by C. R. Jane
Whatever I thought I felt before was a warm up. The storm rolling over my body came at me so ferociously, so suddenly, I stiffened. It crashed through me, dragging me away. My heart thundered inside of me, and I dug my fingernails into Wilder’s shoulders, trying to ground myself.
Wilder groaned in response, his mouth parting, a moan sliding out. My heart clenched as I squeezed his cock, loving the pleasure on his face…pleasure I was causing.
I screamed as the orgasm continued. Wilder kissed me, stealing the sound, thrusting into me a few more times before following me over the edge with a long, tortured groan.
When his mouth finally broke from mine, I dragged in a heavy breath, half laughing, half wanting to cry at how insanely good that was. My lips felt bruised from how hard he kissed me, and my fingers were still lodged into his shoulders.
“I don’t ever want to let you go,” he told me, his words sounding like a declaration…a promise that I wasn’t sure I wanted.
Collapsing back on the bed, I laid there spent, Wilder still buried inside me.
He slipped out of me, and I missed him instantly. That wasn’t good.
He dropped onto the mattress right next to me and drew me into his arms, our bodies chest to chest, his leg looped over mine, caging me with his body.
Leaning into him, I let myself melt against his hard chest, my head cradled against him. The way he held me was primal and possessive, and everything about Wilder fell into that category. His body pressed against mine, and I found myself wanting him again.
He kissed the top of my head and made a satisfied groan that sounded dominating. “Stay with me,” he ordered.
And for maybe the first time, I didn’t want to argue with him.
His breathing slowed, and his heartbeat thumped comfortingly against my head. I melted against him, lost in a dream.
And for just one foolish second, I let myself believe in the possibility…of us.
13
Wilder
Her head was on my chest, and I struggled not to shiver as she softly caressed my chest. I still couldn’t believe what had just happened.
She was perfect.
Better than anything I could have dreamed.
I still wasn’t sure how we’d ended up like this. When I’d lost control after I realized someone had hurt her, I’d fucking blanked. My wolf had risen to the surface, uncontrollable, intent on getting revenge.
I couldn’t really blame it for going crazy. Rune had been driving me crazy since I’d first seen her.
There’d only ever been one other girl who’d triggered my wolf like this.
I didn’t want to think about her with Rune still wrapped around me and her scent embedded in my skin. But I couldn’t help it.
All this time, I’d been living like I’d lost the great love of my life. Arcadia wasn’t my true mate, but she’d been mine. She’d been my first love…and I thought she would be my last.
I’d believed all this time that I would have to live dead inside, that I was never going to feel that spark light up my soul.
And then Rune had stormed her way into this town…into my life.
And everything had changed.
Wild. The word kept battering through my mind. I’d thought Arcadia was wild. There was always this desperate edge to her, like she didn’t know if she’d see tomorrow. It made her the party girl, the one who sought out all the attention she could…the one that couldn’t settle for one alpha when she could have two.
Arcadia was born a twin. Her brother had drowned in the creek when she was five and they’d been messing around by the river. He’d slipped on a rock and hit his head. Arcadia was too small to get him out of the water in time, and even a shifter couldn’t regenerate from twenty minutes without oxygen.
Her brother’s death had twisted something inside of her. Since the day he was put in the ground, she’d always been looking for something. And in my stupid, lust-filled teenage brain, I’d taken that desperation inside of her to be the wild I myself was desperate for. The one the elder had told me when I was a boy I would someday find.
I’d been a fool to ever think who I was looking for was Arcadia.
Because the wild in Rune…it was life-changing. It was the kind of wild you held onto, went anywhere with, did anything for.
It was the kind of wild I dreamed about. The kind I laid in bed and stroked myself to release just thinking about. The one I was addicted to and convinced that I couldn’t live without.
The kind of wild I would do anything to keep.
I realized suddenly that her intoxicating touch had stopped, and there was a stiffness to her that was a far cry from the languid softness she’d been giving me just a minute ago.
“I need to tell you something,” she whispered.
“You can tell me anything,” I promised, sure that I meant it.
“I can’t—” Her words halted, and her entire body shuddered against me.
“Tell me, baby. Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out.”
“I can’t shift,” she finally said, her voice even softer, and she lowered her gaze from me.
I laid there shocked for a moment.
“What do you mean you can’t shift? You haven’t had your first one, or no one ever told you what to do?” I questioned. She was a little late not to have shifted yet, but I’d met a few wolves who were late bloomers. It wasn’t the end of the world, and I could help her.
She sat up, that fucking gorgeous hair of hers sliding down her body. I stirred and shifted, trying to get ahold of myself, since she was obviously embarrassed about this and I needed to take it seriously.
Rune shook her beautiful head, tears appearing in those eyes of hers that I couldn’t get out of my head. “My wolf was taken from me. The alpha in my old pack did something to me, and I’ll never be able to shift. They branded me…”
Her words trailed off. There was a faraway look in her eyes as she reached back and touched a section of unblemished skin on her back, agony written across her face like she was experiencing the pain all over again.
It took a moment for me to realize she was telling me she’d been literally branded. Like she was cattle. Hot rage tore across my vision, and I saw spots. I needed to control myself. I couldn’t wolf out right now, not when she was opening herself up to me.
“Baby,” I whispered, the word coming out more of a growl.
She shook a little.
It hit me then what had been done to her. It was something we’d been told around the campfire as little kids, a tall tale designed to keep us in line.
I’d never heard of it actually being done.
It sounded like those bastards had performed the shakranda. A ritual designed to keep a wolf from shifting, permanently. It would explain why the scar from the brand wasn’t visible. It was because the magic of the curse settled under your skin, serving as a kind of barrier around the wolf, encasing it inside.
Only the most despicable kind of monster would even attempt such a curse.
The story came out of her then.
And maybe I was a monster too, because imagining that she had a true mate out there, it was more than I could take. A loud growl erupted from my throat, and she pushed away from me, fear in her eyes.
I tried to take deep breaths, but the jealousy was more than I could take. I looked down at my hands, not surprised to see that they were fully transformed into claws and the sheets I was gripping were shredded to pieces.
“I’m sorry,” I panted as I tried to control myself. I continued to take deep breaths, and my hands began to transition back. I felt the fur that had sprouted on my back retract.
Rune was looking at me accusingly, and I felt like a failure.
“What was that?” she asked hoarsely.
I got back in the bed and crawled towards her, hating how she tensed her body like she wanted to run away from me.
“I can’t bear the thought that you have a true mate out there. The idea that the moon goddess gave yo
u to someone else when I know with every drop of blood in my body that you’re mine.”
Her gaze softened. “I don’t belong to him.” She pursed her lips almost forlornly, and I realized there was still something inside of her that loved the asshole. I wanted to tear the piece of him inside of her heart out and replace it with me.
Maybe I was just as much of a psychopath as her ex.
A thought hit me. I didn’t know much about the curse, but I knew her alpha’s blood had been placed somewhere on that brand before it was placed in the fire. It required an alpha’s blood for the curse to be triggered.
Maybe I could undo it by ordering her to shift. Just like how we ordered our pups to shift at a certain age.
“I want to try something,” I told her.
She eyed me warily.
I took her hand and stroked her soft skin, taking a second to just feel her against me.
“I’m going to try and trigger your wolf. I’ll command you to shift just like we do when our pups are learning. What they did to you is triggered by an alpha, so maybe an alpha can dismantle it as well.”
Her body stiffened again. She sat there so still and silent, it was almost like she was frozen.
“Do you think…do you think that could really work?” she asked, another tear sliding down her perfect face.
I faltered for a second, my stomach clenching as I stupidly realized how much it was going to kill her if it didn’t work.
I licked my lips nervously. I was a strong alpha. I knew that. I’d been around the country at various shifter events, and there’d never been someone who’d come close to me in dominance level…with the exception of Daxon.
But I didn’t know anything about what I was about to try.
I stood up and slid on my jeans, not bothering to put on my briefs since hopefully, we’d be celebrating after this.
I rolled my shoulders backwards, letting my power build inside and flow through my veins until I could feel my wolf right at the surface.
“Shift,” I barked, my voice unrecognizable from its usual timber as my power flowed out of me.
I watched as she shivered, my power licking at her skin.
But nothing else happened.
I tried again and then again, suddenly desperate. If this didn’t work, she was going to be done with me. I just knew it.
“Stop,” she finally cried out.
My chest was heaving from my attempts, my breath coming out in sharp gasps.
She wouldn’t look at me, despair cloaking her, dimming all of her light.
Rune abruptly got up and began to gather her clothes. “I need to get back,” she mumbled.
“Rune, baby. I’m…” My words died. Sorry didn’t really cut this. What could I even say?
“I’ll see you later,” she whispered to me, standing at the door for a second. I sniffed the air, wondering why I could smell shame all over her.
And then she was gone.
What the fuck had I just done?
I’d acted without thinking. I never did that.
It was only later, hours after she’d left my bed, that I realized she’d never told me why her ex had done that to her in the first place.
RUNE
Numb. That’s what I felt as I walked back to the inn.
I was too numb to cry. It was like I’d been encased in ice.
I knew better than to get my hopes up. I knew it. And yet, like the idiot I proved myself to be time and time again, I’d thought for a moment, things were about to change.
If it was as easy as an alpha telling me to shift, it probably wouldn’t have required a spell to do it in the first place.
The brand under my skin seemed to be burning, just rubbing in my shame once again.
Wilder’s power. It had been overwhelming. Far stronger than Alistair’s was, that had been easy to see.
If I hadn’t been Alistair’s equal, I sure as hell wasn’t Wilder’s. Whatever was wrong with me wouldn’t have mattered if I’d fallen for a human. But with Wilder being a shifter, and an alpha no less…
It was laughable.
Daxon’s face filled my head, and I angrily pushed it away.
I was on my way up the stairs when Jim called out from behind me. I flinched, not wanting to face him but not having a choice.
“I’m so sorry to ask you for this, but I’m desperate. Carrie’s not feeling well, the crew we usually use for catering somehow got double booked…goddess knows how that happens in a town as small as ours…but they’ve really screwed us over. We have a dinner we’re supposed to deliver food to by six, and I have to stay here and tend the bar. Is there any way you can help?” His words rushed out, showcasing his desperation.
He acted as if nothing had changed between yesterday and today. I guess I could work with that.
“Whatever you need,” I told him, forcing a smile. Regardless of the subterfuge, Jim and Carrie had helped me so much. I would probably do anything they asked of me.
Relief flooded Jim’s features. “You’re a gem, darlin’. I’ll get everything loaded in the van and then I’ll need you to get going right away.”
“Of course,” I told him. “I’m just going to run up and change, and I’ll be right down.”
I was suddenly aware that I must’ve reeked of sex, especially to a shifter. I was lucky Jim was kind enough not to mention it.
He nodded and rushed away, and I hurried up the stairs to change, wincing when I saw my reflection in the mirror.
I was a mess.
After I changed and did my best to clean up, I went down to the back of the inn, where Jim had loaded up the catering van.
I drove off, the urge to try and make a break for it hitting me hard. Right as I turned out onto the main road though, I saw two men I’d seen a few times with Daxon resting against a building on the far end of the road, a car by them, obviously on the lookout for me to probably do just that. By their presence, I had a feeling I wouldn’t get far…
And after what had just happened with Wilder…I wasn’t sure how far I even wanted to get.
I drove across the bridge and pulled up to the address Jim had given me. I examined the house, remembering what Wilder had told me about across the river being Daxon’s territory. The house was a white-washed Spanish style, a little out of place with the other houses I’d seen around here. It also backed up to the woods.
There was no one up front, but Jim had said that the gathering was in the backyard, so I opened up the back and pulled out one of the trays of steak bites.
I hoisted it up and started around the side of the house where a path led through the trees. Hopefully, I could get someone to help me unload the rest when I got to the backyard.
Night was falling, and I shivered. I hurried my footsteps to try and find the party fast. The path seemed to go on forever. Where was the fucking backyard? Why couldn’t I even hear anyone?
All of a sudden, a scream ripped through the air up ahead. I froze, not sure what I should do.
But the scream had kind of sounded…familiar.
Knowing I was a fool, I dropped the steak bites and raced ahead.
And then it was my scream filling the night.
Because Eve was lying there in the path, half of her neck missing.
She was dead.
The End
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Wild Heart
Book 2
Real Wolves Bite. Continue the Wild series…
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WILD SERIES
Wild Moon
Wild Heart
Wild Girl
Siren Condemned
The sirens have been captives for so long that we no longer remember our pasts…
Our masters have stolen our song, the source of all our power, and made it punishable by death to use it. Our bodies, our minds, and our talents all belong to them.
The vampires.
I’ve been sent to the darkest of all places, Nightmare
Penitentiary for my next assignment. But I’ve promised myself this assignment will be my last… no matter the cost. I’ll do whatever it takes to free my people, even if I end up shattering the hearts of three captivating men who have the power to change my future forever.
One will sacrifice himself for me. One will shatter my soul. And one will kill me to save me.
Welcome to Nightmare Penitentiary. Escape is my only option.
Siren Condemned Copyright © 2020 by C. R. Jane and Mila Young
All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review, and except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
For permissions contact:
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
One
It was midnight.
My birthday.
And wasn’t it ironic that today was both the beginning and the end of my life?
Or at least, that was what it felt like.
Because you see, today, my powers were going to finally come to me.
And today, the vampires would take it.
I sat on my bed, fiddling with the gossamer threads. Anyone who looked at my life from the outside would think that I'm privileged, spoiled even. But they don't know anything about me.
