Table of Contents
Excerpt
Bad Case of Loving You
Blurb
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
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Note from Dakota
eBooks by Dakota Cassidy
Dakota recommends … Lila Dubois
Excerpt
“Ella?” Max Adams howled into the wind.
“Crosby!” Hector, Max’s quirky, vegetarian, bunny-loving pack mate—who’d demanded Max keep all the weres in Cedar Glen from hunting the small animals—followed behind him. “Dude! Where are you?”
She’d alerted the pack that he was on the loose just before she’d gone to search for Crosby, and thankfully, everyone had come running to help find him.
Ella caught up to them, panting and gasping for breath.
Still in human form, Max, strong and darkly handsome, his cheeks bitten red by the wind, looked down at her with worried eyes. “Are you okay, Ella?”
She bowed her head in a nod. Sure, she was great. This was just great.
Running his hand through his dark locks, Max said, “Look, I know this has been hard. I know you’re doing your best under the circumstances. And I know I put you in a shitty position, but if nothing else, please trust just this—trust me. Brock and I did this for a reason. It’s one I can’t explain, but it’s sound. I swear it, Ella.”
“Yeah, sound,” Hector snarfed, out of breath. “Crosby, one of the biggest weres in the pack, in total shift, with no idea what the heck’s going on with his body. That’s super sound, Max.”
“Hush, Hector!” JC, Max’s human wife, chastised with a nudge. “It’s no one’s fault. Now let’s go find him before he eats your precious bunnies.”
Ella nudged Hector with her head, letting him know it was okay. Max was only doing what he thought best, and while she hated it, and she wanted to know why he was forcing this situation on her, she needed to let it go for the moment in favor of finding a freaked-out Crosby.
Max reached down and grabbed her muzzle, his eyes solemn. “Thanks for understanding, Ella.” Then he turned to everyone who’d gathered. “Some of us should stay in human form while we search. It makes it easier to maneuver in certain spaces. So, everyone split up!” he yelled.
Ella’s paws scraped the uneven dirt floor of the woods with frantic rasps, the broken limbs and fallen leaves scattering in the wake of her mad dash to find Crosby. Her heart crashed against her ribs even as her nose lifted to the chilled wind for any hint of a scent of her AWOL werewolf.
Her eyes darted to her right, peering through the thick trees and noting the few houses with lights still on dotting the woods.
Fear coiled in her belly as Crosby’s scent came and went, drifting away like wisps of disappearing smoke. Another snort and the scent of blood lodged in her sensitive nose.
Oh God. What if Crosby’d crossed over into human territory in his were-form? The pack owned much of the surrounding land in Cedar Glen, and some wildlife laws protected it and the pack from hunters.
But that land bordered a totally human patch of woods and a totally all-human town. There were no laws that said some unsuspecting human couldn’t shoot your ass if you were in their living space.
Shit, shit, shit! If he was hurt because she was the worst nurse ever, she’d never forgive herself.
Ella skidded to a halt in front of a fallen tree, placing a paw on the rotting trunk to regain her focus. She was drawing closer to the forbidden zone. What to do, what to do?
Use your senses, Ella. Breathe. Think.
The wind howled with a ferocious gust, tearing through her thick coat of fur and sweeping up a swirling patch of dead leaves. With it came the scent of more blood. A lot of blood. Crosby’s blood.
It didn’t smell like “here’s a Band-Aid” blood—it smelled like “serious injury” blood.
Bad Case of Loving You
Wolf Mates, Book 5
Dakota Cassidy
Published 2017 by Book Boutiques.
ISBN: 978-1-946363-18-3
Copyright © 2017, Dakota Cassidy.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Book Boutiques.
This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, locales, or events is wholly coincidental. The names, characters, dialogue, and events in this book are from the author’s imagination and should not to be construed as real.
Manufactured in the USA.
Email [email protected] with questions, or inquiries about Book Boutiques.
Blurb
Werewolf Ella Stills has just one question: What exactly does it take to leave one’s life mate? Particularly when said life mate is a stubborn, stupid-headed, liar-liar-pants-on-fire cheater?
Apparently the answer is…amnesia. Not hers. His.
Crosby Nash, Mr. Hotshot Super-fine Lycan Lawyer, has gone and gotten himself conked on the head. Not only does he no longer remember Ella, their recent separation, or his dastardly cheatin’ heart—Crosby doesn’t even remember that he’s a werewolf. A psychiatric nurse by trade, Ella jumps at the pack’s offer of a divorce if she aids Crosby in his rehabilitation. Once his memory returns, she’ll be free.
But Ella didn’t count on Crosby’s lost memory turning him back into the man she fell in love with…the one she can’t resist. And when it becomes clear the pack needs Crosby to regain his memory for a reason—a reason curiously related to the woman he may have cheated with—it’s a mystery Ella can’t resist.
Though she’ll probably wish she had…
Previously Published
(2011) Ellora's Cave | Original title: Honey, I Shrunk the Werewolf
Author Note
Darling readers,
Please note: This book was originally published under the title Honey, I Shrunk The Werewolf with a now-defunct small press. Because I felt like it would work so well in this series, it’s been updated and revised/tweaked heavily in order to add it to the Wolf Mates collection.
Thank you for your love and support!
Dakota ☺
Acknowledgement
Cover Artist: Valerie Tibbs, Tibbs Design
Chapter 1
“I’m a what?”
“A werewolf.”
“A werewolf who can’t remember he’s a werewolf because he has amnesia.”
“If you’re into labels then, yep.”
“Is this some kind of joke? Because, so not funny.”
“Funny is in the eye of the beholder.”
“This beholder’s eye isn’t laughing.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Mr. Beholder, but that’s how your unfortunate cookie has crumbled.”
He scowled. “Cookies are stupid.”
But oh so yummy. Especially his cookies.
“I’m a werewolf? Really?” he asked once more.
Ella Stills sighed with a sharp hiss meant for his ears and leaned back against the doorframe of the hospital bathroom. “You heard me.”
“Just say it one more time so I can let it really sink in.”
“You, Crosby Nash, are a werewolf. You know, big-and-hairy, howl-at-the-moon, eat-uncooked-cow werewolf.”
Crosby raised a dark eyebrow, a rather condescending one. “I eat uncooked cows?”
“Like you’re on death row and it’s your last meal before you hit
the lethal injection chamber.”
“That’s ridiculous. This is ridiculous. I feel like I’m in some werewolf version of Twilight.”
Huh. Crosby the Amnesiac couldn’t remember he was a werewolf, but he could remember pop culture phenomena? She had to keep reminding herself Crosby’s amnesia was declarative, and while he couldn’t necessarily remember his name or anything relating to his life, his memories of almost everything else remained intact.
Ella let her eyebrow raise right back at him, mirroring his arrogant expression. “Lucky for you, this means you won’t have the grueling yet necessary task of choosing a team.”
“Damn. I was so going Edward, too,” Crosby joked with a crooked grin. “He needs more friends, in my humble opinion. He’s always standing in the shadow of that kid Jacob’s ridiculously perfect abs.”
Ella rolled her eyes. “Speaking of ridiculous…you don’t know ridiculous until you find yourself babysitting a thirty-eight-year-old man while he attends mandatory ‘find your werewolf’ therapy so he can search for his long-lost inner howl. All this because your pack expects you to do as they ordered. And let’s not forget the fashion statement you’re flogging to death here.” Ella waved her hand up and down, scanning the length of Crosby’s rock-hard body in a hospital gown. “That’s a whole new level of ridiculous. Not to mention, quite possibly epically apocalyptic, as fashion goes.”
And hot. So. Damn. Hot. No matter what he wore. But she wasn’t going to let his brand of hot woo her ever again.
Ever.
As was the norm with Crosby, he ignored the important information and focused in on what really mattered—what had always mattered. Him, him and him. His eyes scanned his reflection in the bathroom mirror with a critical glance, brushing his lean fingers over the dark stubble on his chin. “So I’m thirty-eight?”
“And a half, if you want to split hairs in human years.” Ella peered around his broad back, ignoring the longing sting it brought to see her image next to Crosby’s again after so long.
“I look damn good for my human age, huh?” he asked, his lips tilting upward in a very familiar Crosby smirk. His green eyes twinkled while he waited for her response.
She shot him a bored look and yawned for affect. “We’re werewolves. We all look good for our age—it comes with the gift of the shift, Crosby.” Ella kept her face impassive and her words dry.
He cocked his dark, unwashed head. “So you know me?”
In the biblical sense, even. She bit the inside of her cheek, swallowing hard. “Well, yeah. I am your babysitter. Would you leave your thirty-eight-and-a-half-year-old werewolf with a babysitter he didn’t know? That would be crappy pack parenting, right? So, yes. I know you.”
Crosby squinted into the mirror at her reflection, dragging his fingers through his thick black hair. “Who are you again?”
“The babysitter. Was your hearing affected?”
“No. I mean, what’s your name?”
“Ella Stills. The werewolf.” She curtsied, holding the edges of her cropped denim jacket out while forcing her face to remain emotionless to the fact he didn’t remember her name…or her face…or her anything.
The doctors had warned her that showing any signs of shock about Crosby’s amnesia could be detrimental to his recovery. The pack didn’t like hearing that. They needed him on his feet, memory intact.
But it wasn’t just the pack that needed him to recover his memory. Ella needed it, too. So she could get the hell away from him. Soon.
Thus, she’d ixnayed on the ockshay.
Crosby’s strong jaw clenched, leaving behind a tic she remembered well. Translation—she’d irritated him.
“You’re really a werewolf, too?”
“Really. Who isn’t these days?”
“And I’m told I live in a place where others like me live. Plus, you keep using that word, pack…”
Ella twirled a long strand of hair around her index finger, examining it under the harsh glare of the bathroom lights. “A werewolf pack. Not to be confused with a clan. And yes, you live in a place exclusive to mostly werewolves and the occasional bear.”
His lean face distorted with disbelief and one raven eyebrow rose in that irritating way it did when he was aiming for patronizing. “A clan?”
“Yeah. If you were part of a clan, you’d be a vampire. I’m not sure what a group of demons call themselves. Gaggle o’ Spawned from Lucifer…or Minions of Mayhem, maybe? I dunno, but you’re not one of those either. Just a plain old werewolf from a plain old pack of werewolves in beautiful Cedar Glen, New Jersey.”
Crosby flipped on the tap in the sink and splashed water over his face before he spoke again. He used the front of his hospital gown to dry his jaw, the sound of material scraping over his unshaven cheeks harsh to her ears.
“So let me be sure I’ve got this right. I’m a werewolf who had an unfortunate accident on my way to a destination no one knows but me—”
“Sort of. Though let’s not confuse the issue. You did have an accident. But it was an unfortunate shoe incident, to be precise.” Ella studied her nails with another yawn.
He nodded his head, the lean muscles of his neck flexing. “Right. Someone hit me over the head with a shoe. That’s what I was muttering before I lapsed into a coma. This, according to Nurse Jenkins—uh, the witch. Not a bad witch, as seen on The Wizard of SomeplaceIcan’tremember, mind you, but a good one—or so she claims.”
Ella nodded her head in return, catching a glimpse in the mirror of the dark part in her otherwise sun-kissed, dirty-blonde hair. Leave it to Crosby to screw up a long overdue trip to the salon for some highlight-lowlight love.
“That’s right. Everyone who works here in the hospital is paranormal, and we do tend to others who aren’t werewolves because we specialize in paranormal trauma. And yes again, someone clobbered you with a work boot when you were in your were-form. Left a hella bruise, too.” She pointed to the misshapen egg on his head. “But we heal quickly. So your chiseled good looks will be back to their Calvin Klein-esque status in no time flat.”
His brow furrowed. “The accident. Any thoughts on why someone would hit me with a work boot?”
“The pack suspects you freaked out some unsuspecting human. When you’re in were-form, you’re just this much shy of Cujo.” Ella compressed her fingers together to emphasize just how scary Crosby could be when he shifted. “The human nailed you with the boot, clearly unaware, as most humans are, that we’re peace-loving. Anyway, somehow, big, brawny ninja-were that you are, you clawed your way back to Harry Levine’s house, shifted and muttered a few clues as to what happened to you before collapsing.”
Crosby frowned again, deep ridges gracing his forehead.
Ella decided a small nudge to his memory probably wouldn’t scar him for life. “Remember Harry?”
His green eyes, fringed with smoky lashes, went blank. “No clue who Harry is.”
“What about Max and Derrick Adams? Max is our alpha pack leader and Derrick is his brother. Well, technically Max is still alpha. But so is his father, Brock, who came back from the sorta dead… Never mind. It’s a long story. One we can save for later when you’re feeling better. Either way, do you recognize those names?”
Crosby paused a moment then shook his head.
“Bummer, that. You might want to try to dig deeper into your muddled were-brain for Harry’s stats, though. He’s your golf buddy. You love golf. He’ll be devastated that even with amnesia, you don’t remember the power of his magic nine iron. Anyway, you told him what happened to you then lapsed into a coma and woke up with amnesia. Voilà. Now you’re here, in the hospital, all patched up.”
And so was she. Here. With Crosby. After a no-contact, three-month-long separation.
“At the werewolf hospital.” His lips flat-lined into the position grim.
Ella clucked her tongue in admonishment. “Don’t be so narrow-minded. This is an all-inclusive hospital, silly, designed specifically for the paranormal in you.
Like I said, every species of the paranormal is welcome here at Cedar Glen General. Including, to my dismay, trolls. Watch for the trolls. They’re tricky bastards. And speaking of all-inclusive, get some clothes on. We have group therapy to hit.”
“Seriously?”
“If you want the doctor to sign your release papers so you can blow this Popsicle stand, you have to go to therapy. Hopefully, hanging around others like you in similar situations will unlock your memory. So, yes. Seriously.”
Crosby grinned as he took the pair of jeans Ella handed him, and she turned her back so as not to get even a small glimpse of his amazing butt.
“No. I meant the trolls. There are really trolls here? That might be just a little cooler than werewolves and vampires.”
Ella fought a grin while she studied her black, low-heeled suede boots. “Get dressed or we’ll be late.”
“One more question before I do.”
Ella let her hands slap against her thighs when she turned back around—now almost hoping she hadn’t missed the glimpse of his amazing butt. If only to prove to herself she didn’t want his butt anymore. It was, after all, just a butt. “Fine. But note, you’re almost at your legal limit for allowable questions in a perilous predicament.”
He grinned again—charmingly one-hundred watt. “Noted. Now, if I agree to go to this therapy thing three times a week starting today, they’ll release me and let me go home with you?”
Ella fought a groan. Bringing Crosby home with her was a bad idea. Way bad. What if he, being the stubborn asshat he was, took as long to get his memory back as he’d taken to admit he was wrong when they’d argued? Sweet mother of all that was holy—he’d be at her house until the end of time.
But in an effort to do the doctor’s bidding, she kept her misgivings on the inside and replied to him as though he were merely one of her patients, which was the only way she was going to get through this—by staying objective.
“Yes, Crosby. You can come home with me. Physically, you’re fine, so there’s no reason to keep you here. You just can’t be alone in case you have flashbacks of events you need explained to you. Sometimes they can be debilitating. Or on the off chance you shift and don’t know what’s happening. I can help you with that, too. I’m a nurse. A psychiatric nurse, by trade.”
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