by Lauren Dawes
He claimed my mouth in a searing kiss, and for the first time, I let myself sink into him without thoughts of whether this was right or wrong.
This was us, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.
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A rookie cop. A team of supernatural detectives. A shifter with some impulse control issues.
My name is Cat McKenzie, and I thought wood sprites weren’t a thing.
Apparently, they are. Fun fact: they enjoy eating carrion which was how I discovered the body of a hunter in the woods. The local werewolf pack confirms it’s a bad wolf doing the biting.
Add two more to the body count and we have a furry serial killer on our hands.
Life can’t be as easy as that though. From new recruits at PIG to questions about mine and my sexy-as-sin partner’s connection, I’m left trying with more questions than answers.
Murderous will-o’-the-wisps, dryads and a thieving harpy… could life get any crazier?
Bad Wolf
Chapter One
**Please note this is an unedited chapter.
Any mistakes are my own**
“It’s a dildo,” my best friend said slowly, turning the rectangular box around in her hands and peering at it in complete bemusement.
I clapped my hands excitedly, snatching it away from Sasha. “A twelve-inch monster!” I’d gotten the toy for my bestie for Christmas before she’d gone and gotten herself engaged to Brad while away on a skiing trip over Christmas.
“Why would I need a dildo?”
I gave her a look. “Why would I give the woman who not only has a drawer full of sex toys, but a whole section of her closet devoted to the vibrating, titillating, orgasm-inducing objects a new dildo? PS I used titillating in a sentence.” I held my hand up for a high-five.
With that same look on bemusement on her face, Sasha leaned over and smacked her palm against mine. She took the box back from me and stared at it. “I shouldn’t need this now. Not with my fiancé being able to do its job—” She grinned “—and then some.”
Taking the toy from Sash’s hand, I dropped the box onto the cushion beside me and took her hands in mine. “I’m so excited for you, Sasha. A little blind-sided I have to admit, but still super pumped that you’re finally getting your happy ending.”
Then I laughed.
Because I couldn’t help myself.
She threw a cushion at me.
“Hey!” I said, rubbing the side of my face.
“That’s what you get for having your mind in the gutter.”
“I think you’ll find it’s always in the gutter,” I shot back, indignantly. “Besides, you try living with an incubus and tell me how much you don’t think about sex. I’ll save you the time and tell you that it’s about one hundred and ten percent of the time. I feel like I’m a teen boy who just found his daddy’s stash of porn under the bed.”
She picked up the cushion and placed it in her lap, stroking the fabric. “So, things between you are good?”
“They’re great. More than great.” I brushed at the knees of my jeans. “You were right.”
She cupped her ear. “I’m sorry, can you repeat that?”
I snorted. “I said, you were right. About me. About Sawyer. About my true feelings. About him being a supe and not human. You were right. And so was Sawyer.”
She pumped a fist in victory.
“So there. I like Sawyer. I may even more than like Sawyer. And bonus, we’re kind of irrevocably tied now anyway.”
At this statement, my friend’s brows rose. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Slinking forward in my seat, I grabbed the glass of water off the table and took a sip. “I’m his consort?”
“Why did you phrase that like a question?”
Because I wasn’t sure how she’d react. Sasha always had my back, always wanted the best for me, but I wasn’t sure she’d support this. Sex was one thing. A life-long connection with a near immortal supernatural creature was quite another, and who knew how long I was supposed to live. Sawyer had said an incubus’s consort was supposed to be a supernatural too. Clearly, I wasn’t, but did that mean when I died in however many years from now that Sawyer would die too?
“Cat? Hello, Earth to Cat?” Sasha snapped her fingers in front of my face, jolting me from my thoughts.
“Hey. Yeah. Sorry.”
“You’re his consort?” she nudged.
I let out a breath, nodding. “We’re just a little unsure how that works on account of me being human and all.”
“What does being an incubus’s consort mean, anyway?”
I lifted one shoulder in a small shrug. “I’m the one person who can stop the drive to constantly feed off other people.”
“He can’t feed off other people at all?”
I took another sip of my water. “He can still feed off the lust of others, but he can’t, you know…” I made the finger-in-the-hole gesture and shrugged. “Fuck them.”
She shook her head. “You’re so crass. Besides that, how was Sawyer right? You said I was right but how was he also right?”
I bit my lip. “He said I was afraid to let anyone else in because I thought they’d disappear from my life again.”
Sasha’s expression softened. “Oh, Cat.”
I waved off her concern. “I’m fine, but it did get me thinking. What if he was right and I was keeping my heart locked down? So, I decided to just… try.”
“I think that’s awesome. But if he hurts you, so help me, Cat, I’m going to chase him down and cut off his dick. With an over-sized axe because I’d have to go for maximum impact.”
I grinned. “You really know where to hit a man where it hurts.” My gaze ran over the huge rock on Sasha’s finger. Jerking my chin in the direction of her hand, I asked, “How many carats is that thing?”
She seemed to light up from the inside at the mention of her engagement ring. “Brad said it’s a ten-carat radiant cut diamond in a platinum setting.”
“It’s gorgeous, just like the woman wearing it.”
Sasha beamed as she continued to stare at the diamond. I’d never seen her this happy before. She’d dated a lot of guys, and by dated, I meant she slept with a lot of guys and rated the size of their dicks in the hope of finding the one who could capture and hold her attention for more than a couple of weeks. She was a smart woman who knew what she wanted in and out of the bedroom, and I’m glad Brad was the man to finally win her heart.
“When can I meet Brad? It feels weird that all I really know about him is the size of his dick and that he’s loaded.”
She laughed, a wicked gleam in her eye. “He’s a magnificent eight.”
“You should get that on a t-shirt.”
“You know what you should get on a t-shirt?”
“What’s that?”
“Maid of honor.”
I cocked my head to the side. “Say what now?”
“Will you be my maid of honor, Cat?”
A very un-Cat-like squeal burst from my lips as I launched myself at Sasha. “Are you serious?” I asked.
“Yes, deadly serious.”
“But are you really sure? You know how much shit seems to happen to me. I can’t guarantee I’ll be any good at this.”
“You’ll be amazing because you’re you and that’s all I need.” She tightened her arms around me, squeezing. “We’ll need to get started on the wedding planning sooner rather than later though.”
I pulled back, shoving some of my teal hair from my face. “Why?”
“Because we’ve already set the date and we want to get married in the spring.”
“That’s only three months away.”
“Four. We’re getting married in April.”
“Shit. You don’t mess around, do you?”
She shrugged happily. “
When you know, you know.”
“Well, yeah, but I just thought you always said you’d never settle down. That all men were dicks. That they were only good for one thing—”
“I know! But Brad is different. He’s sweet and kind and considerate—especially in the bedroom—and I know he’s the one for me. I also know I sounded like an idiot for thinking that I’d never get married and settle down. Sometimes all it takes is one person to show you the error of your ways.”
I scoffed. “Now you just sound like a Hallmark card.”
Waggling her finger in my face, she chastised, “It’ll happen to you one day, too, Cat.”
I shook my head, erasing the very thought. Sawyer and I were tied together now, but I didn’t want to assume that our connection would turn into anything more than what it was—mainly more about his survival than anything else. I mean, did I want to be with him? Absolutely. I loved the way he worshiped my body, but did I think we would get married and blah, blah, blah happily ever after? No.
Sasha reached for my hand. “It will. Look, if I can settle down then so can you.”
I didn’t correct her assumption that I wasn’t looking for more. If anything, I craved that deeper connection with someone, but being the consort to an incubus was new territory for me. We’d already agreed that if it didn’t work out in a monogamous relationship like I wanted, I could date other people and we would remain friends.
Fuck-buddies, but still friends.
Explaining that to potential romantic partners was going to be tricky though. I doubted there were many men out there who would let their girlfriend fuck another man because she was obligated to keep that man alive.
“—your therapist tonight? It is Friday.”
I blinked, refocusing on Sasha. “Sorry, what? I was somewhere else just then.”
“I know. I asked if you had to see your therapist tonight? Maybe afterwards we could go out for a drink—just the two of us?”
“Oh. Yeah, No, no more therapy for me. Mrs. Joanna Wong thinks I’ve got enough coping skills now to not have to see her every week.”
“Well, that’s great, isn’t it?”
“I wasn’t seeing her because I needed coping techniques. I was seeing her because I was drowning in guilt and anger. Being with Sawyer and the rest of the department has helped though.”
She reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze. “Yep, I totally get that. Did—”
Behind us, the door to the apartment opened and closed. Sawyer’s whisky and chocolate scent wafted on the air a moment later. And with that, my pulse spiked.
Sasha turned her head.
“Hot damn, Cat,” she muttered. “Why didn’t you tell me your partner looked like that?”
I’d forgotten that she’d never actually met my partner-come-roommate-come-lover.
Sawyer was dressed in running shorts and was bare-chested despite the sub-zero temperatures outside. Sweat ran in rivulets down his chest, ambling casually over his six pack and into the waistband of his shorts.
He turned to look at us, his usually gray irises turning dark as he caught the tendrils of our lust. “Pussy cat,” he rumbled before flicking his hungry gaze to Sasha. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”
I shook off the stupor of my flat-out need for him and grouched, “Argh, that sounded like a pick-up line. And I will as soon as you put a shirt on. This,” I hiked a thumb in Sasha’s direction, “is an engaged woman and she doesn’t need to see all that.”
With a rather boyish grin, Sawyer disappeared down the hall and emerged a few moments later with a shirt on. Unfortunately, him covering himself up did absolutely nothing for my libido. Just catching a glimpse of Sawyer was enough to make me drool.
“Sasha, this is Sawyer, my partner and roommate.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Sawyer said, swooping in and shaking Sasha’s hand.
My best friend actually blushed.
“Dial back on the smoldering, Sawyer,” I grumbled. “Your pussy-soaking powers are too powerful.”
He flashed me a grin, but even I felt the pressure ease in my body. And I was used to his lust-stoking abilities. I could only imagine how Sash was feeling.
Which was hot and bothered.
She was fanning herself, nibbling on her bottom lip. “Well, I’m finally glad we met. Any friend of Cat’s is a friend of mine.”
I blinked, unsure I’d heard those words. “What happened to cutting off his dick if he hurt me?”
“You were going to cut off my dick if I hurt my pussy cat?” Sawyer asked, one hundred percent aware of what he was doing.
I pulled his face toward me. “You. Stop.” I whirled on Sasha. “And you? You should be thinking about Brad right now.”
“Oh, I am thinking about Brad right now,” she purred. She stood, scooping up her bag in one swift movement. “And right now, I’m thinking he needs to pay some attention to my lady parts.”
“Don’t forget—” I started. Sasha swiped up the dildo and shot me a smile. “Your present,” I finished. I watched her leave the apartment without so much as a goodbye then turned to look at Sawyer.
The smirk on his face was so smug.
“You did that on purpose.” I hiked my hands onto my hips, trying to go for outraged, but the erection tenting his running shorts was too distracting. I licked my lips.
“Do what?”
“Made her want to go get some.”
Sawyer closed the distance between us, wrapping his hands around my waist. “And do you want to come and get some because I think I might need your help in the shower.”
“You’re incorrigible.”
He dropped a lingering kiss on my lips, and I opened for him, tasting chocolate and whisky and the male he was. “I’m insatiable when it comes to you, Cat.” Running his hands down my sides, he settled them on my hips and drew me in even closer. “So, what do you say? Want to help me wash my back?”
I rolled my hips against his cock, a soft moan escaping my lips. “Only if you say please,” I teased.
“Please.” The word came out as a growl, hitting me between the legs. Damn him and all his abilities to make me writhe. I yelped as he swooped his arm behind my knees and hauled me against his chest. I wrapped my arms around his neck, staring at his profile. His dark hair was plastered to his temples and sweat still trickled down his brow. His gray eyes, although darkening, were still playful and I was glad I brought out this side of him.
We’d just stepped into his bedroom when his phone began to ring from his nightstand. He growled in its direction but didn’t stop.
“You have to get that,” I told him. “It could be work.”
“It’s too early for that.”
“You know we never stop working. Besides, we’ll be in at the office in an hour. What difference does it make?”
Sawyer kissed me roughly, nipping at my bottom lip. “You’d rather me take a phone call than be ravished?”
“I’d rather do both, but we’re short of manpower right now so stop being a mindless incubus and answer the call.”
With a huff, he lowered me to the floor and answered the call with a barked, “What?” After listening to a second, he put the call on speaker and Vaile Wolfe’s rumbling voice filled the room.
“Is McKenzie with you?” he demanded.
“I’m here, boss,” I said, wrapping my arms around myself. A call before work even started was never a good thing.
“I need you two to meet me on my pack’s lands ASAP.” He rattled off an address. “We have a problem.”
Also by Lauren Dawes
The Half Blood Series
Half Blood
Half Truths
Half Life
Half Cast
Half Bound
Half Blood: The Complete Collection Books 1-5
Helheim Wolf Pack Novellas
Hunter
Riley
Dylan
Oliver
Casey
; Cat McKenzie Series
Bad Vampire
Bad Witch
Bad Fae
Bad Wolf
Bad Kitty
The Dark Trilogy
Dark Deceit
Dark Desire
Dark Devotion
Dark Trilogy Bundle: The Complete Series
Blood Bound Series
Shadowed Lover (2021)
Shadowed Pain (2022)
About the Author
Lauren Dawes is a USA Today Bestselling Author. She writes dark urban fantasy and paranormal romance and is the author of the Half Blood series, the Dark Trilogy and the Blood Bound Series. She likes her vampires dangerous, her shifters vicious and her Norse gods ruthless.
When she’s not writing, she’s reading, hanging with her young daughter or designing book covers. She currently lives in Brisbane, Australia.
Visit her at: www.authorlaurendawes.com
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