Conquer Me (Sawtooth Shifters, #4)

by Kristen Strassel

  Table of Contents

  Conquer Me (Sawtooth Shifters, #4)

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Three Months Later

  Thank you!

  Celebrate Me | Chapter One

  Other books by Kristen Strassel:

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Likenesses to any people, living or dead, is purely coincidental. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please do so through your retailer’s “lend” function. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the author at kjstrassel@gmail.com

  Conquer Me, (Sawtooth Shifters, #4) Copyright 2015, Kristen Strassel

  Photography by Scott Hoover, Cover Design by Sotia Lazu

  Major Lowe is looking to the future.

  After six months in captivity, Major wants more than revenge on his captor. He needs to change the course of the Sawtooth Forest packs. All the she-wolves have been sold to the highest bidder, and the wolves are a generation away from extinction. Major has a true mate, but she belongs to someone else. He'll put everything on the line to make her his.

  Cass is trapped by her past.

  Being sold to a man who will never love her hurts, but it's even more painful when her husband's sworn enemy should be her true mate. Cass never accepted her fate, and when Major walks back into her life, she knows things must change. Not just for herself, but to ensure her daughter has a future full of love instead of fear.

  Cass must decide what's more dangerous—staying with her husband and guaranteeing the same fate for her daughter, or following her heart with Major.

  Note from Kristen:

  Thanks for reading Conquer Me! Cass and Major’s story is the fourth in the Sawtooth Shifters series. Book one, Forever Home, is available for free, so make sure to grab that if you haven’t already. Make sure to keep up with all news and releases, sign up for my newsletter! Enjoy Conquer Me!

  Chapter One

  Major

  Alphas didn’t follow the rules. Alphas broke the rules.

  Try telling my brothers that.

  “You’re fucking crazy, dude,” Shea scoffed. Like he should talk. He wore the souvenirs of his latest fight with the same pride a more civilized man would wear a tux; black eye, torn skin, and the satisfaction of walking away under his own power. Wounds healed a lot faster than pride. “If you go through with this, they’ll kill you.”

  “Yeah,” Xavier added. Technically my second in command, he never spoke out of turn. It was my favorite thing about him. “They won’t bother dragging out the torture next time. Your last meal will be your own ball sack.”

  “Ryker’s dead,” I reminded them with a growl. If these two weren’t my brothers, I’d never indulge them in this line of reasoning. I didn’t need to explain myself to anyone. “Now’s the time for real change. You don’t like the way things are? You make them the way you want them. It’s that simple.”

  “Ryker’s dead because Shadow killed him.” Shea didn’t bother to hide his chuckle. He already sported a shiner, so I didn’t punch him. I needed him to have one good eye. “No one in the forest cares what the circumstances were. He’s dead, and all they hear is you whining that you didn’t get to him first.”

  “He’s building his new house on Ryker’s land,” X said. “If you go through with this suicide mission, it’ll look like a pissing contest. You’ve said it yourself a million times—you need to do your own thing.”

  “This is my thing!” I slammed my hand against the wall, barely stopping myself from kicking down a row of bikes. We’d finally been able to get the motorcycle shop up and running after six months of being in chains and a month of total human fuckery. “Get out of here. Do something fucking useful with yourselves. There’s a bunch of half-built bikes out back that can’t put themselves together. While you work, think about how you’re going to help me, or go ask Shadow if he’s hiring.”

  X picked up a wrench and glowered at me.

  “I’m out of here.” Shea put his arms up like he was under arrest. That was a drill he was familiar with. He didn’t work with us in the shop. My youngest brother didn’t have the patience required for the precision work the bikes demanded. Instead he’d worked on the ranches that surrounded Granger Falls. “I need to find a job before you drag our name through the fucking mud.”

  What. The. Fuck.

  Ryker had been gunning for me my whole life. When I was younger, I reveled in it. I was a giant middle finger fucking up his grand plan. The wealthy wolves didn’t have any contact with the working class wolves anymore, unless one of them gave birth to a baby girl. Then they’d line up with their fancy leather wallets open to claim her for their son; someone who would grow into a man without knowing what it was like to fight for anything. Including his mate.

  No working class wolf ever had the balls to question this system. They were all too desperate for the payday to realize the ramifications of what they were doing. But even as a kid, I knew it was bullshit. Not because I was in love with a woman I could never have, but because I realized it meant I was going to die alone.

  Ryker claimed Cass for his son, expecting the good little girl to later be a good little wife. There was a reason Cass and I were soulmates. She didn’t take anyone’s shit. But in the end, she still married Walter.

  I was the one who got us captured. Ryker might’ve been older than dirt, but no one got that rich by being stupid. He was pissed that his son’s wife would never look at him the way she looked at me. Cass regretted her decision every day, but like my brothers, she couldn’t see that change started with her. Now Cass had a daughter of her own, promised away before she could talk. The woman I knew who used to stand up for herself might have been subdued, but she had to want something more for Emma.

  Ryker didn’t give a fuck that I planned to sell his livestock out from under him. He captured us to keep me away from his daughter-in-law. My brothers and the goddamn Channings were collateral damage. With Ryker dead and Shadow taking control of his goons, anything could happen.

  I couldn’t let Shadow get too much control. He was a fool; thinking with his dick now that he was in love with the girl who saved us from Ryker’s dog fighting ring, using it as an excuse to taint our bloodlines by mating with humans. They’d give birth to monsters, if they survived. A simple thank you would’ve sufficed. He needed to leave that girl alone.

  Shadow wasn’t a leader. Channings had kept peace for generations, making sure everyone in the forest was happy. It wasn’t the time for that shit. We couldn’t placate these rich assholes anymore. There were no working class wolves under the age of ten anywhere in the forest. Soon, there’d be no one to fight their battles and like the Channings, they’d be relying on humans to survive.

  It pissed me off.

  X had done as he was told, wrenching a bolt into place on a new motorcycle. His work was meticulous, and someone would be damn lucky to get this bike, if they could afford it.

  “Hey,” he said as I approached him, sinking to my knees and getting back to work. Six months in Hell and we had a backlog of
orders.

  “Hey.” It was as good as an apology in our family. “You know this isn’t just about me and Cass.”

  “Yeah.” He sealed his work with a blowtorch, then lifted his goggles. “And it’s not about Shadow, either.”

  “Fuck him.” His name made my blood run hot. “I need you, man. We can’t count on Shea, you know that. I want to go to your mating ceremony, and not watch you hook up with some dipshit human who has no sense of our traditions. Who will never understand what it feels like to have an animal inside her. I want to watch your sons grow up to be stronger and fiercer than you. That’s why I’m doing this.”

  “I know that.” X smiled absentmindedly while he worked, daydreaming of pups playing on the lawn. I knew it because I’d had the same vision a million times. “The rich rely on us for everything. We need their respect. It’s time for them to say thank you.”

  Chapter Two

  Cass

  Emma’s scream pierced the deepest recess of my brain. It was one of those high-pitched numbers that should’ve been reserved for an encounter with a serial killer. I’d spent my life surrounded by werewolves with chips on their shoulders, but Hell hath no fury like my five-year-old not getting her way.

  “Ride it out,” I said warily to Connie, Emma’s nanny. I didn’t need a nanny, but Walter insisted I have help, and Emma loved her. I rubbed my temples, this tantrum was taking its toll. But I wasn’t giving into it, no matter how painful it was for all of us. “She’s getting tired.”

  “Emma, will you be a good girl for your Nini?” Connie ignored me. Emma always ignored me, which is how we got into this mess in the first place. I’d asked her to stop flying the little remote control helicopter Daddy got her in the house. It was a rescue copter, complete with a migraine inducing siren, and five-year-olds didn’t know how to drive yet. She’d already broken a lamp and scared the shit out of Roscoe, our dog.

  My daughter cozied up to the older woman, batting her eyelashes, playing her much more adeptly than she had her toy. She nodded and gave Connie a toothy grin that could grace magazine covers. I’d had enough offers for her to model, but I refused every one of them. Emma already believed she was a princess, and I was desperate for her to hang on to a shred of common sense. Connie, on the other hand, liked spoiled little girls. “I’m going to give you your copter back, but—“

  “I said no!” I roared, my short fuse burning into nothingness. Both of them glared at me in disbelief. “She’s trashing the furniture. When she cuts herself on broken glass or Roscoe bites her because she’s got him all riled up, don’t come crying to me.” I quieted my tone. “But that’s not going to happen, because Emma is going to play with something else, right, honey?”

  “I want my copter!” Emma stomped, folding her arms across her chest. “Nini give me my copter.”

  Connie reached for the plastic toy, which I’d placed on the very top of the bookshelf. It had to be out of reach of anything Emma could step on. My little girl didn’t take no for an answer. Someday, it would be an admirable quality.

  “No!” I stole it away from Connie, feeling ridiculous cradling a plastic toy in my arms. I understood why Emma had no respect for me. She was simply mimicking the behavior she’d seen from others. But from my nanny, the person I wrote a hefty check to every week, it pissed me off. Emma jumped up and down, serial killer screech in full effect. “I’ll throw it in the trash if you don’t stop screaming. You have a room full of toys over there.”

  “I hate you!” Emma screamed, kicking me in the ankle bone. I didn’t even feel it because those words always took my breath away. “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!” It echoed off the walls as she ran from the room.

  Connie already thought I was a heartless bitch, but still I wouldn’t cry in front of her. I looked down at the copter, wanting to throw it in the trash simply because it was going to make me sick to look at it after this. Its stupid little siren would sound like those three awful little words—I hate you—to me forever. All I wanted was for Emma not to be a spoiled brat. I was the only one who ever said no to her. She was going to learn the hard way, when she grew up and woke up every day next to a man she could never love, that wasn’t the way the world worked. I could guarantee it—not only because it happened to me, but because the signed contract promising my daughter the same fate sat upstairs in her father’s office.

  “She’s a little girl,” Connie said, cleaning up a mess Emma left behind. “She needs her mother.”

  I couldn’t see her anymore, everything flashed to a bright raging red. “Damn straight she does. She needs to see the people in her life treating her mother with respect. And it’s not about me, Connie. Don’t try to turn this around. It’s about her. I want Emma to know there are boundaries. That if you say no a million times it doesn’t ever mean yes. I want her to treat people the way she wants to be treated.”

  “You’re going to lose her.” Connie frowned, and I actually believed her concern. “Just like you lost Walter.”

  My husband didn’t bother to keep his affair a secret from me. Why should he? I had no recourse. I was bought and paid for. Property. I’d fulfilled my end of the bargain, giving him the little bundle of joy that was still screaming her head off in her bedroom, but our contract’s only escape clause was ‘til death do us part.

  I didn’t really give a shit. Let the human bitch have him. Her senses should be dull enough that she’d have no idea what she was missing.

  But he’d chosen a human over me.

  It was the ultimate kick in the gut. And the worst part of the whole thing was everyone in the forest knew it.

  Wolves were supposed to mate for love, not money. No pairing had ever divorced. No need to.

  No man was fool enough to lay a finger on Walter Ryker’s wife, just because I wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine. My husband got his malicious reputation from his father. Any wolf or human in Sawtooth Forest equated the infamous Ryker hostility with a death sentence.

  He wouldn’t show me any mercy, either. He never had. Other men realized how lucky they were to actually have a wife with so few women in Sawtooth Forest, but not my Walter. He thought I was the lucky one.

  “You have the memorial tonight,” Connie reminded me, words timed perfectly to twist the knife already sticking into my ribs.

  Walter’s father had finally met his match. One of the working class wolves I grew up with, Shadow Channing, managed to kill the bastard. We should’ve been having a party, not a wake.

  I’d thought Shadow was dead. There’d been a huge fire at his house and his whole family had been unaccounted for, until they returned to Granger Falls. I hoped this was the beginning of a new era in the forest, but I knew better than to get my hopes up.

  “Like hell I’m going.” I put the helicopter back on the top of the bookshelf. Out of sight, out of mind. “I’m glad he’s dead.”

  Connie’s mouth dropped. “You don’t mean that.”

  The only part I was sorry about was that I didn’t do it myself. She grabbed my arm before I left the room, gripping tighter when I tried to get away. “You’re going. You’ll be a good wife, pay your respects to your father-in-law, and convince everyone you’re grateful that a man like Walter married wolf trash like you.”

  **

  “Cassie! I haven’t seen you in forever! I miss you so much.” My best friend, Renee, hugged me in the receiving line. I was so happy to see her, this memorial was torture. I melted against her body, trying to fight back tears for the second time today, as she rocked me back and forth. She peeled back, considering the line. “Can you get out for a couple minutes? You look like you could use some air.”

  I nodded, then squeezed Walter’s hand. “I’ll be right back, honey.” The last word tasted like cyanide. He narrowed his eyes at me, stopping just short of a glare. I’d never ask his permission. Let his human say please and thank you.

  “I love your dress,” Renee said as we stepped outside. I didn’t go as far as to wear
red to the service, but I did pick a black dress with bright red flowers. It hugged every curve. I had long legs, a narrow waist, wide hips, and great tits. Walter was losing his mind watching every one of his associates’ eyes roam all over my body. It was the best sex I’d had in a while. Walter couldn’t take that away from me.

  “Thanks.” I could see my breath in the night air. It was perfect, I needed to clear my head. Stuck in a room with Walter’s friends and family made me feel like I was trapped under ice. All the she-wolves, happily submitting to their husbands. Who was I to judge? Maybe they actually were happy. The possibility made my heart ache even more. I’d never know, because most of them avoided me. “You look great, too. You’re so tan. Going to the electric beach again?”

  “No! But I love it so I might keep it up. Mike surprised me with a cruise for our anniversary! The Mediterranean. Cass, it was amazing. The food, the wine, the views. Paradise. And the sex. You’d think we were on our honeymoon. He got me this, too.” She picked the diamond solitaire pendant up from her chest. “He wanted to upgrade the diamond in my wedding ring, but I’ve grown attached to the thing. I don’t care how small it is. But he insisted on getting me something.” Renee was beaming, the streetlight above us reflecting the clarity in her diamond and her love for her husband. Once she’d been in the same boat I was, in love with a wolf she could never have. She devoted herself to Mike, never looking back, in a way I never could with Walter. Mike worshipped the ground she walked on; maybe that could’ve changed my mind, too. “How are you?” she asked.

  Renee pursed her lips together, knowing damn well how I was doing. It had nothing to do with my father-in-law. Everyone in Sawtooth knew Walter fucked around on me, but somehow they thought I didn’t. It was even crueler, like a joke everyone stopped laughing at when I walked in the room.

  “Hanging in there.” I forced a smile. Renee knew I wasn’t stupid. How could I be, when he came home reeking of eau de slut with lipstick on his pants. “I keep picturing Walter in that casket. It’s a good look on him.”