Prowl (Winter Pass Wolves Book 3)

by Vivian Wood

  “Chase, I—” Avery’s argument was cut off when Chase scooped her up and threw her over his shoulder, carrying her inside. After locking the front door and engaging the new security system, he carried Avery straight to his room.

  When he deposited Avery on his bed, she gave him a look that he couldn’t quite read. Curious, yes, but also tired and perhaps even a little skeptical.

  “Relax,” Chase said, giving her a smirk as he held up the USB. “You’re sleeping. I’m working.”

  “Oh,” was Avery’s only reply other than a bright pink blush. There was a note of something else now. Embarrassment, maybe… or disappointment.

  “Don’t get me wrong,” Chase intoned, reaching out to brush her hair back from her neck so that he could trace his fingertip over her collarbone. “I can’t wait to seduce you, Avery. I’m dying to strip you and taste you. But I think you’re too worn out to be the eager participant we both know you can be, so…”

  Avery’s mouth opened, a sound of shock rolling out, but Chase just raised a brow.

  “You are so… cocky!” Avery huffed.

  “Damn right,” Chase said, which only made Avery’s cheeks more red. “Now go to sleep, and try not to think about how much you’ve missed being in my bed.”

  Leaving Avery to chew on that, Chase spun on his heel and headed over to his desk to grab his laptop. Wanting to let Avery rest, he headed out to the living room, knowing he’d find solitude there but still be close enough to hear Avery if she needed something.

  Settling in a comfortable chair, he booted up his laptop and inserted the USB drive, giving a low whistle when the contents began to pop up. Avery had done an amazing job, grabbing tons of passwords and maps and even information about all the prisoners being held at the Compound.

  Chase could only grit his teeth when he came to Brooke’s file, containing nothing more than a mugshot and a handful of intake notes, like she was some patient at a psych hospital or something.

  Focus, he reminded himself.

  Not only was Brooke in imminent danger, but Avery’s life hung in the balance here, too. Chase needed a plan, and soon. Luckily, he had two more badass Marines at his back, part of the blossoming family that had taken over Winter Pass Lodge.

  Pulling his phone from his pocket, Chase thumbed through his top contacts and then made the call he’d been dying to make.

  “Pax? It’s me, man. Yeah, I know you’re out in the woods brooding, but you should come back to the main house. Avery brought us all the schematics and codes to take the whole Compound down once and for all.” He paused, listening. “Yeah, man. We’re gonna get Brooke out of there. So get your ass up here and help me come up with a plan that doesn’t get any of us killed.”

  He hung up and sent Harlan a similar text, not wanting to interrupt the man’s private time with his mate. Soon all three members of the Triad would converge, putting their combined experience and smarts together, and together they would tackle this like the good soldiers they were.

  Kidnap his sister, torment and threaten his future mate? Fuck no, not on Chase’s watch.

  The Hunters were going down.

  Chapter Five

  The wolf ran through the moonlit woods, warm breeze ruffling her fur as her paws struck the dark, rich soil. Creatures rustled softly in the dark underbrush, but her attention was only on the glory of the run, the soaring of her heart as she flew along, her body working hard to free her mind.

  She was no lone wolf, not tonight. Another followed behind her, not chasing exactly but urging her on, every bit as enthusiastic as she was. He, and it was unmistakably a he, was right on her heels. Meeting her stride for stride, not holding back, completing the perfection of the moment.

  She slowed as she approached a clearing, spotting a little cottage tucked away in the trees. Light shone from the windows, seeped from the front door where it’d been left ajar. The light drew her in, and the wolf trotted right up to the front door.

  Her companion was right behind her, a comforting if silent presence as she nudged the front door open with her nose. She stuck her head inside, stilling when she saw two people inside.

  It made little sense, but the wolf recognized the two humans as herself and her companion. They were passionately embracing on a big white bed, lips locked in a breathless kiss. When the man broke away and kissed a hot trail down the woman’s body, the wolf couldn’t look away.

  He parted her thighs and kissed her low on her body, making her back arch as she buried her hands into his hair and panted his name.

  “Chase”, she said, and the sound of his name made the wolf’s heart thrum with excitement.

  The woman cried out, hair falling back in a cascade, writhing under the man’s attentions. Flushed and panting, she peaked, the man’s growling kisses pushing her over the edge. She collapsed backward, a sated smile creeping onto her face.

  The man kissed her hip, her breast, the side of her neck to make her shiver.

  “You are my mate,” the man told the woman, brushing his lips over hers.

  She merely cocked a brow and kissed him back, too flushed with pleasure to respond…

  Avery opened her eyes, the dream slipping away. Her face was still flushed from the wildness of the scene her dirty mind had cooked up. Soft sunlight filtered into the room, throwing warm stripes over the bed. Time to get up, apparently.

  She pushed up on her elbows and found Chase sitting in an armchair a few feet away, working on a laptop. He looked so handsome sitting there like that, scrutinizing his screen with laserlike focus.

  This could be my life every morning, Avery found herself thinking. She sat up a little more, drawing Chase’s attention. He glanced over at her, eyes flicking appreciatively over her form before he spoke.

  “Bad dream?” he asked. “You were muttering in your sleep.”

  “No,” Avery said, her lips twitching. “The opposite, actually.”

  Chase’s sudden grin made Avery roll her eyes. She stretched, pushing up the sleeves of her shirt, and immediately regretted it. Chase’s gaze went straight to the scars on her left arm, long silver ribbons that meandered in a lazy spiral from her inner wrist to her shoulder. A few days after her attack they’d spontaneously healed, but left indelible signs of her moonlight struggle to fend off the torture-maddened shifter who’d attacked her.

  “How did it happen?” Chase asked, setting his laptop aside. The concern in his eyes made her shift uncomfortably, but Avery refused to be cowed by the past.

  “I was attacked walking from the dining hall late one night, just after you and I…” she trailed off, unable to say the rest.

  “A shifter got into the Compound?” he asked, brow hunched.

  “More like he escaped from confinement.” She paused, then decided to tell him everything. “Recently, my uncle revealed that he and my father engineered the attack. They knew that I was losing faith in the Hunters, and they wanted a way to hold me. They dangled the implant, telling me my life didn’t have to change… but then I belonged to them.”

  Chase was quiet for a long beat.

  “Was it bad?” Chase asked, meaning the attack. Avery got the idea that his own turning hadn’t been too pleasant, and she couldn’t help but agree.

  “It was violent,” she said, figuring he didn’t need all the dirty details.

  He nodded, turning to other matters.

  “We’ve come up with a plan,” he said. “Pax is going to rig up an explosion, cause a distraction, then he’s going to start freeing shifters in the private prison bunks. We’re pretty sure that’s where Brooke is being held.”

  “That sounds right,” Avery said, blowing out a breath.

  “Harlan’s on Hunter duty, taking as soldiers many down as possible, creating chaos. That leaves you and me to unlock the black site and take down the command center.”

  “And my uncle, I’m guessing?”

  Chase nodded.

  “Cutting off the snake at the head,” he said.

 
“I want to be the one to take my uncle down,” Avery said. “He’s taken everything from me. Turned me, probably killed my father, tried to make me a science experiment…”

  “Fine,” Chase agreed, surprising her. “He’s all yours. I’ll just be backup.”

  She’d expected him to put up a big fight.

  “So when do we go?” she asked.

  “Today we’ll spend a lot of the day going through the plan, step by step, until we all know our roles perfectly. Tomorrow night is the full moon, so we need to pull the trigger at dawn, before we find ourselves trying to free a bunch of moon-shifted werewolves.”

  “I’m not sure…. I’m not sure if I can face Pax,” Avery said, dropping her gaze. “After all, he barely knows me. As far as he knows, I’m—”

  “A werewolf,” Chase said, cutting her words off. “You’re one of us. Let me deal with the others. All you have to do is learn the plan and prepare yourself to do what needs to be done. You understand what I mean, right?”

  “Kill my uncle,” Avery said, her lips thinning. “Yes. I wish it was different, but I know it has to be done. He’ll just reform again and again until he’s put out of commission.”

  Avery hesitated, then surprised him.

  “Can you help me take my implant out before we sit down with the others? It’s just under the skin, but I’m too squeamish to do it myself.”

  Chase pulled a face.

  “I can’t hurt you, but I can ask Pax to do it. He’s got nerves of steel and a little medic training. I bet we can even rustle up some anesthetic and something topical to numb the site.”

  “Let’s do it,” Avery said. “I’m ready to meet my wolf.”

  “Good,” Chase said, rising. “Now come with me. Meet your new family.”

  Swallowing a lump in her throat, Avery climbed out of the bed and followed him, wondering at this new change of course in her life.

  “Alright,” Chase said, pushing back from the dining room table where they’d all been camped for countless hours. “I think we’ve done all we can do.”

  “Agreed,” Harlan rumbled. His mate Penny stifled a yawn and nodded, looking like she wished she’d gone to bed long before.

  “Maybe we should go over the precautions we’re taking to limit cross fire one more time—” Pax said, his final words drowned out by a collective groan.

  Avery rubbed her eyes. With the exception of breaking for a couple meals and bathroom breaks, none of them had moved from this table all day. They all knew the plan forward and backward, up and down, including all the contingencies.

  “Pax, there’s nothing more we can accomplish here tonight. Try to get some sleep so you’re fresh in the morning when we take down the Compound,” Chase said, concern flashing on his face.

  Avery’s heart squeezed at the way the three soldiers cared for each other. Chase had the biggest heart, and he deserved that kind of mutual friendship.

  Pax muttered something that Avery couldn’t quite make out, but everyone stood and headed for their respective rooms. Chase gathered a stack of Compound maps, leaving the table neat as a pin. Once military, always military, Avery supposed.

  He spent a minute working to finish something on his laptop, and it suddenly struck Avery that this could be the very last night of her life.

  Her last chance to be with Chase, the man who made her heart and her wolf sing in unison.

  “Chase?” she asked, trying to get the words out before she lost her nerve.

  “Mmhm,” he said, typing something out and closing his laptop.

  “Take me to bed.”

  Chase looked up at her, his eyes flashing with hunger and a thousand swirling emotions she couldn’t begin to name.

  “Are you sure, Avery?” he uttered, his voice gone to gravel.

  “I want to be yours, in every way possible. It’s the only thing I’m sure of in my whole life,” she promised, holding out her hand for him to take.

  Waiting for her mate to give her everything she’s been waiting to feel for all these years.

  Chapter Six

  For a moment, Chase wondered if he was dreaming.

  Take me to bed, she’d said. The words shook him to the core. I want to be yours, in every way possible…

  His wolf was already frantic for a taste of her, and Chase could only agree. She held out her hand to him, but he wasn’t content with that. He swept her up in his arms and carried her to his suite, closing the door with a definitive slam.

  The second he dropped Avery on his big bed, she was pulling at the hem of her shirt, giving him that same hungry look from the first night he met her. Like he was the only thing in the world that mattered, like she was a ship at sea and he was the only thing keeping her from floating away from her moorings.

  Chase stilled Avery’s hands, moving to stand between her legs as she sat on the edge of the bed.

  “Let me,” he said, drawing her shirt up over her head. “I want to take you in.”

  Appreciate her in this moment, all vulnerable and pouty-lipped. Avery tipped her head back, hair tumbling around her shoulders. Her chest rose and fell dramatically, breasts straining against her bra. Chase watched her closely as he reached down to unbutton her pants, coaxing her out of them and casting them aside.

  She wore white cotton bra and panties, simple but alluring. Every curve was just as he remembered, graceful and tempting and sinful. Avery watched his every move as he took his time stroking his hands down her shoulders and arms, down her ribs to her hips, then over the tops of her thighs from her kneecaps to her waist.

  He touched every inch of her smooth, creamy skin, stripping away her bra and panties to leave her bare before him, revealed and glowing and beautiful. Avery squirmed under his appraising gaze, making these little sighs and growls that had him hard as a rock, but he wouldn’t be rushed.

  No matter how amazing she looked, felt, smelled…

  Driven by his own lustful thoughts, he stared her down for one more moment before leaning in and capturing her lips with his. Chase groaned when his tongue found hers, honey and musk, so amazing it felt a little like he was dying. When he finally broke away, breathless, he pushed Avery back on the bed and lavished her incredible breasts with their perfect pink nipples, savoring the salty-sweet flavor of her skin.

  He moved on, flicking his tongue in her navel, kissing her belly, nuzzling her inner thighs until she parted for him with a quiet mmmmmhm spilling from her lips. The first taste of his mate had his blood pounding.

  Chase explored her with lazy swirls of his tongue, bringing her to her peak in short succession. She was wound so tight, desperate for the contact, needier than Chase had ever known her. Crying out, panting, rocking her hips against his mouth, begging for it. Please, please. Nothing could sound sweeter to Chase’s ears.

  When he gave her clit long, slow sucks, she burst on his tongue, her body wracked with shudders at the intensity of her climax. Her fingers ripped at his hair, his shirt, and he loved every bit of it. As he rose to lay out next to her, all he could think of was the way she’d mark him up while he fucked her.

  “No,” Avery said, surprising him when he gave her a long, slow kiss. “I want you now.”

  Avery knelt beside him and shucked his clothing in no time flat, her impatience at once sexy and endearing. She dragged him atop her body, crushing her lips to his, her movements growing frantic as she grasped his cock and guided him to her entrance.

  “Jesus, A, don’t you want—” Chase tried, but her snarl stopped him in his tracks.

  “Fuck me right this second, Chase,” Avery demanded, hooking a leg around his body and drawing him closer.

  Chase bit his lip and thrust deep with one rough stroke, making them both cry out.

  “Fuck, Avery, you feel so damn good,” he swore.

  “Yes, yes,” she said as he moved, her hands moving to his ass, encouraging him on.

  Chase pushed one of her knees up to her chest, giving himself a deep, tight angle that was almost too g
ood. She was so hot and wet, her body gripping his cock so tightly, he could barely hold out. Avery writhed beneath him, meeting him stroke for brutal stroke, calling to him like a damn siren, wrecking what little restraint he had left.

  Slipping a hand between their bodies, Chase leaned back a little and pressed on her lower belly, making sure he hit that perfect spot again and again, as hard as he could. Avery’s nails scored his back and shoulders as he worked, and then she shattered under him without a moment’s warning.

  “Fuck!” she cried. “Mark me, mark me!”

  She’d spoken aloud Chase’s own thoughts. Pulling her up against his body, Chase sunk his teeth deep at her nape, shivering as he lost all control. He released in heavy, endless jets, filling her as he claimed her, made Avery his forever.

  They both collapsed in a sweaty tangle of limbs, too exhausted and drained to consider movement. Chase dragged a comforter over their bodies, pressing his face into Avery’s neck, letting the sound of her breathing and heartbeat lull him into a paralyzed kind of peace.

  His wolf was ready to have her again, pacing and thinking the same thing again and again.

  Home, he seemed to say.

  Chase couldn’t disagree with that.

  Dawn approached far too soon. Chase stirred when he heard Pax moving around in the common room. Avery was tucked up at his side, right where she belonged, sleeping peacefully. No nightmares or dreams for her tonight, it seemed.

  He woke her gently, kissing the side of her neck. He regretted it immediately, because she sat straight up with a stricken expression.

  “It’s time?” she asked, her eyes wide.

  “I’m afraid so,” he said, giving her a kiss.

  She seemed about to speak, then bit her lip and nodded. She slipped her arms around him and gave him a tight hug, lacking the words for whatever she felt. Something about her, an air of defeat perhaps, gave Chase a bad feeling.