by Skye Jones
It neared my birthday, and Jake told me he’d love to make it extra special. He kept asking what I wanted, and I replied each time I didn’t know. I didn’t need anything more to make my life perfect. Then it hit me as I stood at the sink one morning, washing the coffee cups. One thing would make my life better: becoming Jake’s for good in the eyes of his people.
The man in question came up behind me and wrapped his big arms around me, giving me a warm hug. I turned around. “I know what I want for my birthday.”
“And what is it, baby?”
“I want to do this properly. Commit to the ceremony and bond with you in the eyes of your people.”
His face lit up, and he grinned huge and wide. His eyes turned icy blue, the way they did when he wanted me or felt a strong surge of love for me. His clear adoration floored me all over again.
Two weeks later, I stood in Brooke’s bedroom and looked at my reflection in her floor-length mirror. If I said so myself, I looked pretty good in my simple satin gown. It had spaghetti straps, a sweetheart neckline, and where it reached the floor, it gently swished the ground with a glamorous mermaid finish. It fit snug to my curves, and instead of hating them, for the first time in my life, I truly loved them. My hips swayed when I walked toward the mirror. The tummy I detested actually looked good all wrapped in thick paneled satin. I decided an architect designed this dress and made it especially for curvy girls. It flattered all the right places and disguised the bits I didn’t love.
“You look so stunning. Jake is going to have a hard-on all through the ceremony.”
“Brooke!” Izzy slapped her friend’s arm, and we all burst into giggles.
“Glass of champagne?” Brooke asked.
“I can’t.” Izzy smiled, and her cheeks flushed faintly.
“Why?” Brooke frowned, and then her face lit up. “Oh, my. Are you…?” She gestured at Izzy’s belly.
Izzy nodded, and tears glistened in her eyes. “I’m pregnant. Please don’t tell anyone. Louis is freaking out. He’s not sure what will happen. I’ve been consulting with Marissa, but the upshot is we don’t know how it will go or whether I’ll give birth to a human or a shifter. It’s been so long since shifters bonded with empathines and an age since one got knocked up.” She giggled then, and we followed suit.
I walked over to her and pulled her in for a hug. “Congratulations. I’m so pleased for you. And for Louis.”
My heart melted when I thought of how happy a child would make her tough, scarred warrior. Louis didn’t have any family left, and now with Izzy, he’d make one all of his own.
“Anyway…” Izzy looked at me. “I don’t want to take your limelight. This is your day.”
“Don’t be silly.” I waved my hand at her. “This is fantastic news. I think we can have more than one happy event in any given twenty-four hours.”
“Hey, where are you?”
I squealed and clapped my hands at Gemma’s voice. Gemma, my mum, and Laura were all here for the ceremony. Of course, only Laura understood what this day truly represented. My mum and Gemma wouldn’t know the red wine Jake and I shared was actually one another’s blood. The pack had tweaked the ceremony in order for my little family to be able to attend, to my eternal gratitude. I didn’t want them to have to attend a different ceremony at a later date, as had happened with others, and Jake’s father had relented. So we’d changed things enough to fit in with human and shifter expectations.
“Look at you.” Mum stood in the doorway, and her eyes glittered with happiness. “You’re stunning. Absolutely gorgeous.”
I ran to her and hugged her tight. The one cloud marring the perfection of this day contained thoughts of how to deal once it became apparent I’d stopped aging.
I’d discussed it ad nauseam with Brooke and Izzy. But they didn’t have the same issues I did. Izzy pretty much turned her back on human life. Her friends had drifted away after the attack on her by one of their number. It seemed victim blaming was alive and kicking. She only saw her aging, alcoholic father now and kept in touch with her best friend, Cindy, online. Brooke remained convinced some sort of mix of science and wolfen magic would solve the problem, so she refused to worry about it for the moment.
With determined effort, I pushed my worries away and focused on all the good in the here and now. This day was too precious to ruin with worry.
Laura sauntered into the room, and my jaw dropped. She wore the sexiest damn dress I’d seen. If this didn’t snag Boyd’s attention, nothing would. She grinned and tossed me a wink. Gemma brought up the rear, looking lovely as always in a pale gold, hippie style dress with a white headband wrapped around her hair.
Glasses of champagne were passed around, and we all sipped at the lush fizz and chatted until Drew appeared.
“Ladies, it is time.”
My mum took my arm. She wanted to hand me over to Jake. She’d been the only parent I’d ever relied on, and I loved her to bits. Jake promised me we’d visit her often in the city.
I trod carefully across the grass, not wanting to wreck the bottom of my dress, and paused to adjust the hem before the big doors of the communal hall.
Drew gave me a massive grin and pulled the doors open. My heart stuttered.
At the front of the hall, in front of light streaming through the stained glass, stood Jake. He looked so handsome in the colored rays, the breath caught in my throat.
His eyes locked on me, and I saw so much in their depths. Love, lust, happiness, gratitude, and tenderness. The emotions were clear as day to me. And then he smiled and my heart soared.
“Ready, love?” Mum asked.
“Ready.”
She squeezed my arm, and I walked forward toward Jake.
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Keep on reading for a sneak peek at Boyd’s story, Wolf on the Run, the next in the Shifters of the Glen world. This is not fully edited and may change when published.
Prologue
Boyd
He stared out over the hills and valleys of his once beloved home, his wolf raging to run and not come back. Today, the spring woods were ripe with vibrant life. It flat out offended him, when everything he loved the most was dead.
In this form, running free as his wolf, he sometimes forgot his sorrow. If he ran far and fast enough, he liked to believe he might outrun the damn thing. But it always followed. A sharp, lingering grief that snapped and nipped at his ankles.
The wind howled in the trees, a spring storm brewing, and he wanted to join in and sing along with the mournful music, but he’d journeyed too close to the edge of their territory.
Normally, he ran for the sheer joy of it, but today, he ran away. The female he didn’t want to see was visiting their village. She’d taken a real shine to him. His wolf had sensed it before the man noticed the signs. His wolf also seemed to enjoy it, which pissed Boyd the man off to no end. They didn’t want or need female company, and his wolf needed to learn as much.
He’d failed his mate, and he didn’t deserve anyone else. His mind and heart, his very soul were still filled with her. His mate. The only female he’d ever wanted. The one whose death nearly killed him, too.
He flashed back to the day they’d buried her. So many years ago now, but the memory was still fresh in his mind. He’d stood by her plot in the woods and watched as they lowered her cloth-wrapped body into the ground. As they began to shovel dirt on top of her, he’d started to shake so badly his legs threatened to go from under him. About to keel over, he had become dimly aware of two bodies next to him, pressing in on him, holding him up. The scents of Adam, the pack leader, and his fellow enforcer, Louis, drifted around him, soothing him some.
Somehow, he’d gotten through the day without screaming and dropping to his knees to dig her out again, but he still carried the pain with him. In fact, many days he loathed being
left behind. Alive, but not living. Breathing, but not really existing.
A plastic bag blew by him, and he cursed humans for trashing even this pristine environment. For a moment, he watched the bag being buffeted to and fro by the wind. Then a thought struck him. He was like the bag. He let life knock him from one direction to the next. He had no plan. No purpose.
His wolf shook itself and huffed out a long breath, annoyed at his human brain ruining this moment. Normally, once in wolf form, a shifter found perfect symbiosis. Today, though, Boyd’s analytical mind kept interrupting their flow. It irritated his wolf, who gave a low yip and another fur shake. Fuck it. Boyd turned his mind off and let the wolf have free rein.
They would run for a long time. They needed to. The female wouldn’t be gone for another couple of hours, and Boyd didn’t need to be seeing her long hair and smooth skin and that big smile that could light up the dark Scottish nights better than any lamp.
Something to light up the night might be welcome soon—for something dark haunted the forest around their compound, and he sensed it growing stronger. He wasn’t sure if the rogues were gathering their forces or if something else stalked the edge of their world. Either way, he sensed a fight headed their way. The sensation reminded him of the moments before a storm—the momentary calm right before the vicious wind and howling rain.
A hare darted out of the forest right in front of him, and Boyd’s nose twitched, his worries forgotten for a moment. The hare froze and then turned tail and ran back into the undergrowth. Boyd didn’t even hesitate for a split second. He shot after the hare, nose following the animal’s scent.
The hunt was on.
Chapter One
The strong sense of foreboding tickled at my subconscious, making itself known as I sat and sipped at my tea.
“What’s wrong?” Cait asked.
I’d come to visit my friend Cait in her strange and wonderful new home among a wolf shifter pack. Ostensibly for a catch-up, however, this was the fourth time I’d visited in as many months. I worried she and her mate, Jake, were growing sick of me. But I couldn’t seem to keep away.
I loved being here with the pack. Felt at home more than I did back in my supposed real life.
Izzy and Brooke, two other human females with shifter mates, had also become friends. And on my last visit, we’d spent half the night laughing and gossiping.
The other reason for my regular visits was to see the man I’d been slowly falling for. The pack enforcer, who had become my sexual catnip. I dreamed about him and thought about him often. But it was the other dreams I’d been having that brought me here to visit this time. The weird dreams, full of a sense of danger, troubled me, and I needed to share them with Cait. In case they were a warning.
Of course, there was the added bonus that I’d possibly get to see Boyd, the hot shifter I crushed on, if I stayed for a while. Not that he’d seemed particularly interested in me when I’d been here before. Which took some getting used to.
I’d always been the pretty girl, according to friends at school, at least. I’d been born half Irish and half Greek. It meant I looked exotic. I used to be called Gypsy Rosa Lee as a teenager by idiots, but as I became a young woman, I saw the way men looked at me. In fact, I’d grown bored of their fawning. Then I’d met him, and he didn’t look at me twice. Now, with my accident and the weight gain, I was sure he’d be even less interested. But some masochistic streak in me needed to see him. So, here I was…again. Camping out in my best friend’s life like some sad loser.
My phone beeped, and I glanced at it and rolled my eyes.
“Crap. My landlady says my flat might take longer to sort than she thought. I might need to stay a few nights longer than planned.” I’d picked the perfect week to come visit Cait because the day before I left, my bloody flat flooded spectacularly due to a cracked pipe. “My parents are away on holiday, and Gem’s out of town.” I sighed and shrugged my shoulders. “Do you have something I can log online with? I’ll try to find a hotel if it will be an issue.”
“Oh, no. Don’t be silly.” Cait jumped up. “You’ll stay here with us as long as you need. There won’t be an issue, will there, Jake?” She turned to her stupidly handsome man and raised her eyebrows. “Laura knows what we are. She’s in on it. I can’t see why she can’t stay for an extended visit.”
I knew what they were, all right. I’d been let in on the secret of the wolf shifters and their pack in the Highlands once Cait had gotten together with Jake. Not because of our friendship but because of the rare instances of seeing glimpses of the future I experienced. I think they considered me a useful asset—and one they wanted to keep an eye on.
“Can’t see it being an issue.” Jake looked at me, and I knew in an instant he saw right through me and into my Boyd-obsessed heart. His cocky smirk made my stomach clench. I hoped he didn’t feel the need to share with Boyd.
At the mere thought of the big, hulking man, my stomach did its customary flip-flop. Crap. I had it so bad.
