Lone Wolf

by Anna Martin

  He’d never forget the terror of seeing flames through the windows on the mezzanine, knowing it would be minutes more before the fire engines turned up. Then he saw people running for the exit, and for a split second, he’d thought he was going to have to confront them himself.

  And he’d do it for Jackson, because according to every instinct he had, Jackson was in the building and hurting.

  This was the bond Jackson had tried to get him to feel. Leo had never felt so in tune with Jackson before, so close to his every emotion. So he knew Jackson was filled with panic and pain.

  Instead Detective Park had arrived with her team, and Leo didn’t wait for any instructions. He ran for his soul mate.

  Jackson reached over from the hospital bed and cupped Leo’s cheek in his hand, brushing his thumb over Leo’s lips.

  “I love you so much,” he croaked.

  “I love you too. Please don’t hate me for making you stay here.”

  Jackson pouted. He was pretty high on painkillers, the strong stuff that could actually relieve some of his pain. “I don’t hate you.”

  A doctor pushed through the door, clutching Jackson’s notes.

  “Mr. Lewis?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  She was a sweet Latina woman in her midthirties who had a no-nonsense attitude and an expertise in werewolf medicine. When Leo thought about it, he figured the two skills were probably developed together.

  “Okay. You have a concussion and two fractured ribs. It looks like a couple of your teeth have been knocked loose, but they should be okay. Make an appointment with your dentist to follow up in a couple of weeks, and if anything feels like it’s going to fall out, get an emergency appointment. It’s probably a good idea to stick to soft foods for the next few days too.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She turned to Leo. “You’re his partner?”

  “Soul mate,” Leo corrected.

  She nodded. “He’s going to need a lot of TLC, but he’ll be fine. No permanent damage.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. I’ll leave you with a prescription, Mr. Lewis.”

  “Can I go home?”

  She glanced at the clock. It was after 10:00 p.m.; it had taken time to get through all of the exams and X-rays.

  “I’d prefer to keep you in overnight for observation, but if you’ve got someone at home to keep an eye on you, that should be okay.”

  “I heal quick,” Jackson said with a winning grin. It would have been more effective if his face wasn’t already starting to swell and bruise, with crusted blood stuck to his lips from a cut that kept reopening.

  The doctor laughed. “I know. You’ll be fine in a few days.” She turned to Leo. “Keep an eye on him. Don’t let him sleep for at least another four hours. Make sure he takes the medication, even if he doesn’t want to. Any change in behavior, speech, or his ability to focus, bring him back right away. Understand?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Leo echoed softly.

  “I’ll get your discharge papers ready.”

  She shut the door behind herself, and Jackson sighed. “I really want to go home. I hate hospitals.” He considered his words for a moment. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” Leo said. “I would too if I were in your position.”

  Leo’s phone buzzed, and he quickly pulled it from his pocket. They were still waiting to hear from Detective Park, but Detective Hodgeson had already said that they were making a series of arrests of people involved in the Human Protection League. The fire had been contained in the brewery, and the fire department was making sure there was no structural damage. They’d call the insurance assessors in the morning, but Leo was hopeful that there wouldn’t be too much of a delay in the grand reopening of the Lone Wolf Brewery and Bar.

  “We made the news,” Leo said with a short laugh as he skimmed through his messages.

  “Hmm?”

  “Local news is already reporting on the fire and the arrests.” Leo shook his head. “This is crazy.”

  “They’re the fucking crazy ones.” Jackson sounded tired. Leo put his phone down and looked at him properly. He was clearly exhausted, not just physically beat-up but emotionally drained.

  So much had changed in the past few weeks. Leo’s gradual move into the condo had been easy, and it felt like a natural step in their relationship. Most importantly to Leo, Jackson seemed happy. Leo knew he’d taken a few trips to shift and run outside of the city, and when Leo had pressed him about it, Jackson had said it was good. He liked being closer to his family, and he liked being able to throw himself into his work. All of a sudden everything had clicked into place.

  “Hey, Jackson?”

  “Yeah?”

  Leo felt his heart thump as Jackson tipped his head to the side and fixed his gorgeous eyes on Leo’s.

  “I felt it.”

  Jackson just blinked at him.

  “The bond,” he clarified. “At least, I think I did.”

  “You did?” Jackson said, struggling to sit up. Leo put a hand to his shoulder and pushed him back down.

  “M-hmm. Right here.” Leo pressed his knuckles to his belly. “When I pulled up outside the brewery. It felt like… like you were screaming at me. But I felt it instead of hearing it.”

  Jackson huffed a laugh. “Yeah. That sounds right.”

  Leo let Jackson grab his hand and bring it up to his split lips.

  “I just can’t believe it took a life-or-death situation for me to find it.”

  “It’s always been there,” Jackson murmured, brushing kisses over Leo’s wrist. “I promise.”

  Leo leaned in to kiss his bruised lips, just gently. “I know.”

  “My soul mate,” Jackson said.

  “My soul mate,” Leo agreed.

  More from Anna Martin

  Joe Fitzgerald hates New Orleans, but he’s stuck there until he convinces one stubborn local family to sell Lumière, the crumbling French Quarter restaurant they’ve owned for generations. The place is a wreck, and it’s hemorrhaging money. Joe figures he’s their best chance for survival.

  Remy Babineaux despises Pineapple Joe’s and everything the chain stands for. He refuses to let Lumière become some tacky corporate tourist trap. Theme drinks and plastic beads in his restaurant? Yeah, right. Over his dead, rotting corpse. The last thing Remy wants is a meeting with the restaurant chain’s representative, but his father agreed to at least listen to the proposal. There’s nothing Remy can do about it.

  Remy figures an anonymous hookup is exactly what he needs to decompress. When he ends up across the table from his fling the next morning, real sparks fly. Joe refuses to give up his prime location; Remy refuses to give up his legacy. It’s war, and they’re both determined to win at any cost. Neither of them counted on falling in love.

  When you realize you want to marry your best friend at age six, life should follow a pretty predictable path, right? Maybe not.

  As a kid, Evan King thought Scott Sparrow was the most amazing person he’d ever met. At seventeen, his crush runs a little deeper, and nothing seems simple anymore. Scott is more interested in football and girls than playing superheroes, and Evan’s attention is focused on getting into art school. A late-night drunken kiss is something to be forgotten, not obsessed over for the next ten years.

  When life suddenly brings them back together, it doesn’t take much for the flame Evan carried for Scott nearly all his life to come roaring back, and Evan discovers that life sometimes has a strange way of coming full circle.

  This is not your average love story.

  Ben Easton is not your average romantic hero. He’s a tattooed, badass, wannabe rock star, working in a perfectly horrible dive bar in Camden Town. His life is good, and he’s totally unprepared for how one man will turn it upside down.

  Stan isn’t your average heroine. As a gender-fluid man, he proudly wears his blond hair long, his heels sky-high, and his makeup perfectly executed. A fashion industry prodigy, Sta
n is in London after stints working in Italy and New York City, and he quickly falls for Ben’s devil-may-care attitude and the warm, soft heart Ben hides behind it.

  Beneath the perfect, elegant exterior, Stan has plenty of scars from teenage battles with anorexia. And it only takes the slightest slip for his demons to rush back in while Ben is away touring with his band. With the band on the brink of a breakthrough, Ben is forced to find a way to balance the opportunity of a lifetime with caring for his beautiful boyfriend.

  After growing up in a rough part of town, George Maguire worked his way out of Manchester and to a career as a design engineer. Alexander van Amsberg, an architecture student at the University of Edinburgh, wasn’t the sort of guy he normally had explosive, hotel-room one-night-stands with. Alex was charming, classy, and, as George later learns, Prince of the Netherlands.

  Fate brings them together again, and Alex makes sure to get his sexy stranger’s phone number this time. Despite all the reasons why they shouldn’t work, something clicks, and Alex thinks that this time, he might have found the right guy. But Alex’s aristocratic ex stirs up trouble in the press for George and his humble family, and Alex realizes he has to get real about having a boyfriend from the wrong side of town.

  While George acknowledges his modest upbringing, he doesn’t let anyone insult his family. Life’s no fairy tale, and regardless of his royal title, Alex might destroy his one chance for happily ever after.

  Cooper Reed has a fairly relaxed life for someone who lives in LA. He’s no celebrity—just the guy who makes sundaes at the Dreamy Creamery, and that’s the way he likes it. The highlight of every week is the beautiful guy who turns up and orders a sundae with rainbow sprinkles. Cooper still isn’t sure if that’s a code, because he has a huge crush and the hot guy is terrible at flirting.

  Drew Tanner, it turns out, is an original California dreamer. He’s as wholesome as apple pie and twice as sweet, a real-life Disney Prince at Disneyland. But while Drew’s head is in the clouds, Cooper’s feet are firmly on the ground, and their different outlooks might be more than their new relationship can take.

  Readers love Anna Martin

  Rainbow Sprinkles

  “Rainbow Sprinkles is a cute little micro-sized keeper of a story that’s guaranteed to leave you smiling.”

  —All About Romance

  “Anna Martin has created two lovable characters who fumble their way into your heart and leave behind a sweet memory of old-fashioned romance.”

  —The Novel Approach

  The Impossible Boy

  “…a beautiful story about the importance of acceptance and the power of love. Consider this one strongly recommended.”

  —Joyfully Jay

  “Bottom line, I highly recommend this book. It’s my favorite Anna Martin to date, and Stan and Ben are two of my all-time favorite characters.”

  —Gay Book Reviews

  Five Times My Best Friend Kissed Me

  “I highly recommend this to all lovers of MM romance, and if you love slow burn, there’s very few that are more slow burn than this one, but are so worth the wait when the sparks ignite!”

  —Hearts on Fire Reviews

  “The chemistry between Scott and Evan is very well written and I just had a great time reading this book in one sitting. I hope you enjoy this fun, lovable story.”

  —Three Books Over the Rainbow

  ANNA MARTIN is from a picturesque seaside village in the southwest of England and now lives in the Bristol, a city that embraces her love for the arts. After spending most of her childhood making up stories, she studied English literature at university before attempting to turn her hand as a professional writer.

  Apart from being physically dependent on her laptop, Anna is enthusiastic about writing and producing local grassroots theater (especially at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where she can be found every summer), going to visit friends in other countries, and reading anything that’s put under her nose.

  Anna claims her entire career is due to the love, support, prereading, and creative ass-kicking provided by her best friend Jennifer. Jennifer refuses to accept responsibility for anything Anna has written.

  Website: annamartin-fiction.com

  Twitter: @missannamartin

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/annamartinfiction

  Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/5251288.Anna_Martin

  By Anna Martin

  Cricket

  Five Times My Best Friend Kissed Me

  The Impossible Boy

  Jurassic Heart

  Kid Gloves

  Les faits accomplis

  Lone Wolf

  My Prince

  Rainbow Sprinkles

  Signs

  With Tia Fielding: Solitude

  Summer Son

  Tattoos & Teacups

  ANOTHER WAY…

  Another Way

  Of Being Yours

  To Say I Love You

  With M.J. O’Shea

  JUST DESSERTS

  Macarons at Midnight

  Soufflés at Sunrise

  Devil’s Food at Dusk

  Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS

  www.dreamspinnerpress.com

  Published by

  DREAMSPINNER PRESS

  5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA

  www.dreamspinnerpress.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Lone Wolf

  © 2018 Anna Martin.

  Cover Art

  © 2018 Garrett Leigh.

  http://blackjazzpress.com/

  Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.

  All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.

  Digital ISBN: 978-1-64080-795-2

  Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-64080-796-9

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2018940720

  Digital published October 2018

  v. 1.0

  Printed in the United States of America