by Emma Dawn
Harem of Wolves
Stairway to Harem Book 2
Emma Dawn
Contents
Untitled
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Afterword
Coming Soon
Harem of Wolves
(Stairway to Harem Book 2)
Emma Dawn
Copyright © 2017 by Emma Dawn
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing, 2017
ISBN: 1545370060
ISBN 13: 9781545370063
www.emmadawnromance.com
Created with Vellum
Acknowledgments
Thank you to everyone who has been with me from the beginning. I hope you realize how important you all are to me: readers, editors, family and friends. I couldn’t do this without you all backing me up and believing I could make it in this crazy industry!
Chapter 1
Not so long ago, if you’d told me I’d be hanging out with a pack of werewolves in a forest, feeling like I fit in for the first time in my life, I’d have called you a liar, a complete and total whack job. I did not do forests. Not since I was a kid.
Yet, here I was, standing in the middle of said forest, looking around at a place that resonated in my body like nowhere else I’d been. And more than a little of that truth freaked me out.
A hand touched my elbow, sending a shot of pure electricity through me. I turned, already knowing who it would be, the heat of his hand like a brand on my skin.
Havoc, leader of the Windrun pack, and his dark brown eyes were close enough that if I just leaned in a little, I was sure I could kiss him. Not a good idea, though, when he was a werewolf, and I was a human. At least, I was guessing on that.
“Cassandra, why are you still here?” His touch was gentle and it was far too easy to imagine his hands sliding over my body like the soft kiss of a summer breeze.
Here . . . that one word was loaded. Here, in the middle of a forest in New England, when I should have been back at home, teaching a karate class. Here, because I couldn’t just walk away from Havoc, despite the fact that he was a werewolf.
My stomach clenched and knotted and I didn’t know what to say. Because it was a very good question. I was a skydiving instructor by day, and karate instructor by night. As soon as I’d been given leave to go home, I should have been running for civilization, not hanging out here in the woods.
At first, I could say I was staying to make sure my best friend, Ally Swift, was doing okay in her new position. She’d been swept into this crazy, supernatural world of vampires and werewolves, in large part because of me. I’d gotten drunk at Tink’s bar as was my usual Friday night habit, and she’d come to pick me up.
The next thing you know, she and I were carted off by a bunch of vampires back to their Hive. As it turned out, Ally was meant to be with those vampires and had to face down their queen in order to save the men she’d fallen in love with. Yeah, men, as in multiple sets of legs, hands, and cocks. To be fair, I could see why she couldn’t choose. The five—almost six—men she’d taken to her bed were gorgeous, loyal, and obviously adored her. Nor did they mind sharing their new queen with each other, so they were all good.
But that didn’t answer the question Havoc posed, not really. So why was I still here? Time to lie through my teeth.
“I like the scenery. I haven’t been camping in years.” I swept my hand outward toward the trees around us. I’d only seen the healer’s hut so far, and it was small, cramped and the floor was nothing but dirt. What the hell was I thinking, a blind man could have seen through that fib.
Havoc’s eyebrows danced upward, his eyes twinkling. “Really?” Damn him for being hot, and luscious in a silver-fox kind of way. His hair was silver from root to tip, but his face was unlined, giving him a rather mature but hardly old look.
Maybe a young Richard Gere . . . I shook my head. “Yeah. And you have a nice ass. I like watching you walk around here.”
His lips curled and then the smile faded. “Now, that, I’d believe. But it is not safe for you to be with us, Cassandra, much as I like watching you walk around here too.”
“Please, Cassie is just fine.”
He tipped his head in deference. “Cassie then. It isn’t safe. If you were to be bitten, the chances of you surviving would be small, almost zero.”
I frowned and took a step as if I would go farther into the clearing, and he blocked my way. “What do you mean?” I asked. I didn’t want to leave yet, I wanted him to touch me again.
He sighed. “Werewolves are born, and rarely made as the movies show. Those who are bitten are always stronger than those who are born, but the survival rate of werewolf bites is very low. The chance of you surviving is under one percent.”
The breath in my chest stilled as I absorbed his words. “Why would any of the wolves here bite me then?”
He turned his face. “Because you have my attention. Because they can smell my desire for you, and the females are a jealous, mean bunch of bitches. There is no Alpha among them to keep them in line. A strong female Alpha soothes the hormones.”
I put my hands on my hips as a flush of pleasure spread through me. He wanted me, I wanted him, what more was needed?
“Havoc,” I paused to find the right words but was stopped by another of his pack members running up to him.
“Havoc,” the new werewolf was blond with amber-gold eyes that flicked over me more than once as he spoke, “the Bloodfire pack is at the northern edge of the forest again. Their Alpha wants in to speak to you.”
Havoc let out a low growl. “You mean she wants to come in and try and take over our pack.”
“Yeah.” The messenger bared his teeth, white and more than a little predatory. A shiver slid through me and that sense of belonging intensified, which should have had me turning and running for the city.
Havoc looked at me, his eyes sad and full of regrets. “Go, Cassie. Go before the females jump you. Tarack, see her to the edge of the forest, please. She can use the Chevy to get home.”
“The Chevy?” I kept my hands on my hips and arched a brow. “You just keep a car sitting around at the edge of the forest?”
“Yes.” Havoc nodded, but his attention was obviously already on the interlopers. “Even wolves need a night on the town, once in a while.”
Beside me, Tarack nodded. “You sure you don’t want to keep her around? She smells good.”
I grinned at him and gave him a wink. “I’m not Ally, but for you two handsome devils, I’d make an exception to my ‘one at a time’ rule.”
Tarack laughed and Havoc shook his head, still solemn. “Go, and make sure the females leave her be. Now that that excitement has settled, their eyes will be searching for her.”
Havoc took a step, paused and looked back at me. Our eyes locked, and something seemed to grow in the air between us, tugging me toward him, as if this energy would burst from my chest if I let it. Bu
t he turned away before the energy peaked and then he was gone, running in the opposite direction.
I swallowed hard and shook my head. “Damn it. That was not how I wanted things to go.”
Tarack slung an arm over my shoulders, a warm strong weight of muscles. “Come on, pretty girl, I’ll make sure you make it out safe.”
I snorted and pushed his arm off despite how lovely it was having it there and the tingles of awareness that came with it. “I can take care of myself. Just point me in the right direction.”
His golden eyes flashed, and his mouth tightened. “You think so?”
I stared back at him. “Tarack, you are indeed nice to look at, and I bet you’re a riot in the sack, but I don’t need you to see me to the edge of the forest. Point me in the right direction, and go help Havoc.”
I might as well have slapped him for the way he stepped back from me. A strange mixture of hurt and anger flashed across his face, and then it was gone. He pointed at the sky above us. “Fine. Keep that cluster of four stars in front of you, you’ll come to the road.”
I looked up, and found the stars with ease. “Thanks, Tarack.”
When I looked away from the sky and back to him, he was gone. And I found myself wishing I’d been able to keep my big mouth shut a little longer. There was something about this place I didn’t want to let go of, something about the men that I wanted at least a little taste of.
With a sigh, I started off in the direction that would take me to the road. I rubbed at my right shoulder, an old injury that flared up now and again, as it was doing now. Damn it, getting older stunk. I was a couple of years away from forty, but for the first time, I felt the old injuries. Like my body wanted to remind me that despite all the workouts, all the karate classes and running I did, I couldn’t stop the hands of time.
Frowning, I wove my way through the trees. It had been years since I’d been in a forest. The one near my childhood home held many of my best memories from my early years, except for one that ended with me in the hospital. I shook my head. I would not think of that day.
As I walked, my ears caught shouting in the distance. Maybe that was the other pack homing in on Havoc’s territory?
I shouldn’t care about that. I shouldn’t even be considering doing what I was about to do.
But I found my feet taking me away from the direction of the road and toward the shouting. Deeper into the forest I went, the snow crunching under my feet, until the shouting became distinct words and screams of pain.
I broke into a flat-out run. Someone was getting their ass handed to them on a platter and I couldn’t seem to stop myself from running to their rescue.
The trees thinned and opened to small clearing that led to a pond. At the edge of the water were four women. Three were kicking and punching a fourth while she cowered on the ground. Around the fight stood a number of men who just watched it all happen.
“Why aren’t you stopping this?” I yelled, catching sight of Tarack. His golden eyes widened.
“Cass, get out of here. This is how the women deal with each other.”
I hated bullies. Always had, always would, and it didn’t matter that they were werewolves. They didn’t need to pound the piss out of what was obviously a smaller, weaker woman.
“Hey!” I yelled at them, tossing my coat to the forest floor. “If you want to try that on me, now’s your chance.”
I stepped into what I could see now was something of an arena. From my left, Tarack groaned.
“Havoc is going to kill me,” he said softly.
I didn’t even look at him. The three women stood and started toward me, their teeth bared, fists covered in blood and hatred in their eyes.
I rolled my shoulders and brought my hands up. “Come on, bitches, let’s see what you’ve got.”
Chapter 2
The three bitch werewolves tried to circle around me, a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead. I moved with them, so they couldn’t surround me. This was not my first unfair fight, and I doubted it would be my last. A part of my brain tried to tell me I was being an idiot, that if one of the bitches bit me, I’d be toast.
The other part of my brain didn’t care. They were being mean, awful to someone who obviously couldn’t stick up for herself, and while the men around here might just stand and watch so they could get their rocks off, that wasn’t my style.
I needed to end this fast because three on one was not good, even for me.
The redhead was on my left and I spun into her, lashing out with a booted foot and catching her in the ribs. A satisfying crack of broken bones rent the air and she tumbled to the ground with a sobbing cry, her arms wrapped around herself.
Brunette was next as she leapt at me. I flipped into a backward handspring, using the momentum to drive the toe of my boot into the bottom of her jaw. Again, the crack of bone rent the air right before she slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Blondie was next. She let out snarl, her face cracking with it.
“End it quickly, Cass! She’s going to shift,” Tarack yelled.
“Well, shit.” I raced forward as the blonde fought to get her body into her wolf form. I’d seen Havoc do it once and it had been a smooth transition that happened in a split second. Lucky for me, this bitch wasn’t having the same ease. I slid to a stop in front of her, spun on one foot and sent the other as a roundhouse kick into the side of her head.
She dropped to the ground, out cold.
I looked around to find the smaller woman still at the water’s edge. I approached her carefully. “Hey, are you okay?”
Her big brown eyes were wide. “How did you do that?”
I shrugged and crouched in front of her. “Lots of training. Lots of time spent fighting.”
I held a hand out to her, to help her stand. She took it, and yanked me forward, her teeth burying into my right shoulder before I could so much as flinch. Her teeth cut through to the bone like knives. I screamed as I jammed my fist into the soft flesh of her neck, cutting off her air.
Gagging and choking, she let me go, but the damage was done. My shoulder was bleeding heavily, completely mauled, and now I was probably going to die. “Fuck, I help you and then you bite me?”
She was crying on the ground. “If you survive, you’ll protect me.”
The anger rushed out of me. “Havoc should be protecting you.”
A feminine laugh rolled across the air. “No, that is not his job. There is an Alpha for the females and one for the males. That is our way, human.”
I looked up as a tawny goddess strolled into the clearing. From the tips of her hair, to her eyes, to her skin, she was all shimmering shades of gold and amber. I stared up at her, feeling a low growl rumble up through me.
“Let me guess, you’re the Alpha of the Bloodfire pack?”
She smiled. “I am. And I am here to take my place as Alpha female of this pack too.”
My muscles bunched and I fought to keep my body still. The smaller woman beside me trembled. “She’s not kind.”
Not kind? This was just another bully then?
I stood, blood leaking from my bite and trickling down my arm. The Alpha female tssked. “Pity. You’ll die in the next few hours. A horrible, horrible death. You’ll beg to be killed before it is done.”
I did a check through my body, internally. There was no pain other than the obvious bite site. There was no burn of fever lighting me up, so whatever might be coming, it wasn’t with me yet. “We’ll see about that.”
Her eyes flashed.
I grinned at her. “What is your name?” As she opened her mouth, I interrupted her. “I mean, besides skanky bitch ho.”
A low rumble slid through the werewolves around the clearing that might have been laughter.
She tensed and so did I. If I really was dying, I was going down fighting with all I had. Besides, it would help Havoc if I kicked this twat’s ass into next week. The thought made me grin. Maybe he’d even let me kiss him goodbye.
“Y
ou are a grinning fool. I’m going to destroy you,” she snarled as she flung off her cloak.
I shrugged. “Oh, skanky bitch, please. You’ve got to do better than that to scare me.”
The tension between us shot upward, and as we poised to launch at one another, a flurry of movement shot between us.
Havoc.
He shifted as he slid to a stop, going from furry and wolf, to gloriously naked and seriously pissed off.
Goddamn, he was a fine specimen. I wanted to pinch his ass right there, and would have if I hadn’t been worrying about distracting him.
“What the fuck is going on here?” he roared. “Tarack!”
“Yup,” Tarack answered. “I know. But she just took out three of our females.”
“Then why is she bleeding?” Havoc’s tone brooked no argument, but I had a feeling Tarack could stand on his own two feet. In fact, he stepped up and slung his arm over my shoulders once more.
“My best guess is that the virus doesn’t bother her, and that we’re about to get us a new girl in the pack.” He looked at me, then a smile bloomed on his lips. “I like her. I want to keep her, Havoc.”
A slow curl of heat began low in my belly and spread lower through my body. I kinda wanted to keep the troublemaker, too. I made myself look at Havoc and that did all sorts of bad to my body on top of Tarack’s touch. Because of course, he was still naked, and now he was obviously getting . . . interested, if his rising cock was any indication. He strode across to me, slid his hand around my neck and buried his nose just behind my ear, breathing me in slowly. As if he could only breathe if he did it through my hair, as if every intake of air was the only thing that kept him grounded.