At work I surrounded myself with deep, rich, wooden furniture inside the office, a change I made when I inherited Sawtooth Den. I added forest green cushions, with pillows, curtains, and flooring all in natural creams, greys, and browns. My legacy in linens. It helped make time at work a bit more bearable, a bit more like where I should have been—outside. Tilting my head back I finished the last of my coffee, wishing it was something stronger.
"But Cole," she purred, full lips open, eyelids heavy as she looked at me through mascara drenched eyelashes. Callie laid it on thick. Hands on the front edge of my desk, she bent at the hip to be sure I got a clear view of her overflowing breasts in her low-cut tank. Her hips swayed slowly behind her, displaying her submission to me. Anyone who walked by my office would see her perky ass up in the air, barely covered in tiny shorts.
A growl rumbled in my chest, my inner wolf pleased to take her up on her unspoken invitation. I ignored my animal side. I brushed a hand through my black hair, taking a moment to admire the view. She was a lovely female, with long, blonde hair. A bit thin for my tastes, but pleasant curves where she had them. The essence of autumn mingled with her natural scent: crisp mountain air, freshly fallen leaves, lingering moisture from the morning's rain. She must have been out running in the morning. I longed to do the same.
"We've been through this, Callie." Callie slid a finger between her full, red-stained lips, gliding her tongue around its tip. Moving slowly downward, her fingers traced her neck. Her head tipped to the side, exposing the moist trail of her finger down her neck. Not just an invitation for a good fuck. An invitation to claim her. Her hand rested on her breast, where she lingered and squeezed.
"Mmm," she moaned. "I could give you a big litter of beautiful cubs."
"You should go," I said, my voice low and even. It wasn’t a bad offer, a beautiful woman and a beautiful wolf. But one thing my wolf side and my human side agreed on, she would not be my mate. Callie gave me one last pouty lip as she stood slowly, pressing her chest out at me. She turned and walked away, swaying her hips to make sure I knew what I was missing out on.
A knock on the open door and my half-brother stuck his head in, his eyes following Callie as she left. "Damn, man," he smiled as he strolled into my office. He sunk into the evergreen-cushioned pine chair across from my desk and propped his feet on top of my paperwork. I sighed in response but he ignored me. "I would love to get me some of that ass."
"Help yourself," I grumbled, swatting his feet off.
"I would man, but it's always you. The ladies love your big, dark, brooding giant look.” He gestured a hand up and down at me. “Man and beast," he said with a smirk. My brother, the only one in the pack that I could spend time with without the constant reminder of my responsibilities, was a good-looking wolf himself. I got my dark hair from my mother, but large size and hard features from our father. Lance was a male version of his mother, smooth and graceful with short, silver hair as a human, and a matching silver coat as a wolf. His sharp blue eyes and devious smile spoke to his personality. It was impossible to look at that grin and not know he would show you a good time. She-wolves and human women threw themselves at him, wanting exactly that. As the eldest son of the last alpha and the largest wolf in our pack, it was assumed I would be the next alpha. So more often than not, propositions to me were by she-wolves looking to be my mate, for life. I carried the burden of being next in line while Lance enjoyed life, something I loved about him and wished I could manage to do myself.
“You do just fine,” I said. A smile spread across my face, inevitable in his company. “I seem to remember a set of golden-haired triplets not so long ago.”
“Oooh, yeah, the Hawthorne sisters. That was a fun couple of days while their pack was passing through.”
“It would have been more fun for me if I didn't find the three of them all over you. On my desk.” We shared a laugh, and I enjoyed the distraction from my work.
“Well, I should be heading out. I'm taking the new girl to dinner. The one with the red hair.” He gave me a wink as he stood and started toward the door.
“Shea.”
“Hmm?” He asked, looking away and clearly not listening.
“Her name is Shea,” I said.
“Thanks, bro!” Lance gave me a wave then put his hands in his jean pockets as he strolled out the door.
I looked down at the mountain of papers on my desk, and returned to entering expense amounts from receipts into the spreadsheet on my laptop. I knew keeping the books was a good way to learn the ins and outs of our family business. Owning half of the business kept me interested in its success, but I didn’t really care about the details. I was more interested in the scout reports from wolves in the field, but it was all still paperwork. All I could think about was getting out of my office, out of the bar, and into the fresh fall air. The more time I spent in this room, the more suffocated I felt, but duty first.
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Pierced: Chapter One
Hannah
For the third night in a row, no clouds veiled the near-full moon. Its bright, honey glow brought out the sapphire shade of the sky, and beckoned my inner wolf to come out and play.
But it wasn’t just the moon that had me ready to strip my clothes and shift. It was the icy air that swirled into the night sky every time I exhaled, like smoke from my grandfather’s pipe. It was the feeling of winter that chilled my gooseflesh-covered arms and sunk in to my core. Winter was home, and home meant tearing through fields of freshly-fallen snow with my pack.
But Scarlet Harbor was a long way from Nowheresville, Vermont. And October in Maryland was still autumn, which meant no snow. Plus, the whole point of going away to college was to be away from what was comfortable and easy. It was about not spending my entire life in a small town where I knew everyone, and everyone knew me. It was about not taking over the family shop, and settling down with a mate just because that was what was expected of me.
Living in Scarlet Harbor wasn’t easy. Stripping naked in the city street was generally frowned upon. So was being a wolf.
So for the third night in a row, I stared up at the moon, while I followed my roommate on a wild goose chase. It was the latest string of murders plastered all over the news that had her so worked up. I’d never met anyone so passionate about chasing down a serial killer. Okay, I’d never met anyone else who’d want to. But I could scour the earth and never find anyone quite like Ashley King.
“The wooden stake thing, that’s not real,” my roommate explained, as she turned down a dim, damp alleyway. If I remembered right, we were headed toward the scene of the second murder. But I was sure Ashley knew exactly where she was going. She put her fist over her heart in a stabbing motion, and stuck her tongue out to the side. I smiled. She had told me all of this before, a hundred times, stake-to-the-heart gestures included. But when she got excited, she just couldn’t help herself, and I got to hear it all again. Twice as much since the murders had started. Like most people, I was convinced it was the work of a deranged psychopath. Ashley was sure it was the work of vampires.
“Oh yeah?” I replied, as I took in the scents of garbage and mildew, rats and discarded beer bottles. There were countless alleyways just like it in the city, not too far from campus, the affluent neighborhoods, or the postcard attractions of the harbor. Tall, brick buildings encased us, each built fifty years ago or more, each coated in a film of green growth that was resilient enough to thrive in the dark. Homeless people gathered under overpasses, junkies in dark passages—a stark contrast to the small town I’d grown up in. Maybe it was because she was from Scarlet Harbor, but Ashley was numb to the poverty and the creeps that stared at us. She was fearless. She never seemed to care who was around, unless they sported fangs. Which no one did.
Ashley was too enthusiastic about the hunt to notice that I wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation. Instead, I listened to the little noises all around us, and kept watch for dang
er. When on the hunt for a murderer, I figured it was best to remain vigilant.
As soon as the vampire talk started, I tuned out. It didn’t matter anyway, I already knew what she was going to say. ‘You have to destroy the heart,’ and ‘a lot of the rumors were actually started by those who wished to conceal their true weaknesses.’ Ashley’s obsession with vampires was all-consuming, and had been since before we’d been assigned to live together freshman year. With people getting slashed up and eaten two miles from campus, she’d only grown more eager, and had conducted more research. She was convinced that the chatrooms and wiki pages online had given her the ‘real’ facts about vampires. I loved her anyway.
“Yeah, I mean, if you completely destroy the heart, that’ll do it,” she said, and adjusted the book bag on her shoulder. “But it doesn’t have to be wood. That’s how they kill each other, you know, rip out the heart and drink the blood. But that’s pretty rare.”
“Right,” I said. With a deep breath, I took in the cool, crisp night air. I could smell him before he bolted from between metal trashcans, paws flickering in a flurry of fear. A little, black cat. The lid of one of the cans clanged as it hit the ground, and echoed through the alleyway. Ashley’s green eyes sparkled with excitement as she scanned the alley for the source of the noise. But there was still no vampire, so she kept talking. And I responded automatically. “Yeah,” I said.
“And they especially love to eat girls named Hannah who don’t listen to their friends.” I heard her words, somewhat, but my attention was on the cat that hid from us. His tiny heart fluttered as quickly as his legs had moved. I had never wanted to be a cat, but I envied his ability to roam the city. If I shifted, ran around on four paws instead of two feet, there was no way I could blend in so easily with the surroundings. If there was a shifter in the city, other than me, he’d probably be happiest if he could change into an alley cat. Or maybe even a rat, though I’d never met a shifter that could do either. People went running when they saw a wolf. A cat, not so much.
“Sure,” I replied, noticing that it was my turn to speak.
“Hannah, what did I just say?” Ashley asked, as she turned with her hands on her tiny, model-sized hips. A crease formed between her perfectly-shaped, dark brows, as she scowled at me. And I knew I’d spaced just a bit too long.
“What?” I asked. Ashley’s plum-painted lips pursed. Busted.
“I don’t get why you don’t believe me,” Ashley said, dropping her arms. “With the whole werewolf thing going on, you should be more open-minded. There’s plenty of doubt out there about your kind too.”
“Wolf shifter,” I replied.
“Whatever. Paranormal weirdness, no offense.”
“None taken.” I said; and I meant it. After only a year and a half together, Ashley and I were like sisters. She knew my secret, and she didn’t care. Maybe she even liked me more for it. I knew she wasn’t prejudiced against my kind. “But that’s my point. Until I moved here I lived with other wolf shifters my entire life. I’ve met bears, tigers, foxes—I’ve even heard stories about dragons.” Ashley’s green eyes lit up.
“Stories,” I repeated; and her shoulders sunk. “But I’ve never seen or heard of vampires outside of books and movies.”
“Maybe they’re just that good at hiding, or maybe there aren’t that many of them. Maybe we’ve seen them a thousand times, every time we come out here hunting. And maybe when we find them, they just glamour us into forgetting the whole encounter.”
“Maybe,” I said.
“I wonder if there’s anything that can stop a glamour. Or maybe just some hypnosis therapy that would allow us to check back in time, to the deepest recesses of our memories. You know, just in case.”
My skepticism must have showed, because Ashley sighed.
“I guess we should get back to campus,” she said, defeated. Even though I thought the idea of real vampires was silly, I hated to see her disappointed.
“How about just one more block,” I said, and took her hand. Ashley smiled.
“Thanks, Hannah.” We strolled out of the alley and waited at the light for the little walking man symbol to glow green. Midtown was still busy at this time of night. Cars flew by in both directions, cheap and ritzy alike. It was one of the things I liked most about being in Scarlet Harbor—a microcosm of the world, people from different backgrounds, from different places, all crammed together in a hundred-mile radius. Every metered spot along the curb was taken, rustic bars and restaurants packed and full of life.
We crossed the busy street, with a crowd of men and women, all dressed in jackets and coats, scarves and hats. A group of guys about our age laughed loudly, and an elderly couple held hands. Skin tones ranged from pale as snow to dark as chocolate. All together moving as one. Diversity really was the best part of the city. Plus, when I’d taken the tour, there wasn’t a single scent of another shifter. Scarlet Harbor was so different from home. Which was exactly why I chose this university.
When we reached the other side of the street, the crowd dispersed, and I led Ashley down another alley, just like the last. This one too was empty of human and vampire life. The streetlights faded behind us as we turned behind the row of buildings. Just like the last, the walkway smelled like garbage.
Our path ended with a fifteen-foot tall chain link fence stretching from the warehouses that flanked it. Barbed wire topped its twenty foot height. Maybe it was a prison. Either way, we weren’t going any further. “Okay,” Ashley said, “let’s head back.” I nodded and we turned around, only to find three shadowy figures blocking our way. Impossible.
“Pinch me,” I said.
“What?” Ashley asked.
“Is this a dream?” I asked. “Ouch.” She really pinched me. And I wasn’t dreaming. There was no way I could have missed their approach. With the advantage of being a shifter, I should have heard their footsteps. Their breathing. Their heartbeats. There was nothing. No scent. Nothing. They moved closer, three dark figures that I shouldn’t have feared. Something about them was wrong. A knot formed in my stomach. My hair stood on end. My instincts screamed 'shift and run like hell.' No way I was leaving Ashley. I squeezed my friend’s hand and prayed that my instinct was wrong.
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About the Author
Reader of books. Watcher of Netflix. Sketcher of doodles. Mother of dragons. No. Wait. Mother of sweet little boys.
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Keira Blackwood writes steamy paranormal romance full of suspense, action, and a dash of humor. No cheating. No cliffhangers. Always a happily-ever-after ending.
www.keirablackwood.com
[email protected]
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