by Cate Troyer
Contents
Title Page
Copyright and Excerpt
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Excerpt from Episode 2
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Silk Stalkings
Episode 1
Cate Troyer
Copyright 2015 - Cate Troyer
Cover Image Copyright 123rf.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Excerpt: Rafe Delun stood next to his office window studying the city below and barely listening to his legal counsel. He stroked his lower lip absently, his mind on the curvy girl standing in his lobby, the one who had nearly freed his inner beast in the daytime. When he had walked out of the elevator there had been a scent of something, something intoxicating, something alluring, in the air. It was enough to distract him from John’s yammering about the son of a Saudi prince who wanted a new guard. His inner wolf had immediately started stirring, the smell rousing him, but Rafe had collared it, searching for the source of trouble. That was when he saw her, his new secretary.
She wasn’t his normal type, a bit heavier than usual, his lips curled in a sardonic smile. Her light brown hair was piled messily on her head, her plump pink lips pursed thoughtfully as she waited politely, submissively, for them to cross. Her blue eyes had wandered over his body, and he had seen the slight flutter of her pulse jump and speed up. Her white blouse was just sheer enough that he could differentiate between flesh and cloth, and as his eyes traveled lower, he had to admit he liked the fit of that skirt on her hips.
You’d like that skirt better on the floor, his wolf whispered, trying to surge free. The taste of brand new pennies filled his mouth as he fought the change.
Fighting the wolf and his own libidinous urges while trying to carry on a business conversation was not going to work, he decided, so he had stormed off the floor with his entourage, leaving the bemused looking woman behind. Even now, the scent of her filled his nose, floral and sweet, and Rafe balled his fists to control the shaking.
The wolf, Silk to his pack, prowled the urban landscape. His white fur tipped with light gold protected him from the nip of oncoming autumn, and his yellow eyes glowed in the dim light of the alleyway. He hugged the shadows, knowing too well the human reaction to his kind. The soft click of his claws on pavement as he moved toward his destination echoed off the brick walls around him. Silk was eager to reach the large park which smelled of green, living things, and leave the stone trees behind.
Buildings, the man inside him whispered. Those are buildings.
The wolf chuffed in response and peered across the well-lit ribbon of road separating him from his destination. His ears twitched as he searched for the distant hum of oncoming cars. It was late, though, and this park was not in a well-traveled area of town. There was no traffic of any kind. Most of the city was asleep. Even his human form had left his current female sleeping in between layers of soft sheets and driven out here for this purpose, to run free.
They had been restless recently, the human and the wolf, eager to run and chase. In Silk’s opinion, his human form was too tame, too docile. His version of hunting differed from the wolf’s, but it was still hunting. The human chased quarry down in boardrooms for his business and in clubs for his pleasure.
His ears twitched again as a night bird called across the street, hidden in the trees. The sounds of the nocturnal animals shuffling through the underbrush, all but impossible to hear with human ears, echoed in the fine-tuned senses of the wolf. He wished his brothers, Storm and Winter, were here. They would run down the prey together and feast. Silk could smell a deer in the woods, the scent as light brown as the fur that invariably covered its body. His muscles thrummed, ready to chase and pull down the walking feast.
No, the human inside whispered sharply, drawing the creature up short.
The wolf whined, chafing under the restriction, until his mind flooded with images of flashing red and blue lights and the sharp report of guns.
We’ll draw attention to the pack.
Silk grunted and dropped his head down on his front paws. That much was true, and Silk knew it. If you left a mess of a meal, the humans would start looking. And if they found the wolves, the situation would get worse. The two-leggers always reacted badly to predators in their midst, and they often shot first and asked questions later. While the standard bullets wouldn’t kill a packmate, they would hurt like a bitch, and Silk knew that eventually such attacks would bring back the old days when silver and wolfsbane were in every house. The stories had been drilled into him since he was a pup.
So, deer was off the menu. He thought of the mere mouthfuls instead, the squirrels and raccoons. At least he could still have those. With quick, padded steps, he darted across the street to the safety of the darkness and the soft grass and dirt beneath his feet. His human lived in the world of buildings and stone, with soft people and scented places. Even so, both he and the human knew something was missing. This trip to the woods was an attempt of quelling the wild urges running through the both of them.
The wolf, with a lolling grin, thought back to the blonde woman sleeping in his human’s bed. They had worn her out. His human form had taken her three times before leaving her collapsed on the bed, pleading for rest. The intricacies of mating as a human were fascinating, with hands grasping and pulling, teeth and nails used, not to pin down an escaping female, but to gently scratch the skin, eliciting little gasps and moans. Then the heat and pounding in a variety of positions, Silk shook himself lightly, the animal urges rising in his body again. He wanted to turn and head back to the car, shift into his human form, and drive back to his house and the woman.
The urge to spend his seed in her was almost overwhelming, but then the snap of branches deeper in the forest got his attention. He paused, a statue in the middle of the park, and listened. The smell of raccoon reached his sensitive nostrils, pungent and a greasy gray color. Raccoons fed on the leavings of the humans and were generally fat and juicy this close to the city. Silk licked his chops with an audible smack and began to prowl the woods, mating forgotten in favor of a full belly.
Across town, another wolf, this one clad in mottled dark fur, padded through the loading yard and into the warehouse’s side door. The soft cries of a woman reached his ears mingled with the rhythmic grunts of a man, and the scent of sex tickled his nostrils. He padded further in and sat waiting, watching as his leader maintained human form to rut with the woman bent over the pallets beneath him. The large hands gripped her hips tightly enough to dig in as he pounded his shaft into her tender flesh over and over again. The green gem on his large ring winked and glinted in the light in time to his movements. Finally, with another grunt, he drove into her and held himself there, filling her.
“Fuck, Rimi,” the woman sounded annoyed. “You said you weren’t gonna cum in me.”
“Shut up, bitch,” the man growled in a thick Eastern European accent and slapped her flank hard enough to make her jerk involuntarily. “You belong to me, and I can do whatever the hell I feel like.” He pulled out and zipped up his pants, leaving her open and vulnerable, with her mini-skirt shoved up like a belt around her waist. “And don’t think this reduces the money you need to earn tonight. It wasn’t that good. Now, don’t move, I got business to discuss.”
He turned to look at the wolf and nodded. The tra
nsition from wolf to man moved quickly, the fur dropping off in great chunks and the sound of bones shifting and rearranging beneath the skin. In seconds, where the wolf had waited stood a tall, naked man covered in a fine pelt of dark hair.
“Talk to me,” Rimi said, folding his arms.
“I heard from our agent. He’s gotten himself a position in the company. There’s only one problem,.” The naked man hesitated. “He can’t access some of the information we need without access to the main office.”
“You you think he’ll be able to get it?” Rimi cast a dark glance to the woman next to him who had started shifting her skirt down. “I did not tell you that you could move. Get that skirt up, bend over, and spread your legs.”
The prostitute resettled with soft grumbling and bent back over the pallets. Once Rimi was satisfied with her positioning, he turned his attention back to the naked man.
“Do you think he can do it?”
“I have faith in him,” the man said, his eyes on the presentation of the woman’s soft flesh. Her mound was clean-shaven and smooth, and with her legs spread, he could see the full glory of her damp womanhood on display. His heart pounded, flushing his body.
“If he fails, I hold you responsible.”
“Of course, stăpân,” the man turned his eyes back to his leader. “I would expect nothing less.”
Rimi grunted, narrowly eying his lieutenant. Finally, finally he shrugged, “Fine. You may use her and then drop her off by the bridge.”
He walked around and gripped the woman’s chin in his hand, forcing her to look at him. “When Alex here is done with you, you still owe me three-hundred dollars.”
“But there are only bums and junkies by the bridge,” she complained. “It will take me hours!”
“Then maybe you’ll stop getting caught by the poliția. I promise you, next time, I’ll turn you over to the Omegas and let them fuck you so full of pups you’ll be useless. Am I clear?”
After hesitation, she nodded reluctantly. Rimi turned his eyes to the man already moving behind her. “Make it hurt a bit, but don’t mark her. She needs to remember her place.” Alex grinned, and his flesh rippled as he began to transform. With that, Rimi turned and walked out, ignoring the soft whimpers of fear from the woman and the low growls of desire from the half-man, half beast.
Lyssa Shepperd sat in her car and reviewed the past few weeks in her head, starting where all the changes began--when her last job had fired her. Lyssa had approached her former boss, an executive with a financial firm, after she noted some irregularities in certain files, money moving around to different accounts at odd times before disappearing entirely, dummy accounts that disappeared without a trace. She had sat in his office, nervous but confident. After all, she had thought to herself, she was doing the right thing. Unfortunately, her boss hadn’t cared about ‘the right thing.’ He ordered Lyssa to destroy the files and forget that she had ever seen them.
“Mr. James,” Lyssa stammered, “I can’t do that.” Her hands gripped the files tight enough to cut off the circulation.
The man had stood up from behind his desk, his pale eyes narrowed and cold as he studied her. When he came around to the front of the desk, Lyssa stumbled back, but still he followed until he had her backed up against a wall. He bent over till his face was close to her.
“Then you are fired,” he enunciated in a low voice. He took the files from her nerveless fingers, and she let out a soft squeak before he continued, “And if you tell anyone about what you saw, I will destroy any chance you have of a future. You have no proof of any wrongdoing by this company and the very hint of impropriety on our part would simply be the desire of a bitter former employee caught embezzling, one who was lucky we decided not to press charges… But that could easily change. Do I make myself clear?”
Lyssa gave him a silent nod of understanding and could only watch in misery as he called security to have her removed. She had been escorted, humiliatingly, from the building by two security guards, men she had known for years, each with a hand under her arm firmly guiding her steps past faces gawking at her. Her cheeks had flushed red as she tried to keep her head up, even as her feet tripped over the carpet. John and Rob hadn’t even glanced at her, just kept moving her inexorably toward the exit before dumping her unceremoniously outside with her box of belongings. She stumbled forward a few feet, the wobbly click of her heels on cement loud even through the bustle of the crowds. Her box tumbled from her hands, skittering across the pavement. The people around her muttered and continued on their way throwing her looks of annoyance and disgust as she dodged their legs to gather the chipped and cracked remains of her work life. Finally, she took her box and trudged several blocks to where she had parked her car. Somewhere along the way a heel had broken off her shoes, probably weakened by her tumble in front of the building, and she had twisted her ankle. Lyssa rested her head on the steering wheel, praying for the day to end, and then started the car and turned toward the apartment she shared with her boyfriend.
She tossed her shoes in the box and limped into the building to discover the elevator was out of order. With a battle weary sigh, Lyssa had climbed the five stories, stepping in a cold puddle of something in her nylon clad feet in the stairwell, and stumbled down the hallway. Still, she carried on, right to her doorway where she paused as the sounds of loud music reverberated down the hallway. She tried the door and it swung open, unlocked. Soft voices and a high-pitched giggle reached her ears as she took the few steps inside and stood in the living room watching as her boyfriend, Ryan, with his shirt undone and his chest bare, danced closely with a raven haired beauty.
Lyssa dropped her box with a loud thud and the pair jumped apart. The girl peered around Ryan’s shoulder, a confused look on her face.
“Hey, babe,” Ryan said tossing her a grin. His eyes flicked between Lyssa and the girl next to him. “You’re home early. This is Jessica.”
“Jasmine,” the girl said softly.
“Right, Jasmine,” Ryan offered his tip-tilted smile that Lyssa usually found charming. Today, however, she wanted to punch that smile right off of him.
“I lost my job,” she said dully.
Ryan tossed his arm around the girl next to him, “Wow. That’s harsh. How are you going to pay rent?”
Lyssa stared at him silently for a moment. “I thought you might help, since you’re my boyfriend and you live here.”
“Whoa,” Ryan held up his hands. “Let’s not make more of our relationship than there is.”
“What?”
“We may live together, but we’re not exclusive,” Ryan flicked his eyes between Lyssa and Jasmine again, now turning the charm to the slight woman next to him. “We just live together, really.”
“You bastard,” Lyssa said, a stunned realization sweeping through her body. “How many girls have you fucked while I’ve been at work? Is that why you couldn’t get a job?”
“Stop being such a bitch, Lyss.” His voice took on a defensive tone. “I have a job, and you know it. I manage Paul’s band.”
“I mean a job that actually brings in money.”
Ryan held his hands up again, but his eyes showed the slow burn of anger. “Look, it’s not my fault you had a bad day. Jasmine and I are going to go out for dinner and give you a chance to calm down.”
He guided the other woman past Lyssa with his hand in the small of her back, murmuring softly to her. Once Jasmine had left, Ryan paused, buttoning up his shirt. Then, he rounded on Lyssa, his voice low and heated. “Listen to me you fat cow, I only stuck my dick in you out of pity. Who else would want to sleep with a frumpy little toad like you? You aren’t even that good, and you dress like an elementary school teacher. Jesus, no wonder they fired you.” He delivered a sound kick to her box from work, sending it tumbling into the apartment and then stormed out slamming the door behind him.
Lyssa stood there her face frozen in horror before she scrambled to the door and flung it open, screaming after him, “Don�
��t ever come back here, asshole!”
She had collapsed on the sofa in tears after that before digging a half-box of mint-chocolate chip ice cream out of the freezer. There was a rime of frost covering the top, but neither that nor the gummy texture of the old dessert could dissuade her that evening. Instead, she picked up her phone and called the one person she knew she could count on, her best friend since first grade, Shannon Martin.
The next day, Shannon had called her back, telling Lyssa they were going shopping for a new work outfit since her start date at the security complex was next week.
"What are you talking about?" Lyssa shoved a hank of hair out of her eyes and scowled at the phone in her hand. She had only just woken up and this conversation was making no sense.
"I got you a job at Delun." The tinny voice reached through the phone and breached the sleepy haze that surrounded young woman. "You start next Monday. I'm coming over tonight, and we're going to get you something svelte and sweet - something that will make Robbie regret leaving. I know just the place."
“Ryan,” Lyssa said absently.
“Whatever,” the dismissive note in Shannon’s voice brooked no arguments. “He’s a douchebag, and he’s gone. We’ll find you someone better.”
Which is how Lyssa ended up in this parking garage wearing a skirt that was slightly too tight across her hips and a silk blouse that was slightly more sheer than she liked. She met her own startled cornflower blue eyes in her car’s rear-view mirror and checked her hair for what she was sure was the twentieth time before drawing a shaky breath and preparing for her first day as a secretary at Delun Security Industries.
"Not secretary," she muttered to herself, reapplying her lip gloss, "administrative assistant. And if I don't get my ass out of this car, I'll be an EX administrative assistant even before the end of my first day, and probably drag Shannon down with me." She smacked her full lips, stained a darker pink, together and dabbed away the excess.
