by Jenny Penn
“What did happen to Sally?”
“Those idiots down there in Lake Adahy like to make up tales, but the truth is that she was abducted, tortured, raped.”
Daisy blinked that in, clearly not shocked but still left with only one question. “By who?”
“By what,” Mary May shot back, her thin little lips tensing as her gaze darted over Daisy’s shoulder. “You,” Mary May snarled, her gaze cutting back to Daisy as Tex quickly began shedding his clothes. “You brought that thing here.”
“Thing? What—Oh.”
* * * *
Daisy’s question died on her lips as she turned to find the white owl had appeared to claim a branch in the large cherry tree that spread its limbs wide over Mary May’s tailored yard. Daisy sighed. The damn thing was getting in her way. It had become quite clear that nobody was fond of the bird.
The warnings of all types of dangers that she’d heard throughout the day had left Daisy wondering if the crazy in Lake Adahy was contagious. Maybe it was something in the water. All she knew was that the bird scared the dickens out of everybody, and Daisy wasn’t the least bit surprised to see the woman hightail it back into her house.
She was shocked, though, when Mary May returned within seconds waving an old, very large shotgun in the air. Her frail-looking hands clutched it with a grip that betrayed the strength left in the old mountain woman. She was built of hardy stuff, and a really bad shot.
Instinctively, Daisy ducked as the damn thing went off. It sounded as if it had blown out a damn missile, and it certainly seemed as if one had gone off, given the damage the single blast had done. Pellets shattered in all directions, cutting in the tree limbs with sickening thuds that sheared chunks completely off.
“Whoa!” Daisy hollered, stumbling back and away from the crazy lady who was now aiming her gun right at her.
“Get!” Mary May hollered. “Go on! Get! Damn Turners! All turds bringing that damn bird here. Damned is what you are!”
She hollered that last bit after Daisy as she flew toward her car. She damn near tripped over her own feet as she rushed back down the path, only to fall completely over as an all-too-familiar black beast appeared from the woods. Out here in the bright light of day, the wolf looked larger, more frightening than in her dreams.
Despite the warning not to fear the wolves, Daisy couldn’t help but scream and duck as the wolf charged at her. It leapt over her and took off after Mary May, who went back into her cabin, screaming that she was getting her silver buckshot.
Daisy didn’t linger to find out if she did. Scrambling back to her feet, she hauled ass toward the small hatchback she’d spent as little money on as she could. That meant it was old and cranky, kind of like Mary May. Daisy found herself praying aloud to a God she’d never really believed in until that moment that she didn’t get shot between the shoulder blades or eaten alive as she made her hasty retreat.
Thankfully, her car started with the first crank. Then she was peeling out of the drive and burning rubber as the car fishtailed out onto the curved highway she’d taken up from the valley Lake Adahy had filled with its gleaming waters. Daisy could have gone for a swim in them she was sweating so badly.
She also happened to be trembling. Trembling bad enough that she had to pull over and take a moment. Daisy had just managed to get her breathing back to normal and her heart rate down to a non-life-threatening speed when the sound of a hand slapping against her roof had her jumping in her seat. She twisted to find herself caught by the sight of the most beautiful gray eyes and familiar face.
It’s him! The man from her dreams. Daisy felt her face flush as the erotic fantasy that had played out last night in her mind went scorching through it again. The things he’d done. The things they’d done, and they hadn’t been alone. There had been another man, another wolf.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” The guy smiled, a sensual twist of his lips that made Daisy’s heart trip back over itself. “You okay?”
Daisy honestly didn’t know. All she knew in that second was that she was flushing hot with a rush of lust so strong it left her almost completely incapable of speech. That had never happened before. Daisy wouldn’t have even expected herself to be capable of such a strong emotion.
In all of her twenty-seven years, she’d had only one boyfriend. That relationship had been more platonic, the sex a fumbling disaster that had left Daisy convinced that she was simply asexual. Of course, she’d never met a man like the one standing outside her window.
Dressed in jeans and a shirt that wasn’t even buttoned, the man could have made the statue of David jealous. He was that perfectly cut, just as he had been in her dreams. Daisy couldn’t help but stare at the tanned god watching her with a gaze that seemed to cut right through to her soul. She felt her cunt swell and soften as it began to ache, leaving her mumbling over a belated, flustered retort.
“I’m fine.”
“Yeah? Well, I wouldn’t suggest you linger here. It’s dangerous to park on the sides of these roads. People come down them way too fast,” the man warned her, sounding distinctly amused, and she got the sense that he knew exactly what she was thinking, but that was absurd. He’d have had to share her dream…Maybe he had, because there was no denying the spark of desire in the man’s brilliant eyes. Neither was there any denying the massive bulge being restrained by the zipper of his jeans.
He was turned on, and for some strange reason, that knowledge fueled Daisy’s own desires. That freaked her out more than anything.
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
Daisy swallowed hard, feeling like an idiot and certain she sounded like one, but she just couldn’t seem to find the words, or maybe it was that the words lingering on the tip of her tongue were all the wrong ones. After all, it just wasn’t done to ask a complete stranger if she could suck his cock, and when had she ever wanted to suck a cock?
“I better go.”
Daisy didn’t know if she was talking to the man or herself. All she knew was those words echoed through her head, triggering an instant reaction, and her foot shifted from the brake to the gas. Daisy’s car shot back out onto the road, and thankfully, there was nobody there because she hadn’t taken the moment to look. She did, however, glance into her rearview mirror, looking back at the man who had sparked such confusing feelings inside her, but he wasn’t there. He’d disappeared with unnatural quickness.
That was just about as unnerving as the ache in Daisy’s cunt. Even more unsettling was the fact that the sensation hadn’t died down in the least by the time she’d made it back to her cabin, even though it took her over thirty minutes to drive back down to Lake Loren. Frustrated by the entire situation, Daisy headed straight for the library, parking her car on the street and flying in to confront the startled librarian.
“Can I help⎯”
“Who are they?” Daisy cut her off, slapping her hands down on the counter and leaning into it as she warned the other woman, “And don’t tell me you don’t know who I’m talking about.”
“I can’t help you,” Gina shot back, hopping off her seat. “Now please leave.”
Daisy wasn’t going anywhere. Not without some answers. “Why can’t you tell me?”
“Because it’s forbidden,” the other women whispered, her eyes darting all around. “People down here…they don’t go to the mountain in the lake, not ever, and we never talk about what goes on out there.”
There was something more, something the other woman wasn’t telling her. Daisy pressed, taking a wild guess that she had a hunch was right. “But you’ve been out there.”
The flush that rose across the other woman’s cheeks was all the answer Daisy needed, but she still wasn’t expecting the response she got.
“You’re different.” Gina swallowed hard and glanced around before her tone dropped once again into a hushed whisper. “You’re bitten.”
Daisy didn’t need to know what she meant by that, but that still didn’t explain Gina’s
panic. “What happened out there?”
“Go yourself and find out.”
There would be no more answers coming from Gina. The girl turned and stormed off, leaving Daisy with little recourse but to take her advice. It was time to take a canoe ride across the lake.
Chapter 4
Daisy didn’t know what she was doing as she headed back to the lodge, but she felt driven forward. Even though the sun was fading from the sky, she insisted on taking one of the lodge’s canoes for a row across the lake to the mountain on the other side. She was running on instinct when she probably should have been running away, but where could she go where her dreams would not follow?
Nowhere.
So Daisy was going up the mountain. She felt drawn there, not just by the questions lingering in her head but also by the memories of the rapture that had consumed her dreams last night. It felt as if they had branded her soul, leaving her hungry for more, hungry for the lovers who had given life to so many fantasies. Just the memory of her dreams made Daisy’s heart ache and her cunt swell with a need she feared would never be satiated.
A need that would always drive her forward.
So she’d rowed herself across the lake to find her midnight lovers, and with every stroke of the paddle, Daisy questioned her own sanity. She’d lost it, and she was pretty certain she knew who had taken it. The white owl.
It sat perched on a limb of a tree that was half bent over the small cove Daisy’s canoe glided into. As she clamored out of the boat, it took off, guiding her into the shadows that were thickening fast now that the sun had dipped beneath the mountain’s ragged edge. She could sense something waiting in the shadows for her, something more than the owl, and knew that with that first step there would be no going back.
There already was no going back. Not for her.
Without more than a second’s hesitation, Daisy began to climb the mountain, allowing the owl to guide her through the deepening darkness. With each step, she felt as if she was coming closer to her destiny. The only question was what destiny?
Daisy was torn between visions of hot, sweaty, forbidden fun that left her whole body aching and the possibility of a horrific death that left her muscles tense. The conflicting emotions had her on the edge of anticipation when she finally scrambled up the peak of a hill. She stepped out onto a large, empty plateau overgrown with grass and thick with wildflowers that scented the air with a sweet fragrance.
The moon beginning to rise above the Devil’s Peak bathed the field in inviting shadows that had Daisy wandering out into the open as she felt as if she was stepping into a dream. She moved around in a daze until the weeds died out, and she stumbled into a dead patch that spanned around her in all directions. As she came to a stop within the middle of the square, the moon finally rose above the Devil’s Peak and cast its luminous rays down around her.
Within that sparkling light, buildings began to glimmer and take shape until the old, lost trading post grew out of the shadows all around her. That’s when she saw them, the ghostly apparitions of the men. They thickened into a mob that grew louder and more animated until, finally, a man with a familiar face stepped forward. It was Nathaniel Crockett, and she knew just what he wanted⎯her soul.
A terrorizing fear lanced through her as his boney hands reached out, and the cold, bitter touch of his fingers had her crying out as they wrapped themselves tightly around her arms. Then the wolves came. They crashed through the shadows as the shouts of men could be heard merging with the howls of the feral. Light crackled to life as torches were lit in a ring encasing the old town.
The bright glare snapped Daisy out of the trance she’d been caught in, and almost instantly she was running, fleeing into the night, not certain at all if she were running from something or toward it. She kind of suspected the answer was both.
* * * *
Brock smiled as he watched Daisy take off. She ran with a lithe grace that only highlighted the bounce of all her luscious curves. Those curves were made to be lost in, and that was just what Brock planned on doing as he took off after her. He was aware of Tex joining him in the hunt as the rest of the pack lit the torches that would keep the ghosts contained in their shadows.
That was their job tonight. His was to claim his mate and assure that her soul could never be snatched away by Crockett or his henchmen. Brock didn’t waste any more time thinking about those bastards. Instead, he focused all his attention on chasing down his mate.
This was going to be fun.
Brock knew he wasn’t the only one enjoying the chase. The sweet scent of Daisy’s arousal filled the night air, leaving no doubt that she wanted to be hunted, caught, claimed. It was a natural reflex, a primitive instinct that filled both predator and prey with the same rush of exhilaration, and one that couldn’t be denied.
He and Tex allowed Daisy to run free as they jumped and rolled for her, toying with her and enjoying the chase, even as their claws snagged her clothes. With each bound and leap, they shredded another length of fabric until she was running in tattered rags that left little to nothing to the imagination.
She was beautiful, and he was done waiting.
Giving in to the feral desires pounding through his veins, Brock made a tackle for his mate, leaping forward on four feet, only to land on two as he shifted into a man and took Daisy down. She rolled and quickly turned, her eyes rounding at the sight of him. To her credit, she didn’t cry out, but neither did she wait to see what Brock had in store for her.
Daisy scrambled quickly back up to her feet, losing the last of the shredded clothes still clinging to her. She took off with a renewed speed that put a smile on Brock’s face. The prey could run, but she’d never escape.
Brock felt his balls swell at that thought, his dick growing painfully longer as the need began to boil inside him. He took off, finding their mate had already been felled by Tex. She threw him off and was scrambling back up to her feet with stumbling steps forward that grew faster as she fled.
Shifting back into a wolf, Brock dogged her every step, nipping at Daisy’s heels and driving the scent of lust and want on her to ever-higher levels. The rich fragrance fueled Brock’s own lusts. He would have taken his mate to the ground right then if his brother hadn’t come sailing through the air to slam into him and throw him right off the hunt.
They wrestled as Daisy went running through the woods completely naked. Attacking full force, both wolves rolled around, biting and kicking and thrashing at each other until the panic set in as it dawned on Brock that he’d allowed his brother to distract him. He was hard and hurting, and his mate was getting away. While Brock’s blood was pounding and he’d have loved to battle it out with Tex, he’d much rather put his energy into fucking his mate stupid.
It was time to end the chase. It was past time, and Brock was past hard. His dick was swollen and hurting, ready to be fucked into the tight clench of his mate’s cunt. Now all he had to do was get Daisy ready to be fucked. Brock didn’t think that was going to be a problem.
* * * *
Daisy didn’t know what was going on. All she knew was this was real, real wolves, and there were wolves everywhere. They kept jumping and lunging at her, yet she didn’t have a single scratch on her. That might have been luck, but she sensed it was something more. They were toying with her, chasing her in circles and making her heart race, which only fueled the desire burning through her veins.
The truth was she wanted to get caught, and she didn’t know why she was running. That didn’t stop her from rushing through the forest. What did stop her with a fallen tree limb. Daisy didn’t see it in time and went tumbling over the rough-barked limb and into the pile of leaves covering the ground.
She was pinned almost instantly by a massive black wolf that flew over the rotted wood that had tripped Daisy up. The beast landed on top of Daisy, and she felt a strange sense of awareness as the wolf’s gray eyes caught and reflected the ethereal light of the stray rays that made it through the thick canopy ab
ove.
Then she was looking into the cut, chiseled features of the man from her dreams, from earlier that day, and he wasn’t alone. Daisy’s breath caught as another wolf came leaping over the fallen limb to land on two legs and then fall to his knees beside her as a man. Her logical mind told her none of this could be real, but then Daisy reasoned that if none of it was real, there was no harm in giving in to the surge of want that filled her.
Before the gray-eyed man could dip his head, hers lifted to seal whatever he’d been about to say with a kiss. At the first taste of him, a hot, wanton need gave birth to a forbidden lust that had her cunt melting.
Even if there was a reason not to give in, Daisy didn’t care. This felt too good to deny, especially when the man began kissing her back. His lips broke over hers, forcing them apart as his tongue invaded to claim her mouth in a kiss so carnal it set her blood boiling. He tasted like well-aged brandy, sweet with a burn that had her hands reaching up to grip his bare shoulders as he pressed her farther into the ground.
He felt so good above her, every naked inch. His body was hard, his skin smooth, his dick swollen and pressing deep into her stomach, making her cunt weep for more. There was no stopping the slow, grinding rolls of her hips as they began to move with a need that the man above her couldn’t mistake.
Neither did he deny her as he broke free of her kiss to begin to trail hot, suckling kisses down her neck. Daisy moaned and arched up into the nibbling bite he began to place across her chest. Her breasts swelled, the tips hardening into peaks that strained upward, desperate for attention. They seemed to draw his attention like a beacon.
Daisy found herself moaning once again as his warm, velvety lips broke over her nipple. The gasp that would have followed was stolen along with the air she needed to breathe as a second man claimed her mouth in a searing kiss that was just as hot, just as potent as the first.