by Leila Brown
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Epilogue
Loose Id Titles by Leila Brown
Leila Brown
Solstice Heat
Leila Brown
www.loose-id.com
Solstice Heat
Copyright © December 2010 by Leila Brown
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eISBN 978-1-60737-909-6
Editor: Maryam Salim
Cover Artist: Anne Cain
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Published by
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This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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* * *
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Chapter One
“You did what?”
Jason pretended not to hear as Donovan’s voice thundered over the sound of the quiet music he’d started playing in the background. He’d been cleaning the house all morning—not to mention trying to move things so it looked inviting. On the former, he thought he’d done an excellent job, but the latter was an entirely different thing. Hell, he probably shouldn’t have made the changes he had. He put it down to nerves. Nerves that he hadn’t felt since he was a young pup.
“Stop cleaning and tell me you did not just invite some stranger up here in the hope of mating with her?” Donovan’s voice echoed around the room with his barely leashed power buffeting the walls.
“She is not a stranger.” He’d been talking to her online for almost three months now. And yes, he’d asked her to visit to see how they’d suit. If things turned out like he planned, he would take her to the solstice ceremony and turn her. If he changed her before she knew what they were, he’d be trapping her in their world, but he couldn’t tell her and give her a choice. Their pack had very serious laws about outsider knowledge. Anyone who knew was either turned or killed. A policy he’d instituted after the locals started telling tourists the tales of the Climax werewolves.
“And if she doesn’t want to be turned?” Donovan moved around and stood in front of Jason’s wheelchair.
“Why do you think she’s coming early?” Jason pushed the wheels forward, bumping into Donovan. “Do you think I’m into torture? She’ll be the first woman—the first fuckable woman—I’ve been alone with since the accident. Well, alone and in any condition to do something about it.”
“Why couldn’t you just pick one of the women from the pack? Any number of them would gladly move in here and take care of you.” Donovan stepped back as Jason hit him with the chair again.
“Really?” Jason angled his head up to stare at Donovan. “Name me one woman in the pack who wouldn’t either see bedding me as a duty or as a means of gaining status. Name me one woman who wouldn’t look at me with pity in her eyes instead of longing. One woman who would look at me and see the man I am and not the man I was.”
Donovan opened his mouth, then closed it. He looked up and to the right as if he mentally went through the list of every emotionally free female of the pack. He opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again and raised a hand, but after he caught Jason’s eyes, lowered it.
“Exactly. I’m getting a new start here. I have no intention of letting you or anyone else ruin it for me. So you’re either with me or against me. If you’re with me, great. If you’re against me, get the fuck out.” He knew his old beta well. Donovan might question his choices, might even throw up some alternatives, but in the end he always had his back. Just like Jason had his, even when it had cost him his legs.
* * *
“You have arrived at your destination.”
The small mechanical voice droned on as Giovanni Odell looked up at the large, ranch-style house in front of her. She gazed down the wooded drive, wondering if she had been too rash in her decision to come up here. The costs of the flight and rental car were nominal—not even worth the thought—but coming here without backup and without telling her sister where she was going? Not one of her brighter ideas.
No. If she’d told Celestine where she was going, then she would have had to admit to monitoring Celestine’s online activities. Although her sister was twenty-one, Gio had kept her sheltered from the type of man who’d invited—no, demanded—she come up here. Even though Gio had busted her butt to send Cel to an all-girls high school and all-girls college, somehow Cel had fallen into e-mailing an online predator.
Her blood boiled at the thought of what could have happened. Gio released a pent-up sigh and got out of the car. Time to pull up her big-girl panties and deliver a smackdown.
Gio’s anger built with every step she took. She kept repeating that this could have been Cel. Her baby sister. She replayed images of Cel growing up through her mind until she could barely hold back her anger, until it was a writhing, seething mass just below her skin. She drew in a deep breath, then rang the doorbell.
Soft, calming music wafted through the door. There was no doubt in her mind now. The door opened, and she saw red.
The man in the doorway stared up at her from just below her breasts. Gio took stock of him. He was a large, muscled man with dark hair and a defined five o’clock shadow. She watched him survey her from the bottom of her toes on up. His gaze rested on her hips, then moved to her breasts and finally hit her eyes. The male appreciation she saw there did nothing to calm her temper. Instead it inflamed her, helped her put aside all the sympathy the wheelchair could have invoked. It wasn’t like she didn’t know that pervs came in all shapes and sizes. Did he use the wheelchair to elicit sympathy before he pounced on young women?
He wheeled back. “Please come in.”
This would be quick. She would tell him exactly what she thought of him and his little lure for barely legal girls; then she was going to stop at the nearest police station before going home.
She stepped over the threshold, looked to the left, and saw another man. Every ounce of control she’d been holding on to swept away. “I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing—inviting young women up here to such a remote cabin. Did you think Cel didn’t have a family? That no one would miss her? You jackass!”
She took a step toward him. He wheeled backward for each step she took forward. He would run out of space first.
“Holy shit!” A large African American man who’d been
sitting on a black leather couch farther in the room, stood. The muscles in his arms were almost as large as her calves. She needed to keep her eye on him.
“Oh, so you thought you would bring my little sister up here with your sad story about being in a wheelchair and do some type of gang bang?” She advanced on the guy whose picture she’d found in the last e-mail, determined not to give him any sympathy because he was in a wheelchair. He didn’t deserve any.
“Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but if you…” The guy’s words trailed off as Gio bent and put her face just a few short inches from his.
“Don’t lie to me. I saw the e-mails you sent my sister. You should have made her get her own e-mail account instead of using mine.” She hissed before pushing his chair back with her right foot.
“Look, I don’t know who you are, but if you’d wait a second and talk to us like a rational—” The second guy put his hand on her shoulder. Surprise lit his face as she grasped his hand and yanked hard. He landed on the ground with a hard thud.
She wasn’t a lightweight, and she’d taken enough self-defense courses that she could handle herself. Not to mention the small can of mace in her pocket. She was going to say her piece, and they were going to listen. She was still holding the guy’s wrist as he went to sit up. She twisted until he grimaced, and then stared down at him.
“Stay down.”
As those words left her mouth, she watched the guy in the wheelchair move. More like twitch. He growled at her. Actually growled, like an animal. Then suddenly he was an animal. She saw the change with her own eyes. His hair spreading like a rippling wave, the bones in his face cracking and moving under his skin. It seemed to happen in slow motion, but some part of her brain knew only seconds had ticked by. She tried to swallow, but her throat wouldn’t cooperate, and her scream died before it reached her lips. The beast was now at least two times as large as the man.
“What are you?” She dropped the downed man’s hand and backed away.
The animal crawled out of the chair. He watched like he would love to pounce and cut the distance between them, but with his hind legs out of commission, that wasn’t an option. Instead he stalked her. His body appeared normal, or what she thought a regular wolf should look like. His back legs even seemed ordinary, until you noticed that one hung a bit off the ground. Most of his weight had to be on his front legs. Shit. None of that mattered; what mattered was that he was blocking the exit.
“Jason, don’t…” the downed man said.
“Hold him!” she screamed, then shrank down as the wolf’s attention snapped to her. She’d stopped moving backward and inched along the wall, toward the door. The black leather couch and a matching chair were the only things in her way.
The wolf growled at her again. He crouched, and instead of springing on her, he raced along the floor and knocked her down. Before she could move an inch, those large jaws were on her shoulder. She watched them clamp around her flesh and closed her eyes, trying to prepare herself for the skin-rending pain. She counted to three, but when the awful pain didn’t tear her apart, she opened her eyes. Tears slipped down her face, but she couldn’t let the fear roaring through her take hold. If she moved, if those sobs eked out, her entire body would shake, and she would impale herself on his teeth.
“I’m sorry. Please let me go. Please let me go. Please let me go.” Fear made her voice tiny, as if anything too loud would cause him to jerk. Just one more way he could turn her shoulder into a chew toy.
“Don’t move,” the other man said, coming up beside the wolf.
“No shit, sherlock. Tell me something I hadn’t already figured out.” She was scared, not stupid.
The wolf at her ear let out a growl that vibrated against her skin as he tightened his teeth around her. The points felt like tiny pinpricks. She didn’t think they’d broken flesh yet, but the slightest movement from either of them would do it.
“You need to stop challenging him. Let your body go limp. He won’t let go if you don’t submit,” the other man said.
Submit? Was he crazy? She was supposed to lay here like a rag doll while a wolf ripped her to shreds? She lifted her head slowly, trying to catch the man’s gaze, but was rewarded with the sight of the other man’s naked body contorting and shrinking until he was a big black wolf with electric blue eyes.
Was she going crazy? Please let her be going crazy! The brown wolf growled as the black one bobbed his head and let out a high-pitched whine. There had to be a way out of here. If she pulled away from him… Then what? Even though his back legs hadn’t moved, he was still faster than any animal she’d seen before.
Time to face facts. She was in deep shit here. Even if she managed to get away from them, they were going to kill her. They couldn’t allow her to go to the authorities. Officer, those two men can shift into wolves, and they tried to eat me. That would only earn her a one-way ticket to the loony farm. So as far as options went, she didn’t have any, except…
Submit. The rank taste of bile filled her mouth as she thought of submitting to this beast. Hell, she’d always assumed if she was ever put in a life and death situation, she’d want to go out fighting. But faced with a gruesome and painful death, she found she couldn’t do it. She took in a deep breath, which just pushed those teeth farther into her shoulder. Pain flashed hot along her skin, but she did her best not to react. She let the tension drain out of her and bowed her head in sickening submission.
Chapter Two
Jason shook his head as he watched the woman scramble into his bedroom and lock the door. He concentrated on slowing the rapid rise and fall of his chest. The urge to run powered through him. It seemed his body didn’t understand he couldn’t run without those two back legs.
Donovan keened beside him. He needed to shift. Donovan wouldn’t shift back until he did. The wolf in him balked at the push to shift. It was going to take him a few minutes to overcome the urges the wolf was feeling. The need to run being foremost. He hadn’t run since it happened. Hell, with only two good legs and one slimmed down shadow of a leg, he doubted he could run. He’d most likely fall flat on his face if he tried. The wolf whimpered in his head. Jason concentrated on the door in front of him, staring at the wood until his vision started to blur, until he couldn’t hear his inner wolf anymore. Then he took in a slow breath and shifted back.
He was lying on the floor…naked. Damn, he’d burst through his clothes. That was a puppy’s mistake. Not something a grown wolf did. He looked over at Donovan, who was shifting.
“You should’ve grabbed me some clothes before you shifted.” His voice was gruff, but Donovan smiled.
“I was actually busy trying to make sure you didn’t turn your guest prematurely.” Donovan stepped into his jeans and buttoned them, then pulled his shirt on. “Especially since I think she isn’t exactly what you expected.”
He was halfway right about that. She was exactly what her picture advertised. She had caramel brown skin that gave her a healthy glow and long dark brown hair that hung below her shoulders. Her mouth was deliciously full and definitely looked in need of some hard kissing.
Jason’s cock bobbed against his leg. Shit, he’d forgotten how exposed he was. He pulled himself back over to his chair. “I’ll be back.”
For a second, he was tempted to tell Donovan not to let the woman get away, but one look told him he didn’t need to bother. The woman had seen them shift—Actually, that wasn’t the biggest issue. No, not by a long shot.
The biggest issue was that he didn’t know if he’d bitten her. One bite from him in wolf form and it was possible she would start the change. He ran his tongue along his teeth and couldn’t taste her on his tongue. Maybe he hadn’t—
“Did you bite her?” Donovan asked from the doorway.
“I don’t know.” Jason pulled a shirt over his head. And that was the problem. He didn’t know.
“Well, what are you going to do?” Donovan turned toward the guest room. “She can’t go n
ow. You know that.”
“Yes, damn it. She can’t leave until we find out,” Jason muttered. His gaze followed Donovan’s.
“Not even then,” Donovan said slowly.
If she turned, maybe she could stay with the pack. One of the other males would swoop in and take her. His beast growled at the thought. If she didn’t turn, she was still a human who knew too much. And he was no longer in a position to offer her sanctuary. Which meant her life was forfeit. That was something he could not live with.
“Man, what the fuck did you do?” Donovan’s voice put sound to the words echoing in his head.
* * *
Gio sat on the bed, banging her hands against her head. This couldn’t be happening. She’d just had a mental breakdown. Men did not turn into wolves. Werewolves, shape-shifters, whatever they were did not exist except in books.
But they did. She’d had a close encounter with two. Shit. Shit. Shit.
