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One night of reckless passion will either unite two rival werewolf clans, or start a war that could destroy them.Lily Windbourn is tired of her controlling family and her ex-boyfriend's inability to move on. Her home town is too small and her family is a mess. Determined to start over, she heads west to Idaho, to a new campus and a new life. Little does she know that they were watching her for a reason. She doesn't know what she was born to become, but they do...and they won't let her go so easily.When her car breaks down on the side of a mountain road, a savior appears from nowhere to help her. His name is Kade, and with one touch of his hand, her world explodes.The moon is full. Desires run hot and no matter what her reckless heart longs to feel, her body will make its own demands.Will she surrender to a new mate...or resist her Wild Wolf Claiming?
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Wild Wolf Claiming: Copyright © 2016
by Grace Goodwin
Published by KSA Publishers
Goodwin, Grace
Wild Wolf Claiming, Howls Werewolf Romance
Cover Copyright © 2017 by Grace Goodwin
Cover Photo © canstock: arturkurjan; GraphicStock
Publisher’s Note:
This book was written for an adult audience. The book may contain explicit sexual content. Sexual activities included in this book are strictly fantasies intended for adults and any activities or risks taken by fictional characters within the story are neither endorsed nor encouraged by the author or publisher.
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Epilogue
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Lily
My ears buzzed with that strange little ringing noise I got when I was being watched. It had me checking every mirror on the car and accelerating to ninety. Which was stupid. No one was here. Wherever here was. I was over a thousand miles from home in an unfamiliar car. Idaho was as far from East Springs, Tennessee as I could get before I hit the crowds on the west coast. That was out for me. Too many people. Too much water.
I never thought I’d ever run away from home, not at twenty-one. But that was exactly what I was doing. No, not running away from home, running away from him. Robert Nathanial Howard the third.
“Asshole.” Reaching for the radio dial, I cranked up the volume to drown out my memories. Oh, he hadn’t raped me, but he’d had a hard time listening when I told him no, to stop, that I didn’t want it. He’d slowed down, pulled back, looked at me like I was lying. Said some bullshit about scenting my change, like I was a confused thirteen-year-old just hitting puberty.
Whatever. He hadn’t seemed convinced until I’d said my grandfather would kill him. That had shut him down, wilted his dick and had him rolling off me faster than fleeing a fire.
Everyone in East Springs was afraid of my family, especially Grandad. Weirdly afraid. But I didn’t ask too many questions. Grandad ran the town and that was just the way things were. That was the way things had always been. My mom was gone now, leaving me alone with him. We weren’t touchy-feely huggers. Hell, he was a distant, cold old man with ice blue eyes and a temper I avoided rousing. Everyone avoided rousing.
Even worse, being around him reminded me of my mom, which hurt. Since I looked a lot like her, I figured he felt the same. After she died a couple years ago, well, Grandad and I pretty much avoided each other. But neither one of us had to look far to be reminded of my mother. All we had to do was look in the mirror and those ice blue eyes stared right back at us.
But Grandad was always there for me, whether I wanted him to be or not. He ran our town, thought he ran my life. Even now, a thousand miles away, he’d find a way to keep tabs on me. That was just what he did. So of course he heard about Robbie getting a little too pushy with me, and I hadn’t told a soul.
People in East Springs paired off young. Too young, in my opinion. Most of the women were head over heels in lust by the time they were nineteen. That was insane. I had somehow avoided that. So far. Although if Robbie’d had his way, I’d have been paired off with him whether I wanted to be or not. I wasn’t going to be with a guy just because he pushed himself on me.
Not that Robbie was a terrible human being. He was gorgeous, as men in my home town tended to be. Over six foot with chiseled features, muscles everywhere and eyes that looked right through me. But he wasn’t for me. I didn’t know what I wanted, but it definitely wasn’t him.
Ever since my sixteenth birthday, I felt like I’d been watched, like the rest of my family was just waiting for a hormone bomb to drop inside me and turn me into a sex-crazed maniac like some of my younger cousins. Maybe that would have helped Robbie’s chances. Maybe I would’ve been so horny it wouldn’t matter so much who I was with.
I’d fooled around a bit, sure, but I’d never felt the lust, the need, my friends had mentioned. Because of this, I figured maybe there was something wrong with me. I liked hooking up just fine, it just wasn’t worth obsessing over. With Robbie I’d tried, really tried, but his tongue had all but made me gag when he shoved it in my mouth and his hands on my bare skin had made my skin crawl. And look what that got me?
“A black eye and a bad attitude.” I checked the damage I’d inflicted in the rear view mirror. The fading green and yellow bruising was almost completely gone now. And the light coating of makeup I wore hid the rest. I’d been stupid, running blindly in the dark. The doctor had said I was lucky I hadn’t lost an eye. Robbie had been skulking around, oozing fury. And yeah, it was obvious the doctor didn’t believe I’d done it to myself. He’d thought Robbie hit me and I was covering for my boyfriend.
As if. But it had felt good to make Robbie suffer.
Besides, a little makeup and I still looked good, especially since I’d left the jerk two time zones away. The sun had pinked my cheeks. My eyes were sparkling with something other than rage, and I felt free. Happy.
If I’d done what I wanted to do when Robbie was feeling me up, I’d be sitting in a jail cell right now. Fortunately, I was very, very good at controlling my temper. My mother had drilled that into me since I could walk. A Windbourn never loses their temper.
There were a lot of rules like that. Don’t lose your temper. Don’t draw attention to yourself in public. Don’t run too fast. No sports. Don’t. Don’t.
“Don’t date a member of the Howard family,” I added. I’d broken that one, and look how fantastically that little adventure played out.
They were a wealthy family that lived farther north. The Howard family pretty much owned the small town they lived in, just like the Winterbourns ran East Springs. And the rivalry between the Howards and the Windbourns went as far back as I could remember. No, much longer than my lifetime. Our high school hated theirs, our mayor hated theirs. It was intense and very small town. And me with Robbie? It had seemed very Romeo and Juliet…well, without the Romeo and Juliet. I’d seen to that. I’d found the entire thing ridiculous.
Sure, he was hot. Rippling muscles, dark hair, the face of a god. He’d said all the right things, done all the right things. Until he got me beneath him. Then something inside me had come roaring to life, but not with desire.
I’d never felt anything like it, before or since. And frankly, the ferocity of my reaction scared the shit out of me.
I’d wanted to kill him. And not in a pretty way, in a gouge out his eyes and rip his throat out kind of way.
A huge overreaction for a guy I’d invited into my bed. I’d done it partly to test myself because I was tired of having the reputation of being a frigid witch, and partly to defy my Grandad and his legion of spies that were always following me around since my mom died, watching me like I was a ticking time bomb.
I wanted to want Robbie. I had. I’d tried, but there just hadn’t been anything right about it. I wanted my heart to race. I wanted to feel wild and desperate and out of control. I wanted passion like all my friends spoke about, that I knew existed with the right guy. I’d wanted to feel that and I’d hoped Robbie would be it. It would’ve been so simple.
Meh. He’d been fine. Fooling around had been fine. Fine. But the whole time I’d been thinking about my college application to Lewiston and Cooke College, wondering if they’d take me, wondering if my father’s cousins still lived in the same small town in Idaho. Robbie had been touching me, kissing me, his body hot and hard and pressing me into the bed and I’d been wondering how I’d done on the math placement exam.
Which was just messed up.
A rabbit darted into the road and seeing my approach, scurried back into the thick woods that were right up on the road’s edge, bringing me back from my thoughts. Fine. I didn’t want fine. I wanted more. I wanted everything. Sweaty skin, ragged breathing, heated touches, soft caresses, whispered words. Blinding pleasure. It was out there, with someone. I put my fingers to my almost healed cheek. Just not with Robbie and not in East Springs.
My spine tingled and my skin broke out with goose bumps despite the heat of the sun shining through the trees. I had the top down and my dark hair flying wild behind me. The sun was baking my skin, but a chill moved through me and I thought I saw a shadow racing beside me in the woods just off the highway.
But that was freaking impossible. Right? Nothing could run that fast.
Scared now, and feeling stupid about it, I slowed the car down to sixty-five, relieved when I saw a sign for Black Falls. Five miles. Which meant about five minutes until I could get out of this car, stretch my legs, get checked in to a hotel and take a nice, hot shower.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
“What the hell?” The steering wheel jerked in my hands and I had to hold on tightly to keep the car from swerving off the road, right into the forest.
Foot off the gas, I eased to the side, fighting the car the whole way. When I finally rolled to a stop, I took a second to catch my breath, let my heart rate slow. Muttering a string of curses, I got out and walked around.
The right front tire was flat as a pancake and I hadn’t seen another car for a solid ten minutes. I was out in the middle of Nowhereville.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it!” I was so not in the mood for this. Sure, I could change a damn tire, but I was wearing a bright pink sundress and my brand new white sandals. I had a mani-pedi in hot pink to match, and I didn’t want to drive into my new town, to a new school and a new life with tire grease and dirt all over me.
Hands on my hips, I scanned the road in both directions. Nothing.
Bending over the passenger side door, I grabbed my cell phone from the cup holder.
Nope. Zero bars. I looked around at the trees. The never-ending trees. No bars meant I couldn’t splurge for a tow truck even if I wanted to.
And my spare was buried in the trunk under just about everything I owned.
Tossing the phone on the passenger seat, I spun and leaned my backside against the car door. “This is not happening.”
I would not cry. Wouldn’t do it.
A Windbourn never shows weakness in public. Don’t cry, dear. Never, ever cry where they can see you.
Holy hell. How many times had I heard my mother say that one?
Evidently enough, because the sting of tears dried up instantly. With a sigh, I walked around, pulled the keys out of the ignition and opened the trunk. If I had to unpack the whole damn car, I might was well get started.
“Need some help?”
The voice was deep, masculine and raced through me like an electric current. I jumped, hitting my head on the open trunk before slowly pivoting on my heel to find the sexiest man I’d ever seen.
He was six-three if he was an inch, with golden brown hair and amber eyes that were watching me with laser focus. He wasn’t ogling, but looking me straight in the eye. Somehow, that didn’t mean much. I had the feeling he was acutely aware of every inch of me without even shifting his gaze.