Wolf on
the Hunt
By N.J.
Walters
In the hunt for love,
there’s no going halfway.
Salvation Pack, Book 5
Drawn to Salvation by her passion for nature,
Gray Everson’s looking forward to some peace and quiet to work on her
paintings. She didn’t expect hunters shooting up the forest around the cabin
she rented. And she certainly didn’t expect to find a wounded wolf.
It’s only after Gray sends the hunters packing
that she realizes the creature hidden in her cabin is no ordinary wolf. He’s a
ruggedly handsome man with an extraordinary ability Gray thought only existed
in fiction.
Louis LaForge has given up on finding a mate and
channels all his energy into protecting his pack. But his instant attraction to
a skittish artist is more than simple lust. There’s something about Gray he
just can’t put his finger on—until he gets close enough to touch her.
Louis is sure of what he wants, but pushing Gray
too far, too fast is risky. The hunters aren’t going away peacefully, and
Louis’s former pack is coming for him. When the final battle comes, there will
be only one way to protect everyone he loves.
EXCERPT:
She was used to being
independent. Feeling strong and in control of her life. This was outside
anything she’d ever dealt with. How often did a woman meet an actual myth?
Werewolves were part of ancient lore and the stuff of popular fiction. They
weren’t real.
Or that’s what she’d truly
believed until a few seconds ago when she’d watched the man before her shift
from wolf to human.
His skin was warm and
slightly rough. He slowly closed his fingers around hers, holding them for a
brief second before releasing her. A sense of disappointment flooded her. She’d
wanted the contact to last longer.
“You’re a half-breed.”
His words struck her with the
power of a two-by-four to the gut. She flinched and curled her fingers into
fists by her sides.
“I’m what?”
“A half-breed werewolf.”
She shook her head in denial.
Yes, she’d always been different from the people around her, always been
attracted to wolves, always been able to sense things others couldn’t. But a
werewolf? It couldn’t be possible. She’d have known. Wouldn’t she?
“Am I?” She wasn’t sure she
believed him. Wasn’t sure she wanted to.
He cocked his head to one
side and inhaled deeply again. He was scenting her. The realization shocked
her. It was something she automatically did in any new situation. It was also
why she only used natural products on her skin and to wash her clothes and
clean her house. Synthetic scents were offensive to her nose. It was another
reason she preferred the country to the city. Too many nasty smells in the
city.
“Yeah, you are. It’s mostly
hidden beneath Shadow’s smell, but I can scent the wolf in you.”
This couldn’t be happening.
None of this could be real.
“I have to sit down.” She
started to sway and locked her knees so she wouldn’t fall flat on her ass. This
was more than she could handle along with everything else she’d dealt with this
morning.
Louis grabbed her arm and
guided her to the bed. “You didn’t know?”
Anger flooded her system—at
him, at her mother and especially at her unknown father. She welcomed it. It
flooded her system with adrenaline, sending strength to her weak limbs.
“How the hell would I? My
mother never told me who my father was. She died when I was eight. How would
I?” she repeated. Maybe her mother never knew. Maybe she’d planned to tell Gray
when she was older. Gray would never know for certain.
Louis sat down beside her.
The mattress dipped as his weight settled on it, and she tilted closer to him.
He took her hand in his. She was tall for a woman and solidly built, but he
made her feel small and his hand seemed to swallow hers up. She tried to ignore
the fact he was still naked and aroused. She might be freaked out about the
situation, but she wasn’t dead. There was something about him that made her
very aware of herself as a woman.
Get over it, she told herself. He was a stranger. A dangerous man
that she knew nothing about other than the fact he was a werewolf. This was not
the time to listen to her hormones. Yes, she was attracted to him, but that was
no reason for her to act on that or forget the possible implications of the
situation she now found herself in.
It had been dangerous enough
when she’d thought he was a wolf. How much more risky was it now that she knew
what he really was?
“I’m sorry.”
She wasn’t exactly sure why
he was sorry. For telling her? Because she didn’t already know?
Shadow sat in front of her
and plunked his big head on her lap. He whined as if sensing her distress. She
automatically reached out to him with her free hand and rubbed him. It brought
her comfort and a sense of normality.
She had a million questions,
and finally there was someone who might be able to give her answers. Her
heritage must be the source of her differences, the things that had set her
apart from others her entire life. The reason her sense of smell and sight were
enhanced, why she was physically stronger than other women and many men as
well. Why she never got sick. She’d never even had a cold in her life. What
other differences were there that she knew nothing about?
“Does that mean I can shift
too?”
He doused her hopes with a
single shake of his head. “If you were going to shift, you would have done it
when you were a teenager.”
“Oh.” That was too bad. As
scary as the idea was, she wouldn’t have minded trying it.
“Not much is known about
half-breeds. They’re almost unheard of. Very rare.”
That piqued her interest.
“Why?”
His eyes darkened, almost
becoming black. A muscle in his jaw pulsed and his entire body tensed. “Because
their packs almost always kill them.”
Samhain Publishing: https://www.samhainpublishing.com/book/5693/wolf-on-the-hunt
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/nrxzbbf
Barnes & Noble: http://tinyurl.com/oo3ge8g
No comments:
Post a Comment