Untamed (Wolf Lake)

by Kohout, Jennifer

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One - Prologue

  Chapter Two - How to Cook a Wolf...

  Chapter Three - As I Walk Through the Valley...

  Chapter Four - My, What Big Teeth You Have...

  Chapter Five - Never Scare a Skunk...

  Chapter Six - Pie, Pie, I Love Pie...

  Chapter Seven - In-laws, For Breakfast...

  Chapter Eight - Because One In-Law is Never Enough...

  Chapter Nine - Home Sweet Home...

  End Page

  Untamed

  A Wolf Lake Novella

  An erotic, paranormal romance

  Author's note ~ this book contains explicit descriptions of sex,

  including same gender encounters and threesomes.

  To my BFF, our next girls' weekend

  really should include werewolves!

  CHAPTER ONE

  Prologue

  Carter scrambled up the hillside. Grabbing at clumps of wet grass and roots exposed by the pounding rain, he pulled himself through the storm and on towards the den.

  Cold mud and wet clay squished between his toes as his feet slipped out from under him, driving him to his hands and knees. Grit and mud splashed into his face and mouth, coating his teeth and getting under his tongue. Swiping at the hair hanging in his eyes, Carter flicked fresh drops of cold rain across his back and shoulders.

  The rain turned to hail. He'd shifted back to human form soon after crossing out of Nafarius' territory, leaving him naked and his body exposed to the elements. Gritting his teeth, Carter grimaced as pebble-sized bits of ice sliced at his flesh. He didn't have time to stop and take shelter from the storm. Dimitri was anxious for news, and it was unwise to keep the alpha waiting.

  The pack house was a welcome sight. Spread across the top of the rise, candlelight spilled out from windows left open despite the violent storm currently passing through the Cascade Mountains.

  Built when the west was still wild, the single story structure had been constructed in the style of the Native American plank house. The house lacked electricity and running water, comforts easily exchanged for the peace and solitude that came with living this far from civilization.

  Carter had lived there his entire life, the pack house his only home. His father had been killed in a skirmish for the alpha role. His mother, Kate, was likely waiting inside, worried about her only young.

  Carter paused, his hand hovering over the doorknob and his heart hammering in his chest. Dimitri would be waiting inside. The alpha hadn't been himself in some time. The negotiations with Nafarius had taken longer then expected, and the strain was starting to show. Natasha, Dimitri's daughter and the pack's alpha female, had been able to manage her aging father, but it wouldn't be long before even her efforts failed.

  Taking a deep breath, Carter squared his shoulders and pushed open the door to his den.

  Dimitri spun on his heels. "Well?"

  A fire burned in the hearth behind the old alpha, illuminating a strong frame only slightly bent with age. Natasha sat in a chair nearby, surreptitiously watching her father while the rest of the pack loitered quietly.

  Carter swallowed as something feral shifted behind his alpha's eyes. Closing the door carefully behind him, Carter dropped his eyes to the floor. "Nafarius mated the human. She was able to shift."

  Natasha was halfway out of her chair, reaching for her father when Dimitri burst across the room, lunging at Carter.

  Having dropped his eyes, Carter never saw the attack coming. The first hint he had of anything wrong was the cold slice of pain that opened his chest.

  "Carter!!" Kate screamed and lunged for her son. William wrapped his arm around his pack mate, covering her mouth with his other hand and cutting off her screams.

  "Hush!" William ordered, shoving her towards the back of the house.

  Carter heard his mother scream, his eyes snapping to his alpha's face just in time to see the downward swipe of vicious claws. The blow caught him across the face and neck, snapping his jaw and ripping through his jugular.

  Dimitri didn't stop. He couldn't stop.

  Dimitri smelled blood. Tender flesh separated as he sunk his claws into the male struggling for life before him.

  Male.

  Nafarius.

  Nafarius was mated to the human, making her a werewolf and betraying Dimitri and leaving Natasha without a mate.

  Natasha.

  Pack.

  Dimitri felt the bond to his pack stretch, threatening to snap as he slid deeper into the abyss. There is no one left. No one left to take care of his pack. No one left to take care of him.

  "Move!" William kept his gaze fixed firmly on Dimitri. Moving quickly, he grabbed whoever was closest and shoved them to the back of the house. Behind him, Carter tried to scream, instead choking on his own blood in an effort to suck air through the hole in his throat.

  "Dad!" Natasha grabbed for her father's arm, narrowly missing and jerking back as blood splattered, warm and wet, across her face. Carter's eyes turned to her, silently pleading even as his body slowly crumpled to the floor.

  "Craig!" Natasha looked around for the pack's beta. Spying the male across the room, she rushed to his side. "Do something!"

  Craig stared down his nose at her. "Why?"

  Natasha blinked. "He's killing Carter!"

  Craig shrugged. "No real loss, Carter was weak." He was also attractive, and a favorite among the females despite his lower standing.

  Natasha stared. Craig's apathy was an island of cool in the sea of the pack's horror along the pack bond. "If you don't do something, I will," she said.

  Craig sneered. "I'd love to see you try." By rights, Natasha should have been his mate, his to do with as he pleased and there was so much he wanted to do to her.

  Sexual heat lit Craig's eyes and slithered down the pack bond even as her father continued to slaughter their pack mate. Natasha's skin crawled. "He's your alpha, you owe him - "

  "Dimitri made his choice when he turned to Nafarius instead of me," Craig snapped. The sting of his alpha's rejection was still sharp. The old alpha had done everything short of a public declaration to let the others know that he didn't find Craig worthy of his daughter or his pack. Instead, negotiating a deal that included handing both over to Nafarius.

  Natasha searched Craig's face, quickly realizing the male would see them all destroyed before lifting a finger to help.

  Turning back to her father, Natasha's gaze caught on Carter's lifeless eyes staring up at her from the floor. I'm so sorry, she told him silently. She couldn't afford to linger over what couldn't be changed. Already, Dimitri was winding down, high from the kill and controlled by madness, it was only a matter of time before he turned on the rest of them.

  Stepping between her father and the pack huddled at the back of the house, Natasha shivered as Dimitri lifted his head and something feral stared out at her. "Dad?"

  Dimitri snarled, his body rippling as he shifted into a grotesque mosaic of wolf and human.

  Natasha's stomach churned when confronted with the reality of putting down her alpha, her father. "Dad, please," she pleaded, hoping to see recognition filling his eyes.

  Dimitri hovered over his kill, tilting his head back and howling his victory to the rafters.

  Joy at the kill, and pleasure at the taste of blood filling his mouth saturated the pack bond, easing any doubts Natasha may have harbored. In that moment, she said goodbye to her father.

  No. Not her father. The Dimitri she had known was gone. That male would never slaughter one of his own, violating their den with the dead.

  "I'm sorry," Natasha whispered and launched herself across the room. Natasha didn'
t bother shifting. She had one shot to take down her father, the element of surprise was her one, true advantage. If she could blind him, she'd gain the few precious moments she would need to put her father down.

  As she closed the distance, the movement caught his eye, and he turned from his kill, instinct warning him of an attack.

  His head came around just as Natasha's fingers clawed for his eyes. Her nails raked across his face, opening three parallel tracks of torn flesh. The tracks ran across his left eye, and Dimitri roared as white, hot pain pierced his brain. Grabbing his unknown attacker, he threw the bitch across the room, slamming her into the coffee table with a satisfying crunch.

  Natasha felt the breath leave her body as broken ribs punctured at least one lung. Before she could roll to her feet, her father was on her, wrapping his hands around her throat and lifting her off the ground.

  Dimitri's vision blurred, his eyes seeing the face of a traitor. "You think you can kill me, take my place and my pack..."

  Natasha gurgled, clawing at her father's fingers and tearing the flesh at her throat.

  Dimitri glared at the female's face, searching his memory for who she could be. There was something familiar in her eyes, but...

  "This pack belongs to me and my daughter, you stupid bitch," he roared. Dimitri squeezed the female's neck in his massive hands.

  Natasha searched her father's face. He didn't recognize her. He didn't know it was his own daughter trying to stop him and protect the rest of the pack. Somehow, knowing that made dying by his hand easier to bear.

  The tingling started in her finger tips, the numbness quickly moving up her limbs towards the trunk of her body. The roaring of her father was replaced by a ringing in her ears. She was dying. Worse, she had failed, abandoning her pack and leaving them alone with her father.

  Letting go of the need to survive, Natasha reached for her father, wrapping her hands around his neck in an effort to take him with her.

  Dimitri pinned the female against the wall. Her piercing green eyes were memorable. Perhaps a spy from Nafarius's camp? Sent to undermine him? Yes...

  He slammed her head into the wall, splintering the wooden planks and cracking the back of her skull. She stared at him, and the sight disturbed him. He drove her head against the wall again, and the green eyes closed.

  Natasha held on to her father, her fingers twitching ineffectively as the world slid out from under her. Vaguely, she heard the snap of a twig and felt icy cold pain as her broken arm dropped uselessly to her side.

  Dimitri dropped the unconscious female to the ground, stepping over her body to open the door. Looking back over his shoulder, he licked the blood from his lip. "Get rid of it," he ordered, gesturing to Carter's mangled remains laying in a pool of blood.

  Craig nodded. He had no intent of touching the body. Let the others deal with it. "Where are you going?"

  Dimitri grinned madly. If Nafarius had thought to sow weakness, he'd see how wrong he was.

  "To finish some business," Dimitri said. Reaching down, he grabbed Natasha by the wrist, dragging her body out of the pack house and into the raging storm.

  Craig smirked as the door banged shut behind father and daughter. Things were suddenly looking up for him.

  CHAPTER TWO

  How to Cook a Wolf...

  Natasha blinked. Blinked again. Something wasn't right.

  It's too dark. Were her eyes even open? Where is the light? Even on a moonless night, there should be light through the window above her bed.

  Opening her eyes wide, Natasha stared hard into the dark. The window above her bed was gone. So was her bed, with its worn mattress that sagged with the imprint of her body.

  It was too quiet, William wasn't snoring. William always snores.

  No light, no William. Natasha flared her nostrils. Wrong smells. Home smelled of aged cedar. The air here was warm and thick with the stale scent of sweat, sex and...human. Only one pack in the area had recently housed a human.

  Nafarius.

  Natasha closed her eyes as her memory came cascading back. Nafarius' betrayal. Dimitri's powerful frame shaking, his fists clenched at his sides as he howled, the uncontrollable slaughter of her pack mate and her father's feral eyes as they landed on her.

  But how did she get here?

  Natasha tried getting to her feet, but stumbled as all four of her legs failed. Wolf? Her memories of her father were vivid. The bright red of blood, the yellow glow of his eyes. Not the shades of gray of her wolf.

  How was she supposed to get answers like this?

  The pain started even before she made the conscious decision to shift. Red hot, it flayed her flesh and ripped an inhuman scream from her throat. Never like this.

  Her breath sawed in and out of her lungs as tendons tightened painfully and her joints popped, the sound ricocheting in the confined space. Muscles spasming, her body bowed tight before slamming back to the ground, the last of her bones snapped into place.

  Back in human form, she lay panting in the dark as sweat dripped between her breasts and pooled at the small of her back. What the fuck was that? In almost forty years, shifting had never been so excruciatingly painful.

  Natasha opened her eyes to the cool press of rock against her cheek. She was laying half on, half off a blanket on the floor. Annnnnd...she was naked, her clothes long gone. Not a bad thing, considering her current state. Heat and pain (fever and bruising?) radiated from her skin, and even the warm air of the room hurt as it brushed across her flesh.

  She couldn't stay here. It didn't matter how she got here, every instinct was warning her out of another werewolf's territory. Home. Her stomach roiled at the thought of returning to her father, but there was nowhere else for her to go.

  Natasha dragged her arms to her body, dirt and grit scraping against her palms as she planted them on either side of her head and pushed herself up. Head hanging from her shoulders, she watched her arms shake, her muscles quivering in protest as she lifted her upper body off the floor.

  Locking her elbows, she gritted her teeth and forced her legs to join the party. Her body protested, a wave of nausea causing her to retch, bile burning up the back of her throat and splattering across the floor.

  Natasha groaned, her body heaving in pain. The shaking in her arms turned to trembling, as she tried moving away from her own filth. Too late, she realized her mistake as her elbows buckled and the floor rushed up to meet her.

  Roland caught Natasha with a millimeter to spare, his hands slipping under her body, catching her before her head hit the floor.

  "Damn fool female," he muttered as he eased her onto her back and gently covered her with another blanket.

  "Roland." His name a sigh on her lips, Natasha's body sank onto the ground as her wolf recognized his scent, the rest of him was nothing more than an indistinguishable shadow in the dark.

  "You're safe here," he said, responding to the fear in her voice.

  "I hurt," Natasha whispered roughly.

  "I expect you do." Roland said, gently brushing the hair back from her face.

  Natasha flinched, unable to stop herself from instinctively recoiling.

  Roland dropped his hand and stepped back, putting the room between them before sticking his head out into the hall.

  Natasha heard soft muttered voices and a clear command, followed by the sound of bare feet hurrying away. A few minutes later, the low light of a lantern appeared, held aloft by a pretty little blonde carrying a bowl of steaming water and towels.

  "I'm sorry," Natasha said, heat creeping across her face as the woman cleaned up her mess.

  "Don't be," Maddie said gently, as her eyes darted to Roland. "I'll leave the towels and the water."

  Roland nodded, waiting until they were alone before turning and finding Natasha watching him. "Can I help?" he asked, indicating the wet towels and warm water.

  Natasha nodded, her eyes following him as he crossed the room and squatted down beside her. Roland dipped the towel in the hot wa
ter, wringing out the excess before reaching for her face. He moved slowly, waiting for her to nod again before touching her.

  She expected Roland to be rough, awkward in his ministrations. But his hands were gentle, dabbing lightly at a cut on her lip and tenderly wiping away dried blood and bile.

  "Not exactly how I hoped to look the next time I saw you," she told him, her eyes tracing the lines of his face. They'd never been this close before, his body near enough to feel the heat of his skin.

  "You wanted to see me again?" Roland asked, his eyes on her chin. He wasn't sure what he would see if he lifted his gaze to her eyes. Would she look at him with the same unadulterated interest as before? Or, this close, would interest have turned to repulsion?

  "I thought I'd made that pretty clear." Natasha said, referring to her no-strings-attached invitation during her last visit.

  "It still surprises me," Roland said. The need to know won out. Lifting dark, serious eyes, he searched her face and saw...interest.

  "Why? Because of this?" Natasha asked, cupping his cheek. For some reason it felt only right that the first time she touched him should be to experience the ruined side of his face. Jagged and puckered, the rough skin of his scar started at his temple, following the trail a lover's kiss might take down the curve of his cheek and ending at the corner of a pair of extremely sensual lips.

  This time, it was Roland who flinched, jerking his face away from her touch even as the rest of him stirred to the cool press of her fingers.

  "You should rest," he told her, his voice gruff as he tossed the used towels outside the alcove entrance.

  "Nafarius will want to speak with you tomorrow." Roland's alpha had been willing to let him see to the female - for now - but the need for information weighed heavily on them both.

  Natasha nodded, her eyes already growing leaden. "Roland?"

  "Hmm?" Roland paused, ignoring how nice his name sounded on her lips.

  "How did I get here?" Natasha let her eyes close. She didn't need to see to hear his answer.