Table of Contents
Title Page
PROLOGUE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
EPILOGUE
About the Author
Wolf and Soul
Published by Amorous Publishing
http://theodorataylor.com/
Copyright Ⓒ 2014 Theodora Taylor
ISBN: # 978-0-9849193-9-0
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
PROLOGUE
“Hello, Wolf. Are you from Oklahoma? Because you smell like it.”
Grady was surprised when the she-wolf approached him with a flirtatious look in her faintly slanted eyes. She was black… well, technically bi-racial since her father was an Alaskan native, but she was darker than any girl, wolf or human, who’d approached Grady before. She sported a huge, barely contained Afro that stood in a bold, prominent puff on top of her head. But there was no mistaking who she was: the youngest princess in the Alaska royal family and the same princess who’d been flirting with his brother for most of the evening.
So why was she here with him?
He glanced at his younger brother, Luke, a tall, lanky version of himself, one that was approachable and cool, like if Brad Pitt and Chris Martin had a baby. Totally different from the silent brick wall that was Grady.
Luke was spinning records on the other side of the ballroom, doing the job he’d been hired to do. Grady wasn’t fooled. Only minutes before, Luke had been flirting heavily with the Alaska princess. The two of them had, in fact, been going at it since the princess walked into the pre-dinner cocktail party an hour or so earlier. Luke had even put on a few Michael Jackson tracks per her request. Grady knew all of this because of the angry texts he’d received from Rafe, the Alpha Prince of Colorado and his almost-boss, who’d left the party earlier. Grady immediately texted his brother with a not-so-friendly reminder that the prince was the one paying Luke to deejay, not some princess he’d just met. So he needed to stick to Rafe’s playlist. Clearly the text had worked. Luke was keeping his eyes on his turntable and the youngest Alaska princess was out on the prowl. Probably hoping to jealous Luke back into her orbit.
“Me. Luke. Brothers,” he signed. Then he waited for the inevitable response.
Grady supposed he was handsome enough. He hadn’t thought so growing up in his Oklahoma kingdom town where the local she-wolves rarely flirted with him and almost always avoided him. But when he was accepted into the Denver University football program, he learned firsthand how much human women liked a big, blond wolf—especially when said wolf was on the starting line of the school’s Division I football team.
In college he’d had more attention from human women than he’d known what to do with, but college was over now and he was back in a kingdom town. Thankfully not the one he’d grown up in, but Wolf Springs, the Colorado kingdom town Rafe would soon be overseeing as king.
Upon arrival in Wolf Springs, Grady was promptly reminded that she-wolves were not like human women. Grady might be an up-and-coming beta to the up-and-coming king, but that didn’t impress the local ladies. They didn’t find his disabilities noble or attractive. Grady’s particular brand of rugged handsomeness might be enough to grab their attention, but as soon as they found out he was dependent on lip-reading and signing to communicate—well, they’d suddenly see someone they knew off in the distance or remember an urgent call they had to make. Or sometimes they’d just back away with a look that was two parts pity and one part abject fear, like they’d accidentally stumbled upon someone with an extremely contagious disease—one that might render them deaf and dumb, too.
So when Grady signed that he and Luke were brothers, he wasn’t at all shocked when the princess’s mouth fell open in an “oh” of surprise. He waited to see how fast she’d walk away. Based on what he knew of her older sister, Janelle, she’d probably come up with a genteel excuse before politely taking her leave.
But the youngest Alaska princess didn’t run or make up any excuses for leaving. She signed back.
“You and L-U-K-E brothers?” She lifted her eyebrows to indicate this was a question. “L sign plus ‘thin’ sign…” she let a few ticks go by to indicate equals, before finishing with “Luke name sign?”
Grady’s mind stuttered. The last thing he had expected was for her to actually sign back with a question. He tentatively raised his hands, not able to believe he was actually about to ask a she-wolf a question in sign language. “You sign?”
She grimaced and bounced her hand up and down in the knocking sound for yes. “Not good. Teach me to sign in the past with book and internet. But alone. Don’t know deaf wolves or deaf humans.” She finished with an exaggerated frown and a shrug.
So she’d taught herself to sign. She wasn’t bad. A little slow, like she was thinking hard before every sign, but not bad at all considering she’d never signed with a live person before. He also liked the way she used sign by itself, without talking along out loud. Bold, like she didn’t need the safety net of him reading her lips to make herself understood.
“Why you learn?” he asked her.
Another shrug. “From Alaska. Alaska very boring.”
An unfamiliar feeling bubbled up inside of him and it took him a moment or two to realize it was laughter. It must have shown on his face, even if he didn’t make a sound, because she laughed, too, and signed, “I also know bad Russian, bad Spanish, bad French, tiny bit bad Chinese, and good Alaska pack—” she bounced her right hand for a little bit, before giving up and spelling out “d-i-a-l-e-c-t.”
And now the laughter wasn’t just a feeling, it was an actual thing happening inside of him.
“You have good nose,” he said.
“No, I have GREAT nose,” she signed back. “Super nose. Can smell where you come from. Also… you and Luke have different mothers.”
He nodded, impressed. He had a superior nose, too, but that was simply how he compensated for his lack of hearing. However, this she-wolf clearly had a talent… or talents. He told her as much.
“You very interesting. This good talk. Thought you only come over here because you want make Luke jealous,” he admitted to her.
“No,” she answered, looking neither offended nor surprised by his assumption. “I bored. See you. You very cute. H-O-T. I come talk.”
Grady didn’t know whether he should be impressed or put off by her matter-of-factness. But he wasn’t lying when he signed. “Happy you come talk me.” Then he told her, “I also teach myself ASL.”
She frowned. “You not deaf?” She actually looked disappointed to hear this.
Grady had to work hard to kee
p his heart inside his chest. This girl was nearly a foot shorter than him—probably even more so when she took off her heels—but it was like she had picked him up and turned him upside down.
“No,” he signed back. “I deaf and don’t talk. Can never talk. But can hear until age ten. Think, maybe, because puberty. Wolf and human don’t play nice.”
She clapped her hands together as if he’d just thrilled the hell out of her with this information.
“Good!” she said. “I no name sign. You give?” She rubbed her splayed palm over the chunky turquoise necklace that sat above the heart-shaped neckline of her yellow evening gown. “Please.”
The “please” hadn’t been necessary. Grady already knew he’d give this she-wolf anything she asked for. “What’s your name?”
“Long,” she warned. Then held up her hands as if to say, “Brace yourself” before signing, “T-U-U-L-U-U-W-A-G.” She rolled her eyes and explained. “Sisters have easy name. But I youngest daughter. Father want son. Black mother say sorry to Eskimo father. Give me Eskimo name.” She peeped up at him. “Understand?”
Surprisingly he did, in more ways than one. “My father also sad. I first born but brother will be king here.”
Tu’s forehead wrinkled. “Not…” her hand bounced and she spelled out, “F-A-I-R.”
Now he shrugged. “Don’t care.”
“You should care,” she signed back. “You king. Not Luke.”
“No,” he answered. “Want beta job.”
She repeated the last two signs he made—the number two plus a wolf sign. “Sign for B-E-T-A?”
“Yes. But I make up. Don’t know real sign,” he admitted. One of the troubles with ASL was it was a human language, so some of the words most used by wolves couldn’t be perfectly translated, which meant he had to make up signs when necessary.
“In year. Will become Colorado Beta for Rafe.” Then realizing she probably didn’t know his best friend’s name sign, he spelled out, “R-A-F-E.”
“Beta job dangerous,” she signed.
“You worry about me?” he signed with a smile.
“Yes,” she signed back with no answering smile whatsoever.
“Because I deaf mute?”
“Because beta job dangerous.” She emphasized the dangerous sign this time.
“Don’t worry. I very good beta.”
“Beta king.” She ran the signs for “two,” “beta,” and “king” together. “There, I give you name sign.”
He shook his head. “No, you not deaf. Can’t give me name sign.”
She lifted up her chin. “I princess. I give you name sign if I want.” Before he could argue any further, she said. “People call me T-U only.” She then mouthed her nickname. “Tu.”
From the way her lips formed around the “u” sound, he could see the last part of her shortened name was actually pronounced with an “ooh.” And her name sign immediately came to him.
“You Tu,” he informed her, making the number two and tapping it over his heart.
The name sign seemed to delight her. “Me Tu,” she said, tapping her own heart with her first two fingers. “Like you and me share same sign in our names.” Then she made the sign for “beta king” again, the one she’d just made up despite being a hearing wolf, this time emphasizing the “two.”
It should have annoyed the hell out of him. But it didn’t. And suddenly the party, which he’d been assigned to guard as unobtrusively as possible, completely disappeared from his awareness.
“You think I’m hot.”
He made the correct sign for the colloquial version of “hot,” and she smiled before knocking her hand back, with a saucy look that made the sign come off as “Oh, yeah” as opposed to a simple “yes.”
“You should know…” He hesitated, thinking of the simplest signs, so he wouldn’t have to spell any of this out for her. “You right. Luke and me have different mother. Father werewolf. Mother human. Accident. Both dad-mom M-E-T-H-H-E-A-D-S”
Understanding lit up in her eyes and she nodded. It wasn’t technically forbidden to get a human pregnant, but in these modern times it was frowned upon because the products of such unions didn’t always turn out well. Both human and werewolf gestations were complicated to begin with—but put them together and, well, sometimes you ended up with wolves who had, for lack of a better word, defects. Wolf society prided itself on the superior abilities that came with being werewolves: super strength, an acute sense of smell, the ability to hear things most humans couldn’t. So a half-breed wolf who couldn’t hear—it was off-putting, to say the least, and for most she-wolves, a total deal breaker.
He was doing Tu a courtesy by giving her this information, allowing her to back down from her original bold stance.
And it worked, somewhat.
“What…” She paused in a way that let Grady know she was searching for the right sign. “Where your mother?”
“Same Luke mom. Die.” He spelled it out, because he doubted she’d know the sign for what had happened. “O-V-E-R-D-O-S-E.”
There she had it, the whole ugly story. Yeah, he was a real catch. The son of two drug addicts, deaf, mute, and only half werewolf.
But the side of her mouth hitched up and she signed, “Sad story, Wolf. But. You STILL HOT.” She emphasized the still and really emphasized the sign he’d taught her for hot.
At that point, he had to sniff at her, wondering if she was drunk or on something. He could smell a little alcohol, but not much.
“How many drink you have tonight?”
She held up a single index finger.
“Drugs?”
“Not tonight,” she answered. Then she asked. “You have drugs?”
Did she just ask him if he was carrying?
“I sheriff next year.”
She nodded with faux somberness.
“Understand. My last fun year, too. So you should do same me. Have a LOT fun THIS year.” She then had the nerve to wink at him, like she was so much more experienced and knew exactly what she was talking about. “My P-H-I-L-O-S-O-P-H-Y.”
He was just about to ask why this would be her last fun year, when a black man came up to Tu and started talking with her. He was a big guy, not as big as Grady, but big enough. And the way he carried himself… Grady could tell he was destined to become somebody’s beta. Might even be descended from one.
Grady could smell that he and Tu were from the same place and related somehow. Cousins maybe? Rafe had mentioned something about a cousin staying in the main house, since the Alaska royals were currently occupying all three bedrooms of the kingdom guest house.
The maybe cousin and Tu seemed to be having some kind of light argument, one Grady couldn’t lip read, because they were turned sideways.
“What’s wrong?” he asked Tu.
“Must go. Mother says leave at ten. C-U-R-F-E-W. My cousin come. Say have go guest house.” She then indicated the guy standing beside her. “This Vince.”
Vince waved at him, looking a little nervous about all the signing. “Hey, man,” he said out loud.
“Vince my best friend always,” Tu signed. “But also babysitter. So…” she couldn’t think of the sign but rolled her eyes and spelled it out, “R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S.”
And just like that, the bubble burst. Suddenly they were back in the Colorado kingdom house ballroom with couples dancing in the background as his brother spun music Grady couldn’t hear on the turntable.
Grady morphed back into that guy in the tux, not because he was an honored guest, like his friend, Mag, who had just become King of Wyoming a few weeks ago, but because he was covertly working security. Rafe had thrown this party in Mag’s honor, ostensibly to celebrate him winning two challenge fights in his bid to become King of Wyoming, but really, so Mag could meet up with the King of Alaska to see about pledging Janelle Atenaq, Tu’s oldest sister. Janelle was twenty-five, the same age as Grady, Mag, and Rafe. Which made him wonder how old that made her youngest sister, especially if her parents
thought she needed a babysitter.
Grady’s eyes narrowed. “You how old?”
“2-0.” Tu rolled her eyes. “Mother, father, too P-R-O-T-E-C-T-I-V-E.”
And he got the answer to the question he hadn’t been able to ask. She’d be turning twenty-one next year, the official pledge age for upper class she-wolves. That’s why she was so interested in having fun. Because next year she’d be put on the market, pledged to some wolf befitting her station, and the fun would definitely be over.
A stab of relief soared through him. Twenty wasn’t too bad. Not old enough to be offered up for official pledge, but only five years younger than him which meant he didn’t have to feel like a perv for being attracted to her. Although the truth was, considering his status as a half-breed, deaf-mute, almost-beta from a mange state, he had no business talking to a princess, much less enjoying her company so much that he didn’t want her to leave.
She peeped up at him again, mischief dancing across her heart-shaped face.
“Tell him you walk me home. You S-E-C-U-R-I-T-Y. He let you do his work.” Then she met his gaze, her brown eyes dark with seduction. “You kiss… in past… she-wolf?”
Her syntax wasn’t great, but his body perfectly understood what she was asking. He felt himself become stiff at just the thought of…
“No,” he signed, answering both her and the question his body was asking.
“Awesome!” she signed, her eyes twinkling with merry delight. “Me kiss you number one if you tell cousin you walk with me home. I promise.”
She would give him his first she-wolf kiss if he got her cousin to agree to let him walk her home. This girl…
Grady inwardly shook his head. She might be young and small, but she was fucking dangerous. Too dangerous. He should tell her goodbye and go back to circling the party. Do his job just like he’d texted his younger brother to do his.
But in the end, he pulled out his smart phone and opened up the note pad app he used to could communicate with people who didn’t sign. He typed and turned it to face Vince. It read, “I’m head of security for this party. I’ll walk her home.”
GRADY REALLY HAD no business walking Tu Ataneq to Rafe’s guest house. She was a guest of his best friend and soon-to-be employer. The only reason she was here was because her oldest sister might possibly be pledged to his other best friend. She was the princess of a wealthy state with all the potential in the world. In one year, when her parents put her up to pledge, they’d probably get flooded with offers. And he was a defective beta from a mange state who was lucky Rafe had taken pity on him and given him a respectable job. He had no business talking to Tu, much less walking her home.
Wolf and Soul (The Alaska Princesses Trilogy, Book 3) Page 1
