’s rejection of me isn’t that big of a surprise. Can’t say I blame her. The real surprise in all of this is her turning her back on Nash. Yeah, I know he lied about Val. He did it for all the right reasons, though. That should count for something.

  Some old school singer is celebrating her love for someone tonight.

  What the fuck ever. I glance at the display. The playlist on the sound system is still Shavone’s songs. “Hannah!” I snarl. “Turn off Shavone’s songs.”

  The music stops. The silence is deafening.

  Whatever.

  The empty quiet mirrors what I feel.

  Fifteen minutes later, I’m pulling into the Dollhouse parking lot. It’s packed with Denver PD vehicles — marked and unmarked, so I pullout and park on the street. Even 50 yards away, I hear Nash barking orders inside as I get out and turn on Hannah’s anti-theft system.

  I duck under the yellow tape and see the raging alpha just inside a delivery door.

  “What part of dust for prints in this entire room don’t you understand?” He bellows.

  “Yes, sir.” A uniformed tech hurries out of the door, past me, to his equipment van.

  “Nash,” I say, just before entering.

  “Don’t touch anything,” he snarls and walks away.

  “We gotta talk.”

  He grunts angrily. “Nothing to say.”

  I follow him through the bar and lounge, down a hallway and into an office. “You felt it, didn’t you?” I sling the door closed behind me.

  Those grizzly brown eyes glare at me as he plants himself in the chair behind the desk.

  “Fuck! Talk to me, man.” I sit in a chair facing him. “My wolf released, but I still feel like fucking shit.” I run my hand through my hair. “She mated with him. I can feel it. Can you?”

  With an angry roar he sweeps all the shit off the desk. Guess that’s a yes. Getting up, he leans forward with both hands on the desk.

  “It’s your fault, you son of a bitch. She never would’ve met him if you’d kept her away from this goddamned place.”

  I jump to my feet to go nose to nose with him. “She had already met him, remember? He pulled her out of a freezing fucking creek.”

  He glares at me.

  “Shavone walked out of our house because of your lies, Nash!”

  His nostrils flare.

  Fuck.

  “Like any of this matters.” I drop back into the chair. “She was never meant for either of us.”

  Nash’s shoulders droop.

  “I don’t know about that. But she definitely isn’t meant for Cruz.”

  “What?”

  “If he marked her, it wasn’t consensual. She doesn’t jump into anything. She thinks things through. No way in hell she’d agree to mate within hours of being with him.”

  “You saw the way she looked at him.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything. I know her. I” — he jabs himself in the chest — “I know Shav better than anyone does. Anyone!” He roars, kicking the chair out of his way.

  “Cruz doesn’t strike me as an idiot.”

  “You said she was hexed. So did Val.”

  “Yeah. What the fuck does that have to do with this?”

  He shrugs. “Maybe he was behind it. Maybe he had her hexed.”

  I laugh at the absurdity. “You are out of your mind.”

  His upper lip curls. “It would explain a lot. Like why she was so mesmerized by him and why she’d mate” — his voice trails off.

  I soften my voice. “I don’t think he’d be dumb enough to do something like that.” As much as I hate the motherfucker, I think Cruz feels as strongly for Shavone as she does for him. “You didn’t see it, Nash. He laid himself across a flame for her. Literally put his body between the fire and her.”

  “So what? Any wolf would do that to protect his witch.”

  I cock an eyebrow. I didn’t. The strategy never even crossed my mind.

  “Yeah. Maybe not a weakling like you,” he snorts. “You’re just a beta.”

  “Fuck you,” I murmur, get up and walk to look out of the small window.

  Would Cruz have another witch hex Shavone so he could take advantage of her? Our differences aside, he treats her like a princess — proved twice that he’s ready to lay down his life for her.

  I turn back to Nash.

  “I’m fairly confident Cruz wouldn’t mate her unless she was lucid and onboard with it.”

  “You’re defending a stinking Native now?”

  There’s a knock at the door.

  “What?!” Nash yells.

  A young rookie — a Native cub, opens the door. “Boss.” The beastly glow in his eyes leaves no doubt that he heard Nash slandering Natives. “We found something.”

  “Don’t touch it. I’ll be right there.”

  The Native nods once. After a second or two of staring at Nash in a borderline challenge, he leaves and closes the door.

  “Keep mouthing off and you’ll have every Native on the force pissed off.”

  Nash stomps around the desk. “I don’t give a fuck!”

  I block the door. “You might want to cool off before you go out there.”

  “I won’t calm down until she’s away from him.”

  “Christ, Nash! They’re mated!”

  He snarls. “Once, again. I. Don’t. Give. A. Fuck.” He enunciates each word. “I will not let him fool and manipulate my Shav like that.”

  I snort. “She’s not yours.”

  Or mine.

  Both hands in fists, Nash closes his eyes and breathes deep. His eyes reopen with a determined wolven gloss to them.

  “I’m not going to abandon her when she needs me the most,” he murmurs. “You got that? I promised her I’d always be here for her and I meant it.”

  He raises a pinkie to count. “First, Val hooks up with a wolf from Cruz’s pack.” His ring finger pops out. “She suddenly hates Shav and runs off with Francisco to find the hunters who killed her mom.” The middle finger joins the others. “Shavone is kidnapped from this club.” The count moves to his index finger. “Next, Val comes back acting stranger than when she left.” He extends his thumb. “And today, Cruz attacked a witch.”

  And mates Shavone.

  I rub my chin.

  “All of it links right back to Cruz and this place.” Nash points to the floor. “Don’t you want to find out who kidnapped her?”

  “Fuck, yes, I do.” I want to rip apart whoever left Shavone naked, bound, and vulnerable to being raped in the Kitten Club — my club.

  Nash’s phone rings. The caller ID says private. With a curious tilt to his eyebrow, he taps answer. “Hello?”

  I hear a raspy female voice answer.

  The big guy breathes a deep sigh of relief. “Finally.”

  He sits on the edge of the desk and puts it on speaker. “Where the hell have you been?”

  “Don’t you get snippy with me.” Her voice as raspy as ever, Jack sounds like she always does — mad as fuck.

  “I’ve been calling you for days,” Nash says.

  “I just got your messages a
few minutes ago.”

  Nash’s nostrils flare. Frustration pours off him.

  “You obviously don’t know.”

  What happened now?

  I lean in to listen to her.

  “Don’t know what?” Nash asks.

  “Kennedy has been assigned to Shavone’s case,” Jack says.

  Kennedy? What the fuck?

  I stand.

  Nash grits his teeth. “How did that happen?”

  “I was out sick. She petitioned the council for an emergency meeting.”

  “But she has a conflict of interest,” Nash barks.

  “That was my argument, exactly.”

  Something happened to Jack’s powers when she was a teenager. I never got the full story. Could be that the ancestors and elements got tired of her snotty attitude. Whatever happened, my beast reads her as human. Always has. Maybe that’s why her personality is as rotten as her scent.

  “She’s over all three sisters?” Nash seethes.

  “Yes. Shavone’s craft notwithstanding, the oldest girl is beginning to awaken, too. Ninety percent of the council believes that a practicing witch should oversee the Soft sisters’ case.”

  That, actually, makes sense. If the witch in control wasn’t Kennedy, I’d be behind that logic.

  The Soft sisters weren’t a priority to Jack. Instead, she liked tweaking the noses of the very wolves she was supposed to bring together. Because of that, I don’t have a whole lot of respect for her.

  Nash wouldn’t either if he weren’t beholden to the bitch. He begged her to assign him to Shav after Monbeau was killed in action. Jack floated it to the council — giant alpha, close family friend and Middle East vet. The council vote was quick and almost unanimous. Only Kennedy voted against him.

  His free hand in a fist, Nash swallows and tempers his voice. “I’d rather you handle Shavone’s case for the Alliance.”

  “I appreciate your vote of confidence. However, it’s out of my hands.”

  Jack sounds entirely too calm for a woman who just lost a powerful, executive position.

  “Do you know that Shav’s been hexed?” Nash says. “Probably by whoever kidnapped her.”

  “I was briefed on that. I also know that, lucky for Miss Gentil, two members of her coven were with her and were able to remove it.”

  From what I saw, Shavone saved herself.

  “Is it true that Cruz attacked Valerie?” The venom in Jack’s voice is unmistakable. She hates Cruz almost as much as we do.

  “According to Val.” Nash raises an eyebrow at me. “He also threatened her life. Ben’s right here. Why don’t we let him tell us what he saw?”

  I shrug.

  “Cruz took Val down, yeah.” I don’t want to call it an attack until I know for certain what happened. “There was a lot of noise. Shavone was screaming.”

  Nash gnashes his teeth.

  “The mist was hissing. The other two Voisin witches were chanting.”

  What was Val doing? I don’t remember seeing her.

  “Shavone was in a lot of pain from the elements in the circle. Both Cruz and I were trying to get in to get her out. The elements wouldn’t let us. Next thing I know, Val was flat on the ground. I’m not clear on why he tackled her.”

  Jack laughs condescendingly. “It doesn’t matter why, Ben. Wolves do not attack witches. Ever.”

  Nash nods.

  “Cruz has clearly gone rogue,” Jack rasps, and then snorts. “I doubt that Kennedy will have the wherewithal to reign him in.”

  She hasn’t been able to in the past. That’s the problem with giving her the case.

  “Cruz has refused every one of my phone calls since he hired Shavone, and has refused, through another party, to come to this week’s Alliance meeting.”

  “Not surprised.” Nash looks at the toe of his boot. “There’s one more thing you should know. Ben and I have reason to believe that Cruz mated her.”

  “What?” Jack gasps so deeply it sounds like someone punched her in the gut. The air grates over her vocal cords like a saw. “Damn it! You were supposed to get her out of that house!”

  “I tried.” Nash’s lip curls up. His wolf glimmers in his eyes.

  “This can’t be happening,” Jack whines.

  Holy shit, I’ve never heard her whine. But, she recovers fast.

  “Mated or not,” she says, determined. “We have got to get Shavone away from him. She is not safe with him.”

  “My thoughts exactly.” Nash gives me an I-told-you-so eyebrow raise.

  I shake my head at him.

  This is a bad idea, cuz.

  “Good. We’re on the same page. It would have to be a” — Jack’s voice dips super low — “personal project.”

  Nash doesn’t even hesitate. “I’m in.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that. How far are you willing to go?”

  “As far as necessary.”

  Fuck. I don’t like the sound of this.

  “I thought so.” Jack laughs, the sound a little evil to me. “I’ll be in touch.”

  The line goes dead.

  Nash taps on his phone, adding Jack’s new number to his contacts. Done, he stands.

  “As your beta and as your cousin, Nash” —

  He cuts me off mid warning. “I’m ordering you — as your alpha, to forget what you heard here.”

  He brushes past me to the door.

  “I’ve got evidence to investigate.”

  chapter 12

  Shavone’s head rests on my chest. Silky hair caresses my arm. Warm breath flows over my skin, over my heart. And, I want her, again. Minutes after spilling into her plush cunt for the second time, I want her, again.

  But can she take more? I don’t know. I’ve never fucked the same woman twice, let alone in the same session. Never had the desire to. Fucking was nothing more than relieving pressure. I fucked quickly, always using a condom, leaving just as quickly directly after.

  This is mating, not fucking.

  I thread my fingers into her hair. So soft.

  “Mmmm,” Shavone sighs as I tenderly massage her scalp.

  Her afterglow radiates contentment. The flushed pink of her skin paired with her completely relaxed body are two of my most satisfying life accomplishments. Her pure bliss during my marking was the ultimate prize. I’ll never experience anything more breathtaking than Shavone enraptured by my mating venom.

  She rubs my leg with hers. My cock responds to the caress.

  Can I take her again without making her sore?

  Make her sore.

  It’s tempting to make it clear that she’s mine, that only I am allowed between her legs from now on. Her health, however, takes priority over my beast’s barbaric tendencies.

  Lifting her chin, I tilt her head up to look at her. “How are you feeling?”

  “Mmmmm.” She hums, with a Cheshire Cat’s grin. “Fantastic.” Sparkling gray eyes gaze into mine. Her hand smoothes from my chest to my shoulder as she presses closer.

  I lick my eyeteeth, run my tongue along my lips where the taste of her lingers. The desire to have her again magnifies, rumbles through my belly and lower, filling my balls. As if reading my thoughts, Shavone’s nipples peak, pushing at me for attention. It appears that she wants more, too.

  I groan helplessly and sip from the mouth that intoxicates me with primal need.

  Blood pulses into my cock.

  Circling a fingernail in the hair beneath my navel, her pink tongue darts out to moisten her lips. “Ready again, Mr. Cruz?”

  “Oh, yes,” I acknowledge, intentionally twitching my shaft for her.

  Her eyebrows raise in surprise.

  No one is more shocked than I. Typically, one fuck and I’m drained, my balls as empty as my heart. Perhaps if I’d stayed to cuddle those women? No. There was only ever Shavone. Fucking was simply a release while I waited for her — waited for her to come of age, waited for the Alliance to give the okay.

  Waited while others fucked her.<
br />
  Wolf and man rage internally at the memory of discovering the teenage Monbeau fondling a teenage Shavone. The jealousy almost destroyed me. Never mind that by the time Monbeau took her virginity, I had already fucked dozens of women. Is my jealousy hypocritical, as Antonio pointed out? Of course it is. Logic doesn’t prevent it from eating me alive.

  She’s mine now, and the beast in me is determined to wipe the memory of every other man from her thoughts, heart, cells and pussy.

  “How are you feeling?” I caress her arm, desperately trying to control the throb in my balls.

  She chuckles softly. “You already asked me that.” Again, she caresses my leg with hers.

  “I mean”— I look and nod toward her pussy. “Down there.”

  “Oh,” she whispers to my lips. “Is that what you mean? Why do you ask?” She wraps her soft hand around my shaft.

  I hiss. “Shavone.”

  I take her mouth, silencing her teasing amusement at my predicament.

  The little witch owns my heart and soul, has since the night we met. That connection has been my lifeline over the years.

  Never did I expect that connection to deepen. The absolute intimacy of mating came as a shock. Even before my fangs broke her skin, beast and man merged for the first time ever. Then, her blood joined mine, flowed into my veins like liquid ecstasy. The mating venom, as it turns out, affects both participants.

  Now she owns not only my heart and soul, but my mouth, cock, balls — my very breath.

  Who knew it would be this profound? I have no mated male role models who could have warned me. My father was killed in an ambush when I was eleven. Both uncles Emmanuel and Agustin remain unmated.

  No matter. Together, she and I will learn what being mated means.

  Together.

  I deepen the kiss. Her essence, mingled with my own scent, picks up. Trailing my hand down her back, I caress her beautiful ass before dipping lower. She responds by pulling her knee up to my chest allowing me unfettered access to her pussy.

  Fiery Lycan need joins the pulsing blood in my cock.

  “Hmm,” I murmur, releasing her mouth. Fucking her twice on a hard floor was terrific in the heat of passion. Now, I want to press her into the mattress and take my time. “Why don’t we give a soft bed a try?”