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Wolf Nights: Werewolves Kickass Heroines & Sizzling Romance
Wolf Nights: Werewolves Kickass Heroines & Sizzling Romance Read online
Wolf Nights
Werewolves, kickass heroines, and sizzling romance
Aimee Easterling
Anna Lowe
Becca Andre
Ellis Leigh
Steffanie Holmes
Stories copyright © 2019 by their respective authors
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Enjoy these 5 shifter tales from bestselling authors
Wolf's Bane by Aimee Easterling – In a world where different is dangerous, a fox shifter teams up with her greatest enemy to put food on her sister's plate.
Desert Hunt by Anna Lowe – Strictly off limits or destined mates? Rae has a secret she will guard with her life, but she’s forced to trust Zack, a coyote shifter from the wrong side of the tracks.
The Necromancer's Betrayal by Becca Andre – Elysia doesn't want to be a practicing necromancer. But when she accidentally soul-binds an undead shifter of incredible power, she must embrace all that she is to save him from her brethren.
Savage Surrender by Ellis Leigh – Two kidnapped women, one dangerous soldier about to come face-to-face with fate, and a monster set on destroying everything in its path. There's no escaping a Dire Wolf on the hunt...for his mate.
Digging the Wolf by Steffanie Holmes – A mystery on an archaeological dig, a broken heroine burying her past, and a hero so hot he’ll have you howling for more.
Contents
Wolf’s Bane
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
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Desert Hunt
Prologue
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
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Epilogue
The Necromancer’s Betrayal
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
Savage Surrender: A Dire Wolves Mission
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
Digging the Wolf
1. Anna
2. Luke
3. Anna
4. Luke
5. Anna
6. Luke
7. Anna
8. Luke
9. Anna
10. Luke
11. Anna
12. Luke
13. Anna
14. Luke
15. Anna
16. Luke
17. Anna
18. Luke
19. Anna
20. Luke
21. Anna
22. Luke
23. Anna
24. Luke
25. Anna
26. Epilogue: Anna
Wolf’s Bane
Aimee Easterling
Chapter One
The first time my mother spoke to me from beyond the grave, my little sister was defying gravity.
“The nail that sticks out gets hammered down,” the disembodied voice of my dead mother noted inside my head just as a very real Kira called out: “Look, Mai! I’m flying!”
Jolting at Mama’s unexpected intrusion, I swiveled to take in my sister’s long legs scampering atop the six-foot high-wall at the edge of the cemetery. I usually didn’t pay much attention to Kira’s affinity for gymnastics in high places. But it wasn’t every day a long-dead Japanese woman tapped on the inside of my skull and demanded that I take notice.
So—“Careful!” I called just as Kira’s right foot touched down on a section of wall where the weight of the hillside had pushed the cinder blocks out at an angle, ivy and dirt promising to send the unwary tumbling off her stride.
“I know what I’m doing!” my sister replied, tossing her head and rolling her eyes just like she’d done yesterday and the day before and the day before that while walking home from school. All the while human feet pranced through the debris with the agility of a fox, proving that she was right and I was wrong. My concern—and the warning from our dead mother—had been for nothing.
Or so it seemed until my sister raised her chin toward the surprisingly bright March sunshine, closed her eyes to better soak up the warmth...and ran smack dab into the largest male body I’d seen in my life.
A moment earlier, I could have sworn that the cemetery—or at least what I could see of it from the recessed sidewalk—was entirely devoid of life. But now my little sister’s shoulders were caught in the grip of hands that could oh-so-easily slide upward to settle around her unprotected neck. Veins stood out from the assailant’s rippling muscles. And I didn’t need to lift my nose to the breeze to understand what had taken place.
Kira had been waylaid by our worst possible enemy—an alpha male werewolf.
For half a second, they wobbled there together atop tilting chunks of concrete. One girl who hid a secret punishable by death. And one predator who was willing and able to perform said execution.
Beneath
them, I clenched my fist around the strobing ball of light shielded by the fabric of my pants pocket while at the same time assessing possible approaches. The trouble was, while I could jump directly onto the wall from my current location, doing so would be royally stupid within view of an alpha werewolf. But ascending in a human manner would mean running halfway down the block to the gateway Kira had so agilely leapt across...while leaving my sister unprotected in the interim.
So I stood for one endless second mimicking a stranded fish, mouth gaping and metaphorical fins flapping while I tried to decide which approach was least likely to get my sister killed. Meanwhile, beneath my clothes, the incorporeal light that held half my soul oozed out of my pocket, slid around my hip, and slowed at last in the empty scabbard strapped to my back. There the ice-cold tendrils of my star ball lengthened and solidified into my favorite weapon—a rapier-thin sword, just waiting to be drawn and wielded against the unwary.
The entire magical manipulation—plus associated brain freeze—had taken only a second, one blink of the eye during which my sister’s assailant didn’t appear to notice he had any audience other than one twelve-year-old child. His slender fingers had neither loosened nor tightened, and he spoke now in a voice so deep it was dangerous. “Someone’s hunting innocents in this city. You shouldn’t be out here alone.”
Half of my brain occupied itself assessing that assertion. Was this werewolf—the most hazardous being we could possibly run up against—honestly warning my kid sister to steer clear of other predators? Or was that a threat half hidden beneath the throaty timbre of his overtly protective words?
But most of my attention remained focused on planning out my subsequent actions. I couldn’t toss the sword to Kira and risk her being cut on an edged weapon, not when the twelve-year-old still used training blades in the school gymnasium where I taught. And was it even a good idea to provide a weapon in the first place when anything I threw upwards could just as easily end up in the lightning-quick hands of an overpowering alpha?
While other possibilities flicked through my brain with the force of strobe lights, Kira answered back as airily as if she and this werewolf were chance-met friends chatting during a stroll through the park. “Oh, I’m not alone,” she said blithely. “I’ve got Mai.”
“Your what?”
“No, not ‘my.’ Mai.”
Which is when I decided that running up the three-inch-wide staircase created by the cracking wall was almost easy enough to appear human. After all, the werewolf’s fingers remained poised inches away from my sister’s jugular. Didn’t Kira realize that a being so powerful inevitably thought anything he could hold onto was his to keep?
So, relinquishing all concern about appearing human, I took the first two steps up the side of the wall in one lunging leap. Then I froze as the male’s chin tilted down toward me.
His eyes were windows I was unprepared to gaze into. Piercing and assessing and, at the same time, as deep and full of mystery as the bottom of a well. He quirked arching eyebrows, the faintest hints of crows’ feet appearing at his temples...only to fade as he took in the rapier I’d unconsciously extended to prod against his jeans-clad calf.
“Ah, I see,” the male answered. “You are quite admirably protected. My mistake.”
Then, without so much as nudging the sharpened steel away from his flesh, the werewolf released my sister’s shoulders and offered me a perfunctory half-bow. He was as lithe as a swordsman, his body as perfectly proportioned as a statue hailing from ancient Greece.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mai.” And to my sister—“Mind your balance, child.” With that parting shot, the werewolf slid back out of my sight line, disappearing into the cemetery as quickly as he’d materialized in the first place.
And me? I was left with a hint of sweetness on my lips that reminded me of near-forgotten teenage kisses. Swiping one hand across my mouth to remove the tell-tale flavor, I jerked my chin at my sister. “We need to get you home.”
After all, my second job was calling. Cage fights wait for no woman.
Chapter Two
I wouldn’t dream of heading into battle without my black leather jacket and knee-high boots, but there was more to this gig than fighting. So I showed up at the Arena an hour later in a baby-pink blouse, ruffled neckline drooping low enough to show off my nearly nonexistent boobs. I tied up my hair in two above-the-ear pigtails. And I splashed enough smoky blue and silver eye shadow on either side of my nose to accentuate the slant of my half-Japanese eyes.
The effect wasn’t me...but I’d do a lot to put food on the table for my sister. In this case, unfortunately, a lot wasn’t quite enough.
“...did you hear about the hooker they found dead down by the river last week...”
“...new bar with two-for-one appetizers...”
“...wouldn’t bet against Mai if you paid me to...”
The news of the day swirled around me in a cloud of horrors, excitement, and—unfortunately—overwhelming appreciation for my prowess. As if to prove the last point, a meaty hand came down on my shoulder as a random audience member congratulated me on my most recent win. “Nice job against those bozos,” he boomed.
The male in question was a head and shoulders taller than my five-feet-zero frame, and he likely could have lifted me off the ground with one arm tied behind his back. Still, his posture radiated respect for more than the length of my rapier...which should have filled me with much-deserved pride.
Unfortunately, my boss had been using the unlikely disconnect between my appearance and my skill level to her financial advantage for nearly a decade. It was a lucrative proposition—toss the tiny street girl out against a gang of heavy hitters, bet on the underdog, and watch the cash roll in. Since my ten percent of the take paid the rent, having members of the audience betting for me rather than against me could very well turn into a financial disaster for both Ma and myself.
Drat and blast! What did it take to be underestimated in this town?
Before I could decide which evasive action to take, though, I glanced toward the other side of the stadium where my opponents usually held court. Best to see what kind of warrior Ma Scrubbs had dug up before I decided between the damsel-in-distress routine and the fake-wound walk....
New fighters were always easy to pick out due to the contestants’ banners slung across their chests. And I was ready for any number of them. After all, I’d faced down five opponents just last month, forgetting myself and knocking the quintet down like dominoes with a few short swipes of my sword.
But during that ill-matched contest, I hadn’t been forced to hide my abilities. Had been facing humans only, without a single werewolf in sight.
Now, as I eyed one tall male and one erect-ruffed four-legger, I not only recognized the abilities of the shifters before me, I also knew immediately who they were. The man standing on two legs possessed uncannily familiar features for all that I’d never set eyes on his face before. And no wonder when he smelled identical to the wolf panting by his side, both boasting the same deep musk that lingered on my tongue despite every effort to wash their granite and ozone signature out of my brain.
No, these opponents weren’t strangers. Or at least the wolf wasn’t. Instead, this was the self-same shifter who had accosted my sister on the cemetery wall earlier in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, the two-legged shifter’s words were just barely audible with the help of my own supernaturally assisted hearing. “Of course this is a good idea,” the male murmured on the other side of the chattering crowd. His voice was gritty with rebellion, which struck me as strange since I could smell his dominance from fifty feet distant. “You know the evidence leads here.”
Evidence? Were these werewolves hunting something? Could they possibly be seeking me?
Whether that conclusion was grounded in reality or in pure paranoia, I’d risk too much by fighting fellow shifters unaware of my closely held secret. So I turned on my heel and stalked off in the opposite direction
.
It was time to hold a serious conversation with my boss.
“You’re late.”