Falling For a Wolf Box Set (BBW Werewolf / Shifter Romance)

by Mac Flynn

  "Calm down. Let me just call my parents and-"

  "No! No one else! I can only trust you!" he insisted.

  "Eb, if there's something chasing you then I'm the least able person around to help you," I pointed out.

  He crawled closer to me and grabbed one of my hands in both of his. I cringed from the bloodstains, but he had a tight grip for an old man. "There's no time! It's-it's coming! I can-" he shut his eyes and ground his teeth together.

  It was then I noticed his teeth were far sharper than any human's should be. The hands that held mine stretched and lengthened into claws. Hair sprouted from his skin and his torn clothes stretched and tore some more. He opened his eyes and they were a bright, dangerous yellow. Eb was turning into a werewolf.

  I gasped and yanked my hand from his grip. "Eb, you have to control it!" I yelled at him.

  "It's coming! It's coming!" he chanted. His voice turned into more of a growl and those hungry eyes looked at me like a predatory watching its prey.

  I slipped over the other side of the bed and stood. My eyes flitted to the bedroom door as I tried to make my escape. "Listen to me, Eb, you have to stop transforming! This isn't you! You're a-" Eb tilted his head back and let loose a terrifying howl. "-werewolf. You're definitely a werewolf," I quipped.

  Footsteps raced up the stairs and the door was flung open to reveal Adam. His eyes swept over the room and fell on the other werewolf, who snarled in response. Adam growled and jumped him, and the pair rolled into the wall under the window.

  "Don't kill him! It's Eb!" I shouted.

  My parents appeared in the doorway and my dad pushed my mom back. By this time Adam was half werewolf himself, and the pair grappled with one another. "What in the hell-?" he questioned.

  I raced over to them and pushed them into the hallway. "No time to explain! Just get downstairs!"

  I herded my parents down the stairs just as the werewolf fight relocated to the hallway where we stood only moments before. Adam slammed Eb into the wall and was punched in his turn. They punched, bit and clawed their way downstairs and into the hall. I pushed my parents into the dining hall and we watched their house ruined by tow supernatural beings.

  I felt helpless. My parents clung to me, confused and afraid, and my boyfriend fought alone against a ferocious, scrawny werewolf desperate for Monet chow. If only I was a werewolf, or at least armed with some that would help.

  "Chris, what the hell is going on?" my dad questioned me.

  "Are those werewolves?" my mom guessed.

  I pushed them further into the dining room to avoid becoming involved in the carnage. Adam helped by tossing Eb into the living room. "Yeah, um, Adam and I have been meaning to tell you. He's-well, he's a werewolf." I cringed when one of the wolves broke a lamp in the living room.

  "When the hell were you going to tell us?" Dad growled.

  "Um, surprise?" I squeaked.

  He scowled at me. "You are in such trouble, young lady. When this-" Mom placed a hand on his shoulder.

  "Ralph, dear, I think we need to focus on helping Adam," she scolded him.

  "And not killing the other werewolf because that's Eb." I held up my hands to stop any questions from them. "I don't know how, but it is, trust me. Now what do we have that can incapacitate a werewolf?"

  My mom's eyes lit up and she hurried over to the china hutch. She pulled open the drawers and pulled out a box which she set on the table. The lid was opened to reveal a large supply of silver utensils. "I'm sure your great-grandmother won't mind our using these for this special occasion," Mom told us.

  I wrapped my arms around her and pecked a kiss on her cheek. "Mom, you're a genius. Dad, I need your help to distract Eb with these things by scratching him or throwing them at him, just don't stab him. That would make him into a pile of werewolf ashes."

  "But-" I shoved a pile of the utensils into his arms.

  "No buts, just follow me." I dragged him to the living room, and Mom followed us with the utensil box in hand.

  The living room was a wreck. The furniture was overturned, the TV smashed, and every picture was off the walls. The wily Eb, though smaller in size to Adam, was more agile, and Adam bled from more than one place. The pair faced off against each other with Eb a little closer to the doorway.

  "Hey, Eb-wolf, over here!" I taunted the creature.

  It whipped its head to me and growled. Adam, slowed by his profuse bleeding, jumped at him, but the wily old wolf ducked and jumped out of the way straight towards Dad and me. "Fire!" I yelled at my parents.

  We lobbed forks, knives, spoons, soup spoons, salad forks, and steak knives at the werewolf. The silver utensils burned every part of his body; fur, claw, teeth, and skin. Nothing was spared. Some of the pointier objects caught in his fur and continued to tap and burn him. The wolf howled and stumbled back. Faint wisps of smoke arose from his body and he frantically tried to brush off the silver objects, but that only burned his fingers and palms.

  A clawed hand grabbed Eb's shoulder and spun him around. Adam stood there with his other hand pulled back, and he thrust it forward in a powerful punch. The swing connected with the side of Eb's face. He spun around in a half circle and fell face-first onto the floor. He twitched for a few moments and then lay still. His body transformed back into his human self, and I cringed when I saw nothing remained of his clothes. Mom came to the rescue when she removed the cloth from the dining table and covered him with it.

  "Much better," she commented as though she'd just dressed a vase with flowers. My dad shook his head at her calm demeanor.

  I hurried past Eb and over to Adam. He sat on the ground and pressed one hand against the worst wound on his side. I knelt in front of him and looked him in the golden eyes. "You okay?" I asked him.

  I started when someone knelt beside me. It was my dad. He looked over Adam's wounds. "These aren't good. Did you need help getting upstairs?"

  "They will. . .heal in a moment," Adam assured him.

  "Super healing," I explained to my surprised father.

  Dad looked over Adam's furry body and shook his head. "I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."

  "We really did mean to tell you some time," I told him.

  A smile crept onto his lips. "This was probably the best way. Otherwise I might have blown your boyfriend away with my rifle. Here I got to see how much he cared about you." My dad returned his attention to Adam. "Thank you for saving her, and my wife and me."

  Adam shook his head. "It is I who owe the thanks. The werewolf was much more agile than I expected."

  A fork lay close at hand. I picked it up and twirled it between my fingers. "I told you these heirlooms were dangerous."

  Chapter 15

  With all the awkwardness of explaining Adam's condition over we now had to deal with another dilemma. I glanced over my shoulder and nodded at Eb. "What are we going to do about him?"

  "I don't believe that will be a problem," Adam commented. He rose to his unsteady legs, and my dad slipped one of Adam's arms over his shoulders. "He appears to be a new werewolf, and I brought some of the bane elixir to cure him."

  My dad raised an eyebrow. "Cure him? You can cure a werewolf?"

  "If they are new, yes. My condition is more permanent," Adam explained.

  "Well, let's get you upstairs and get a bit of that nasty drink down Eb," I suggested.

  "I will be fine," Adam insisted. He slipped from my dad's crutch and tried to take a step forward, but his legs buckled. Dad and I caught him.

  "Yeah, real stable," Dad and I quipped at the same time.

  Adam smiled. "You greatly resemble each other."

  "No time for insults, or I'll drop you myself," I warned him.

  Eb groaned and shifted on the floor. "We should administer the cure as soon as possible," Adam advised us.

  "Will he remember anything of this horrible experience?" Mom asked him.

  Adam shook his head. "No, it will be as a bad dream, a long nightmare he fe
lt he couldn't escape."

  "Well, let's get this cure and get this nightmare over for all of us," Dad spoke up.

  We carried Adam upstairs and he handed me one of the vials. When I returned downstairs I found Mom had propped Eb's back against a wall. The man's head swayed from side to side and he groaned. She turned to me with her serene smile. "Do you think we should mix the cure with some cocoa? It might make it go down easier." I had to admire her practicality and calm demeanor in a stressful time like this.

  "He's not going to be feeling too well after this, so we may as well skip everything," I told her.

  "All right." My mom grabbed his jaw and pulled it open. "Down the hatch. Here comes the airplane."

  I snorted, and tipped the vial into his mouth. The thick liquid poured down his throat, and when the last drop was gone Mom shut his jaw and patted his head. "There. All better. How soon does it work?"

  "He'll feel the effects in an hour or two," I replied.

  "Well, we'd better make him comfortable on the couch." She glanced around the living room and sighed. The couch was overturned, and the rest of the room was in the same state. "Well, after we do some cleaning."

  Nothing was permanently damaged that couldn't be replaced, and soon Eb lay on the righted couch with a quilt over him. Mom got to work on the rest of the house while I went upstairs to check on Adam. I opened the door and stepped inside the guest bedroom. My dad and Adam both sat on the end of the bed, and they both started when I entered.

  My dad jumped to his feet and coughed. "Well, so long as you don't have any intention to eat my daughter then I give you my permission."

  "Dad! He's not going to eat anyone!" I scolded him. I paused as his words belatedly sank in. "What permission?"

  Adam looked to my dad, who nodded in return. My boyfriend pulled open the drawer of the nightstand and pulled out a small, nondescript plastic bag. He pulled out a small case with the logo of a local jewelers. My heart gave a quick thu-thump as Adam got down on one knee in front of me and opened the ring case. A large, gold ring glittered in front of me.

  "Christina Annie Monet, will you marry me?" he asked me.

  "I-I-"

  "Just say yes," my dad quipped.

  I glared at him. "I was getting there!" I turned my attention back to Adam, and my smile returned. "Of course I'll marry you, you silly werewolf."

  Adam grinned and pulled the ring from the case. He slid it onto my finger and I had to admire the dozen tiny crystals around a large, moon-shaped diamond. "I thought the design would be fitting," Adam explained.

  I jumped him and wrapped my arms around his neck so I could rub my nose against his. "Very."

  I captured his lips in a lustful, passionate kiss. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight against him. We were in bliss, in heaven, in-the company of both my parents. My dad coughed and brought us back to the rest of the world. I released Adam, and he released me so I slid to the floor and smiled at my dad who now stood by the door with my mom.

  "You knew all about this, didn't you?" I accused them.

  "Well, perhaps we knew something," Mom admitted.

  "We knew everything," he gleefully replied.

  "Traitors, siding with the in-law," I scolded them. For all my scolding I ran over to them and gave them each a hug. "But thanks for helping him. Sometimes Adam can be a little clumsy when being a human."

  Our perfect moment was ruined by the sound of a body hitting the floor downstairs. We blinked at each other for a moment before we all rushed to the living room. There, on the floor in front of the couch, was Eb. He weakly thrashed inside his quilt cocoon which my mom effectively wrapped him inside.

  "Get me out of this thing! What the hell's going on?" he growled.

  I chuckled. "Looks like Eb's back to his old self," I commented.

  "Where the hell am I?" He noticed us staring at him and glared at us. "Ralph Monet! What the hell am I doing here? What happened to that thing that was chasing me?" he questioned us.

  Dad walked over and helped him out of the quilt. "Just a case of eating bad mushrooms. All those hallucinations made you think you were being chased by something," my dad assured him.

  "Don't you use your big, fancy editor words on me! This was no hail-Lucy-anything! This was real!" Eb argued. He paused and furrowed his brow. "Wasn't it?"

  Dad patted him on the shoulders. "We'll get everything straightened out. You probably just saw that wolf that got Old Greg's cows and thought it kept chasing you."

  Eb frowned. "But I swear there was one chasing me. It started doing it after that shadow crept into my cabin and pricked me something fierce."

  I noticed Adam stiffened by my side. "What is it?" I whispered.

  "Later," he returned.

  "Well, let's get you a stiff drink and some time to relax, and everything will work itself out," my dad argued. He and my mom led Eb to the kitchen, leaving me alone with Adam.

  "What's wrong?" I asked him.

  "Eb's story of being 'pricked something fierce' is very similar to the sensation I had during my transformation," he pointed out.

  "Yeah, but didn't yours last a while? Like a few weeks? And Bunny didn't act sick at all," I reminded him.

  "It did, but the transformation is never the same for anyone. I believe this 'prick' was what Eb felt when another werewolf infected him."

  "So who was the other werewolf, and why would anyone want to make a woodsman into a werewolf?" I wondered.

  He shook his head. "That is a mystery I don't believe we will solve."

  I sighed and shrugged. The ring on my finger was consolation enough for this mystery. "Oh well. Guess we'll just have to get married and go on a really long honeymoon."

  Adam grinned and pulled me against his side. "A very long one."

  Falling For A Wolf #6

  Chapter 1

  "Hammer."

  "Here."

  "Nail."

  "Here."

  "Attitude."

  "Definitely here," I replied.

  It was a dark and cold morning as I helped my dad hang up the last of the fallen pictures. Adam and my adventure with Eb the Werewolf were long behind us, a whole two days and a half behind us. My parents had insisted we stick around for at least another few days. At least, my mom insisted. My dad demanded it. Unfortunately, it wasn't because he missed me so desperately, but because of the utter mess Adam's fight had caused to the house. All the repairs had to be done on a budget, too. Their house insurance didn't cover werewolf fights.

  Thwack thwack went the hammer. My dad stepped back and admired the repaired family photo, and all the rest of the pictures on the wall in the living room. "All right, that should do it," he told me.

  My shoulders slumped and I sighed. "Are you sure there isn't a loose nail or a bit of peeled wallpaper we missed?" I sarcastically asked him.

  His eyes browsed the room and he shook his head. "Nope, looks good as new."

  "Good, let's eat breakfast," I suggested.

  I tossed off the yoke of the spare tool belt that lay around my waist and hurried to the dining room across the hall. The faint aromas of my mom's cooking wafted from the kitchen and filled the house with promises of a full stomach. I peeked into the dining room and found Adam setting the table. He sported an apron on his front that had a print of purple flowers.

  "Nice apron," I teased him as I slipped into the room.

  He paused and looked down at himself. "Your mother insisted. It was either this or the one with the print of her skull collection."

  "I see. Didn't want to lose your appetite?" I guessed as I sat in my seat.

  "I thought perhaps the small animal bodies were too apt to my situation in life," he pointed out.

  I snorted. "You may be a werewolf, but I can't imagine you dining on squirrel burger."

  "There has been many a cold night where I dined on worse fare," he told me as he resumed his chore.

  Dad entered the room and took his seat at the head of the table. "I would ra
ther you two not talk about such things at the table," he scolded us.

  A sly grin slipped onto my lips and I leaned towards Adam. "Then why don't we talk about what we're going to do on our honeymoon?" I suggested.

  "Not that, either!" Dad growled.

  "Not so loud, Ralph, honey," Mom scolded him as she swept into the room with a platter of pancakes in her hands.

  "They started it!" he defended himself.

  "Ralph," Mom warned him.

  I was saved the embarrassment of my dad sulking when I heard a knock on the door. I jumped to my feet and moved towards the dining room entrance. "Be right back," I called to them.

  I slid over to the front door and opened the entrance a crack. On the porch stood the raggediest man I'd ever seen. His ragged clothes were patches of rags held together with more patches of rags. He was stooped over, but stood at a height between Adam and mine. His bent head was mostly covered by a ragged hood so that I couldn't get a good look at his face.

  "Is an Adam Smith residing in this residence?" the person asked me. Judging by his voice he was male and about the same age as my dad.

  I started at the name. "How do you know that?" I questioned him.

  He chuckled. "I happen to have some business with him. May I come in?"

  "I-I don't know about that. Let me get Adam," I suggested. I tried to shut the door, but his gnarled hand whipped out and caught the entrance before the knob caught the latch. He pushed it open with little effort and pushed past me into the house. "Adam!" I yelped as I stumbled back.

  Adam and my parents stepped out of the living room. My savior took in the situation and his eyes fell on the stranger. He growled and lunged at the man. His hands wrapped around the man's ragged collar, and Adam slammed him against the wall closest to the front door.

  "He knows who you are," I yelled to Adam.

  Adam's eyes narrowed and he tried to study the man's face, but the stranger touched his chin to his chest and evaded Adam's inspection. "Who are you?" Adam demanded to know.

  The man chuckled and raised his head. The hood fell back and revealed a man of fifty with graying temples and wrinkles about his pale cheeks. "Hello, Adam. Long time no see," he quipped.