Wolf Hollow (Wolf Hollow Shifters, Book 1)

by Nikki Jefford

  Sasha pressed her lips together. At any moment she’d lash out. Tabor braced himself.

  The voice that finally spoke was soft. “You thought I was someone else.”

  Tabor was surprised by the disappointment and hurt he detected in her tone.

  He tried to look into her eyes to read the truth, but she stared at the ground.

  “Wait a minute,” Tabor said. “You knew it was me?” His mouth hung open.

  Sasha frowned. “Of course I knew.”

  Tabor didn’t know what to think. Why on earth would Sasha give him her back, especially with Hector around?

  “But . . . how . . .” Tabor stammered.

  “I was surprised you joined the dance, but I knew it was you,” Sasha said, looking up and meeting his eyes. “Even without my wolf’s senses I knew.” She lowered her head. “Who did you think I was?”

  Tabor felt like a complete ass.

  He unfolded his arms and shrugged. This had to be some kind of trick of his imagination. How could Sasha, Miss Pureblood Council Member, have willingly led him into the woods and allowed him to mate with her, knowing full well she had a half-breed between her legs?

  He sighed, walked over to her, and reached his hand down to help her to her feet. The warmth of her fingers sent pinpricks of pleasure through him. If he thought too much about what they’d done, he’d be hard the rest of the night and in a great deal of pain the next morning.

  Once on her feet, Sasha pulled her hand out of Tabor’s. She lifted her chin, looking more like the proud she-wolf he was accustomed to. “If I’d known you were courting someone, I wouldn’t have dragged you away,” she said in a bitter voice.

  Tabor snorted at the idea of Sasha having to drag him off for a hump. The very notion was comical.

  Sasha narrowed her eyes.

  Tabor lifted his palms face up then dropped them. “It wasn’t anyone in particular,” he answered lazily. “No harm done.”

  “What a relief,” Sasha said sarcastically.

  She turned away from him and bent for her mask. Seeing her ass lift into the air made Tabor throb with renewed desire, but he’d screwed up any chance of an encore performance. Sasha crushed her mask in her fist as she straightened.

  “Why aren’t you with Hector?” Tabor asked, still trying to make sense of it. “Was he not to your liking?”

  “Hector? I haven’t met him yet.”

  Her answer only confused Tabor more. “The elders expect you to be with him,” Tabor said when he couldn’t think of anything else.

  Sasha’s eyes narrowed. “I shouldn’t have to roll over for the elders.”

  Tabor studied her face. It occurred to him that mating with him was her way of acting out, rebelling against the council. No wonder she didn’t care if he spread the story. Maybe that was exactly what she wanted him to do. Well, sorry, sweetheart, Tabor didn’t hump and tell. Those were the sort of callous games she-wolves liked to play, and he wasn’t taking any part in it. If Sasha wanted the pack to know they’d mated, she’d have to tell them herself.

  He placed his hands on his hips. Sasha followed the movement with shrewd eyes. Her gaze dipped lower, which caused Tabor’s cheeks to heat and his dick to pulse.

  “Never in a million moons did I expect to ever see you in this getup,” she said with humor in her voice, expression softening when she met his eyes. “Whose loincloth did you steal?”

  They stared at one another silently. From the corner of Tabor’s eyes, he caught the twitch of Sasha’s lips.

  The tension broke and they both laughed. With the shake of his shoulders, he felt an invisible wall come crumbling down. Their laughter mingled, a short-lived moment that felt almost as intimate as being inside her.

  “Raider’s,” he admitted.

  Sasha’s eyes widened right before she laughed anew. Her breasts shook as she did, but it wasn’t lust Tabor felt as he watched her rare display of mirth. She made his heart ache with longing.

  “If it involves magic, you probably shouldn’t tell me.”

  “He fell asleep.” Tabor shrugged. “Maybe he had a few too many. Jager’s brew could knock out a bear.”

  Sasha snorted. “I doubt Raider will believe that, especially if he wakes up naked.”

  Tabor squared his shoulders. “I’ll put everything back the way I found it.”

  Sasha lifted her eyebrows. Her smile returned briefly then disappeared. She nodded. “You should do that before he wakes.”

  Her tone was one of dismissal, but Tabor found himself rooted to the spot, reluctant to leave her side. He wet his lips. “You knew it was me?” he had to ask again.

  “You don’t think I just bend over for anyone, do you?”

  When their eyes locked, it sent everything scattering inside him like a sudden windstorm kicking up fallen leaves. Tabor’s throat went dry, making it difficult to swallow and speak.

  “Are you returning to the gathering?” he asked.

  “You go ahead,” Sasha said. “I’m going to stay here and stare at the stars a bit.”

  With extreme reluctance, Tabor slunk off into the forest shadows. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Sasha’s form retreating in the opposite direction. Clearly she wanted her solitude. She’d gotten what she wanted from him and had no further use for him that evening. The stars were hers, and hers alone.

  Desire and longing twisted painfully inside Tabor’s gut. He’d been wrong about Sasha. She hadn’t submitted to Hector even though he was a pureblood, which meant Tabor was free to pursue her after all. The trouble was she had allowed him between her legs, but not into her heart.

  Tabor wanted both.

  chapter seven

  Cool air slid down Sasha’s flushed skin as she stepped away from Tabor into the thicket.

  Once out of sight, she stopped and held still, halting her breath to listen for Tabor’s retreat. At first only silence answered her ears. The thought that he might follow her into the forest made her shiver with anticipation. But soon enough she heard twigs snap beneath his feet and fade away as he headed back to camp.

  It was better this way, Sasha told herself. She didn’t want him to get into trouble for taking Raider’s place in the dance.

  The thought of Raider’s hulking muscled body unconscious on the ground lifted Sasha’s lips again. This was followed by a more sobering thought: Tabor hadn’t done it for her.

  Who was the female shifter he’d originally sought?

  She certainly hoped it wasn’t that stuck-up shifter from Glenn Meadows. If Tabor thought Sasha was proud, he would have been bitterly disappointed by Alexa.

  She knew from Olivia that Tabor had lain with Camilla. Sasha hoped he hadn’t taken down Raider for a second go with that silly pup. Rosalie was about as silly. She couldn’t picture her catching Tabor’s eye. Kallie was clever, kind, and attractive. Maybe he’d taken a fancy to her. Sasha’s heart constricted at the thought.

  Mistaken identity aside, Tabor had taken pleasure in their coupling. There was no covering that up. Sasha leaned her back against a tree and closed her eyes, feeling dizzy.

  Her hands slid down her thighs, a silent moan grasping the edges of her parted lips.

  Sasha had felt the world explode inside her and seen the stars blur. Tabor had taken her away from her troubles. He’d filled a chasm that had been spreading across her soul ever since her parents’ deaths and Wolfrik’s abandonment. He’d made her forget she ever wanted Aden. When he was inside her, he made it all go away.

  Sasha wrapped her arms around her middle, holding on to the feeling a little longer before she made her way back toward camp. She didn’t plan on rejoining the celebration. She wanted to be alone with her thoughts. She doubted she’d sleep much. In her mind, Tabor was still inside her, sweeping her off a cliffside, soaring for the stars.

  In the morning she’d have to
deal with their guests from Glenn Meadows.

  Sasha had managed to dodge Hector in the dance, but she wouldn’t be able to avoid him much longer.

  She wondered who he’d ended up with in the dance. Perhaps he’d found his way to his cousin. Maybe they’d fled the scene together. From the earlier disdain Alexa had expressed, Sasha doubted very much that she’d been among the females who’d shifted and begun rutting on the spot.

  Undoubtedly Camilla and Rosalie had shifted in the heat of the moment. With any luck, they’d scared off Hector and Alexa. Maybe, if Sasha were lucky, they’d leave at first light. The wolves from Glenn Meadows should stick to their own pack.

  Her thoughts drifted back to Tabor. She never would have considered him two days ago, but he’d proven himself a skilled hunter and a passionate lover.

  Then again, he’d also displayed erratic and juvenile behavior toward a fellow pack member. Sasha wasn’t a purist the way the elders were, but she did want a mate who could lead by example.

  No matter how much he intrigued her, pursuing Tabor was unwise. Sasha couldn’t afford to take a chance on him, especially since a claiming between them would be unpopular with the pack.

  Sasha sighed and continued along the path. As she followed the trail to her cave, she picked up on the sound of male grunting. Not surprisingly, she and Tabor hadn’t been the only ones to venture farther out for a hump in the woods.

  Sasha stepped carefully over the ground as not to disturb the couple. As she passed, the sound increased and made her stop in her tracks to listen closer. It sounded very much like two males grunting. Unable to curb her curiosity, Sasha ventured closer, pushing low-hanging branches out of her way.

  Her eyesight wasn’t as keen in human form, but she still saw well enough, especially this close to the full moon with its heavy glow above the treetops spilling light over the ground below.

  The grunting became louder, deep and guttural.

  The trees began to open up to a mossy patch. In the middle of the patch a large muscular man bent over a rock, hips hoisted in the air. Muscles corded in his arms, which held him upright over the rock.

  Garrick stood behind the younger man, bare ass pumping against the other shifter, pounding with rapid speed.

  The two men grunted and groaned their pleasure.

  Sasha stopped and stared wide-eyed, temporarily lost for thought. She didn’t recognize the shifter who was bent over the rock, but she knew who he had to be.

  Hector hadn’t scampered off with his cousin. He was bending over for Garrick.

  A gasp of surprise rose up her throat and her hand flew to her mouth, but not before Garrick heard her. His head whipped around and found her eyes with breathtaking speed in the dark. They narrowed with a look of pure malice.

  Just as quickly, Garrick snapped his attention back to his partner and quickened his tempo. Hector moaned. Garrick snarled then gave one last hearty thrust and shouted something Sasha couldn’t make out.

  When Garrick pulled out, Hector gave a whimper and curled into a ball on the ground.

  Sasha hurried away before the pureblood from Glenn Meadows had a chance to notice her. Somehow she didn’t think he’d enjoy their first introduction taking place immediately after rutting with an elder.

  Once she’d reached the trail leading back to camp, she slowed her pace, mind racing. Part of her felt gleeful, relieved she’d ended up with Tabor rather than a shifter who leaned toward his own sex.

  Sasha grinned to herself, eyes expanding with mirth. Let Garrick try to talk down to her after this.

  Unfortunately, she didn’t have to wait long.

  “Sasha!” he growled from behind her.

  She turned to find him striding down the path toward her. He’d thrown on a pair of jeans and was zipping them closed. A layer of sheen glistened over his ruddy face from his exertions. Sasha’s heartbeat quickened the way it did in close proximity to a threat.

  She stopped and held her ground.

  “Don’t worry, Garrick. I don’t tell tales.”

  He dismissed her comment with a scoff, rolling his eyes upward. The way he got in front of her, inches from her face, would have made Sasha’s hair stand on end if she’d been in wolf form.

  “What you saw doesn’t change anything,” he said.

  Sasha squinted at him, unsure what he was getting at.

  Garrick’s muscular chest rose. “Hector is prepared to move to Wolf Hollow and claim you as his mate.”

  Fury curled around Sasha’s stomach and tightened. She pushed back against it and breathed deep. “Is he now?” she asked in an icy tone. “I can see how that arrangement would suit you.”

  Garrick scowled. “He’s still got the right parts to put a pup in you, and he’s a pureblood.”

  Sasha bared her teeth in outrage and gave a snarl before snapping at Garrick. “Once I choose a mate, I don’t plan on sharing.”

  Garrick’s eyes narrowed. Somehow, even being shorter than her, he managed to look down his nose at Sasha. He puffed out his chest. “I know you’ll do right by the pack.”

  Sasha squared her shoulders. “First I’ll do right by myself.”

  “I didn’t realize you were that selfish,” Garrick sneered.

  He wanted to call her selfish?

  Sasha lifted herself to her full height. “I want Hector and his cousin gone by week’s end.”

  Done with Garrick, she stormed away.

  “The council will decide on that,” he yelled after her.

  Sasha snarled and kept walking. She veered off the main path to cut across the woods to her favorite cave where moonlight spilled across the opening. Sasha climbed over the rocks at the lip of the cave and slipped into the shadows within. She couldn’t see much, but she knew the cave by feel. It wasn’t deep, but much roomier than the one beside the Manama River. Sasha grabbed the folded blanket she’d set on a rocky ledge, shook it out, and nestled the downy fabric over a level area of the cave with soft sand and lay on top.

  She pushed thoughts of Garrick and Hector out of her mind, out of the cave. She’d deal with them in the morning. For now, she wanted to cling to the memory of Tabor and how connected she’d felt to the shifter during their coupling.

  Choosing a mate had always felt like an expectation, a duty. Yet her experience with Tabor made her hunger at the possibility of a relationship that felt more like a partnership—a friendship.

  A howl of longing and loneliness built in her throat. She remained in human form to keep her wolf from calling out to Tabor in the night. Soon enough sleep claimed her, pulling her away, but it wasn’t into the sweet oblivion she imagined.

  She was trapped inside a decaying house, running from room to room only to find herself cornered within encroaching walls.

  “Go get her, boys,” came a cruel, jubilant voice from down the hall.

  Heart racing, Sasha sprinted toward the back door, but the hallway stretched on and on as though she were running in place until a man stepped in front of her and smiled cruelly.

  Duke’s mouth opened as he lunged forward to bite her.

  Sasha woke up screaming and—catching her breath—realized the screams weren’t her own.

  Fear slammed down her throat as she stumbled to the cave’s opening into dawn’s murky light.

  The shrieking continued in the direction of the glade.

  Once she’d clambered out, Sasha shifted. She blurred through the trees on four legs, intent on reaching the glade where she’d danced with Tabor hours before. It didn’t take her long to reach the clearing. Once there, it was pandemonium. Naked shifters ran yelling, grabbing, or holding sticks and rocks, and shaking them in the air at a wolf that snarled and foamed at the mouth in its excitement.

  Sasha’s heart momentarily froze. One bite from the rabid wolf and she would be reduced to the same state, a raving, violent crea
ture that had no ability to reason or shift into human form ever again.

  The fear quickly passed, replaced by outrage that this mad wolf had made it into the clearing and threatened her pack.

  Sasha charged toward the outer edge of the glade and snarled. The rabid wolf’s attention turned from the shifters to look at her, exactly as she wanted.

  Once their eyes locked, it felt impossible to look away. Sasha couldn’t. Her survival depended on it. She growled and the rabid wolf snarled back, lips lifting over sharp teeth that could steal her very soul.

  Rabid wolves were far more dangerous than vulhena. While a vulhena bite was unpleasant, the wound would heal. Mad wolves didn’t have the same calculated reflexes as a vulhena, but their bite made them a challenge to attack.

  In the recesses of Sasha’s mind, she was aware of the shifters backing up against trees. One shifter even climbed the trunk to get off the ground. They were safer from infection in human form, but a bite could still make them violently ill and potentially kill them. And, while not in danger of being turned mad, they could just as easily be torn apart.

  Another growl joined Sasha’s. Aden. Relief filled her. A rabid wolf’s bite didn’t affect werewolves. The pitch of the rabid wolf’s snarls intensified when it caught wind of the werewolf’s presence. It kept its eyes on Sasha. She recognized its scent—Rebecca, a wolf shifter Sasha had failed to protect against Vallen, Zackary’s father. Rebecca had been bitten and turned rabid over six months ago. Although Rebecca no longer had the ability to shift or reason, this felt personal to Sasha, especially when the rabid wolf circled around Aden to get to her.

  Sasha streaked out of the way, passing Rebecca, switching spots with her. Sasha was faster, able to flip around and take a quick nip at Rebecca’s hind leg. Foam dripped to the ground when Rebecca snarled.

  She lunged at Sasha thoughtlessly and was immediately blocked by Aden, who jumped between them. Hairy arms shooting forward, he grabbed Rebecca by the neck and gave it one violent twist. Her snarl was abruptly cut off. Rebecca hit the ground and lay in the dirt motionless as though sleeping with her furry legs spread out.