© Copyright 2020 by Pure Passion Reads – All rights reserved.
1. Edition
Title: Kidnapped by the Wolves
ASIN: B086TS1X2N
Author: Jasmine Wylder
Publication Date: July 2, 2020
Publisher: Pure Passion Reads GmbH, Uferstr. 3a, 39307 Roßdorf
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
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Kidnapped by the Wolves
Devil Mountain Wolf Shifters: Book One
A Paranormal Menage Romance
by Jasmine Wylder
Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Epilogue
Thank You!
Also by Jasmine Wylder
About the Author
Dedication
To my loved ones B & B, who encouraged me to fly toward my dream:
Let’s soar.
Chapter One
Chloe hadn’t thought that towns with only one stoplight actually existed, but as she sat in her car at the single one in the town of Deville, she was corrected. The sun had long since gone down behind the western Devil Mountain and with the eastern ones blocking the rising sun until fairly late in the morning, this little valley town was one of the best places a vampire like her could find themselves settled in.
The light changed to green and Chloe drove on, her shoulders tense and her knuckles white on the steering wheel.
“Stop panicking,” she told herself firmly. “You’ve got full control over when your fangs emerge now and don’t forget, you’re the one who wanted to move here.”
Wanted, she scoffed internally, unable to even convince herself. Yeah, I really wanted all of this.
For the past five years, nothing had gone as she’d wanted. What she wanted was to go to college, get a job as a secretary, get married, have kids and live happily ever after. Then the accident happened… her father had been killed in the crash, but she’d been alive just long enough for a vampire to grab her. Turn her.
She never did get a good reason for why Rodger turned her. He would say things like he felt sorry for her. But the way he acted, like she owed him everything and ought to be fawning at his feet, only made her resent him more and more. Then, when she learned that he’d turned a half-dozen others to vampires who were then executed for being unauthorized…
Luckily, she herself had managed to pass the tests that the vampires put into place. She was able to control her bloodlust and remain hidden in human populations. For a while, she even had been able to take night classes and start developing a sunblock that would allow vampires to walk in the sun.
It didn’t feel quite right, though. And when the block continued to disappoint, the vampires she had been living with started to tell her to just accept her lot in life—a lot that made her want to simply not live at all—if ‘alive’ was a good descriptor of what she was now.
Chloe shook herself, trying to push aside those thoughts. It didn’t matter. She wasn’t in that situation anymore. She’d moved to this sleepy little town because it gave her all the chances at a fresh start.
Nobody here knew her, and she was unlikely to bump into any other vampires, other than the morgue attendant she’d contacted online. He promised her a steady supply of blood, so she wasn’t even going to have to do any hunting. Animals only sated a vampire's appetite for so long, like a diet of potato chips and vitamin pills.
Nobody knew her sister, either. She was going to be Chloe Bennet, not Erica’s little sister. As much as she’d miss Erica and her twin girls, Chloe knew this was needed. She had to find her own future goals… or at the very least, let Erica get on with her life without worrying about Chloe every step of the way. She didn’t want to be a burden.
Chloe forced those thoughts from her head. Erica would be quick to tell her that she wasn’t a burden, but Chloe knew that wasn’t true. She’d been disrupting Erica’s life enough.
Soon enough, she was at the dinner on the corner of where two highways converged. Even this late at night, there were a good half-dozen big semis parked in the gigantic lot. So much for the graveyard shift being quiet. But seeing as this was the only place where truckers could stop and get something to eat for almost a hundred miles in any direction, it was understandable that they’d be busy.
She hurried in the side door and slipped into the back, fighting down the bile that was rising in her throat. Just stay calm.
She’d been taking the medicines and herbal supplements that made her body mimic a regular human’s. Beating heart, active sweat glands, blood moving through her body—red blood, not the still, black blood that she’d dealt with the first year of her existence. Her fangs were just regular canines now, too, unless she willed them to grow larger.
Nobody would look at her and scream vampire. Nobody would know who or what she was.
The thought of being around people, though? Terrifying.
Her mind ran through all the terrible things that could happen, from robberies to a bunch of the truckers deciding they wanted a little playtime with their waitress… although if she was honest that last one wasn’t so much something she dreaded per se. She knew it wasn’t going to happen, of course. But maybe because she knew it wasn’t going to happen, her mind kept drifting to it.
“There you are!” One of her new coworkers, Sandra, waved her over as she got into the employee’s break room. “I’ve been waiting.”
Chloe glanced at the clock, confused. “I was told to come in at ten.”
Sandra’s cheeks colored. “Oh! Oh, um…” She hunched over some papers on the table and let out a short huff. “I told Bill to tell you nine-thirty. We have a lot to go over and the other girls are off at ten. I guess you’re just going to have to learn quickly.”
Sandra peered at her anxiously, as though she was afraid that Chloe might be angry with her. Seeing her so off-guard put Chloe off-guard and she blushed, too, stammering out a few words to let her know it as all okay.
A red-haired woman stepped into the break room, rubbing her hands off on her tan-colored apron. She stopped when she saw Chloe, but a shy smile quickly spread over her face. “Oh, you must be the new girl. I’m Angela.”
“Bill told her ten, not nine-thirty,” Sandra said.
Angela’s face twisted into a frown. “Figures. Well, if you want to get into your uniform, I can show you the ropes while Sandra takes care of those hungry, hungry men.”
Chloe swallowed hard. “I thought I was going to be the cook?”
“Did Bill tell you that?” Sandra scowled fiercely. “We normally all just take turns waiting on tables and going back to cook. You might not be able to tell, but all of us girls working here have severe social anxiety. Bill seems to think that shy girls have happier customers. Or maybe we just don’t confront him when he screws up our paychecks.”
Chloe’s stomach curled in on itself. She’d only taken the job because she thoug
ht that, even though there would be people around, she’d be safely hidden away in the back!
She didn’t argue, though. There was time for that later, especially as Sandra assured her that she had been preparing for a night on the floor. So, while she went out and helped the other girl at the end of her shift, Miriam, fill coffees and take orders, Angela took Chloe into the back. A woman with her hair in a net and a heavy apron moved about the kitchen, keeping her eye on several pans.
“Jamie, this is Chloe,” Angela introduced. “I’m just showing her around until the end of her shift—Bill told her ten.”
Jamie smiled a brighter smile than the other two had. “Well, the night shift is a good time to learn the ropes.”
“I’m only able to work nights,” Chloe replied automatically, her heart jumping to her throat. “I have a skin condition. I can’t go into the sunlight.”
It wouldn’t kill her to be touched by the sun. At least not instantly. An hour of direct exposure at noon was enough to put her out entirely and two hours would make her deathly ill. Three and it was all over for her. Mornings and evenings she had a little more leeway. Full moons were also pretty rough. Trying to work a dayshift, with sunlight coming through the windows? It’d almost certainly end with her lying dead on the floor. If blood madness didn’t set in first.
Jamie and Angela both looked at her strangely, but neither of them commented on it. Angela showed her around the kitchen and explained how things worked. It ended up with Jamie and her both having to stay an extra half-hour. Chloe was fairly certain she’d know what to do from here on out, though. She hadn’t had any formal cooking training, but she’d always loved to play around on the stove. She had even catered a few weddings, back before everything blew up in her face.
The first couple hours on shift were busy, with Sandra having to jump back to help her figure out how to work this piece of equipment or that, but the truckers all seemed happy and by one in the morning, it had trickled off to mostly people stopping in to use the restroom and get some coffee.
“That wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” Chloe mentioned after Sandra coaxed her out of the kitchen to take one order and do all the cash transactions. “If things stay at this pace, it’ll be nice.”
“Generally, there’s another rush at around three and then five,” Sandra told her. “In the meantime, we can get a lot of cleaning and restocking done. That’s the big reason Bill has two of us on at night. Never mind that local bylaws say that there must always be at least two workers on an overnight shift for safety reasons. He tried to get us to do one at a time but found next day profits were down because nothing was prepared.”
Chloe nodded, not sure how else to respond.
“Oh and, uh…” Sandra flushed red as she shifted on the spot. “Since the diner’s closed on Sundays, all us waitresses like to gather up at the library and have a book club. If you’re interested in joining.”
It was Chloe’s turn to blush. For someone with social anxiety, Sandra was pretty quick to warm up to her. Before she could think of whether that was a good idea or not—having friends sounded nice but how was she supposed to be friends with people who she had to hide a huge part of herself from?—the door opened again.
And a terribly familiar face walked in.
Sly Yarbo’s eyes widened when they landed on her, and she felt the blood drain from her face. She turned and dashed into the back, her heart pounding and her hands going cold. She couldn’t draw in enough air.
Why was he here of all places?
If there was anybody who knew she was a vampire that she didn’t want around, it was him. The wolf shifter who hated vampires something terrible. When they’d met before, he hadn’t outright said that she ought to be killed but it was obvious that was his opinion. Now, he was back. Had he followed her here?
A hand touched her, and she flinched violently back only to find it was Sandra, peering at her anxiously.
“Sorry,” Chloe mumbled, wiping the sweat from her brow. “That man…” She had to have a good lie to cover her tracks, didn’t she? She couldn’t explain the truth. “He looks like someone I used to know. A… an old boyfriend of my sister’s.”
“Oh. That’s Sly, he’s—”
“Not the guy,” Chloe was quick to say. She forced herself to straighten. “The man I’m thinking of is dead.”
She could see that Sandra was dying to ask but held herself back. For that, Chloe was very grateful. She had no wish to go over the horrible events that happened with Erica before she met her current mate and love of her life. Especially not with Sly out there.
“Well, Sly doesn’t do much talking and he doesn’t come around much,” Sandra said comfortingly. “So don’t worry. If he makes you uncomfortable, one of us other girls will be able to handle him. He and about eleven other wolf shifters showed up about five years ago. They live up in the mountains. ‘Round here we like to call them the Wolf Shifters of Devil Mountain. They’re all loners and a little grumpy.”
There were more of them? Chloe worked hard to keep the despair off her face. “From what I know, most wolves are like that. My sister’s a shifter,” she added at Sandra’s raised brow, “so I’m a little familiar with the community.”
Sandra laughed. “I know about wolves. I’m one, too.”
Chloe blushed brilliantly and stammered out an apology. “I didn’t mean to tell you more about yourself than—”
“No, it’s okay. You’re right. Wolves tend to be grumpy loners, at least the males. I’d better go take Sly’s order, though. Are you okay?”
Chloe nodded. Even though it was a lie. Even though she had no idea what this meant for her—and if her move had all been for nothing after all.
Chapter Two
How the fuck did a vampire end up in his town, his territory, without him knowing about it? He glowered at the diner from where he sat in his truck across the road. He thought he’d had his fill of vampires. Years ago, he was the head of a military operation called the Howling Ops. Their mission had been to infiltrate a terrorist organization called the Pack and help bring about its downfall. They had been ultimately successful but not without losing people.
And it was there that Sly learned about vampires. Disgusting, blood-sucking parasites that scuttled around in the accursed dark, making shadowy deals and stealing people away in the dead of night. They’d made deals with the terrorists and gladly upheld their end of the bargain of spreading fear among civilian populations.
A growl ripped from his throat. It hadn’t taken much digging to find out that Chloe Bennet had been living in Deville for almost a week. She’d gotten a job at the diner, rented a place by herself several miles outside of town, almost halfway to his place. In a town where everything was always talked about, how had he missed this?
The side door to the truck opened and his second-in-command, Devon Klein, slipped in. His chest was bare, a bundle of clothes at his hip speaking to the fact that he’d shifted forms to run out here faster. Winding gravel roads weren’t conducive to speed, after all. Devon rolled his shoulders and jerked his head toward the diner.
“She in there, then?”
Sly nodded once. Anger welled up in him. It wasn’t bad enough that the things he’d seen and done while undercover were forever haunting him. Why were the vampires coming after him here?
“Might be just coincidence,” Devon said doubtfully.
Sly snorted. “And I’m the sugar plum fairy. It’s no coincidence. She had to know that we were here. You should have seen the look on her face when I came in. She’s planning something. I know she is.”
Devon hummed as he drummed his fingers against the dashboard. “So, are you going to kill her?”
There was something rather enticing about the idea. Just off her before anybody could get hurt by her vampire wiles. She was going to hurt or kill eventually. It was just what vampires did. Whatever humanity they had was destroyed the instant that venom swept through their veins. They might be able to
do a farce of humanity, but they were all just waiting for their taste of blood.
The problem with that, though, was that his old military contacts knew he was here and they’d for sure know that Chloe was here, too. Or at least, they’d know soon enough. Her sister worked with them, after all. And so, if he killed her, then they’d know it was him.
“Killing her isn’t an option until she proves herself a threat and kills someone else,” Sly growled, hating that his hands were so tied. “And I’m not waiting for that. What I want to know is why the fuck I have to walk into the diner to find out there is a vampire in Deville. What’s the point of living in a small town if the boys aren’t even taking interest in what happens?”
Devon smirked at that. “You mean like you? I haven’t seen you off your property in, oh, a month. Maybe if you came to town a little more often, you’d have heard this was happening.”
Sly growled. “You telling me you knew about this and didn’t tell me?”
“I haven’t left my property in two months. I’m just saying that you can’t reasonably be angry at the fellas for doing the exact same thing as you do.”
Sly glowered at the diner for another moment. Devon had a point, as much as he hated to admit it. It didn’t make the anger bubbling in his chest any easier to deal with, though. They needed to deal with this and fast, otherwise, things were going to get very messy very quickly. He turned on the truck and slammed his foot on the gas, peeling out of the parking lot. Devon grabbed the dashboard to stop himself from getting his head smashed through the window.
“Calm the fuck down, will you?” he snarled at Sly. “Unless killing me is part of your plan?”
“Put on your fucking seatbelt.”
Devon growled under his breath but did put on the seatbelt, then caught Sly’s phone when he tossed it to him. “Call the others and tell them to meet at my place. We’re going to figure out how to deal with this.”
Soon enough, the wolf shifters of Devil Mountain were gathered. Sly glanced over the eleven faces that stood in a semi-circle just outside his little log cabin—it wasn’t big enough to hold all of them. The crescent moon cast a silvery light that was overpowered by the yellow lights of his front porch.
Kidnapped by the Wolves Page 1
