Howl (Winter Pass Wolves Book 1) (6 page)

P
enny’s eyes opened
. She shivered. It was cold outside. She was naked.

She stirred, gradually growing aware that she lay in the snow. She crawled onto all fours. A glimpse down at her hands and thighs showed that she was covered in dark, icy red.

Blood.

She heard a soft chuffing sound. She looked up to find Harlan in his wolf form, pacing his cage. He whined, scratching at the bars, then backing away.

Penny forced herself to get up. Staggered over to the cage. Pried the door open with shaking fingers, ignoring the searing burn of the silver where it touched her flesh.

The wolf sprung free from the cage, jumping down from the truck bed and nuzzling her hip. She sensed he was concerned.

Penny let her eyelids close again. Her body fell, but she wasn’t awake to feel herself hit the ground.

“
P
enny
.”

Warmth. She burrowed into the comforting sensation, not ready to wake.

“Penny?”

That sound… she loved that sound. That voice was important…

Harlan
. It was Harlan’s voice.

Penny peeled her eyelids open. She was wrapped up in Harlan’s blankets, lying on his bed. Harlan himself was staring down at her, his brow creased with worry.

“Mmmf,” was all Penny could manage.

“I need you to eat or drink something,” Harlan said. “Here, let’s get you sitting up.”

He slid an arm behind Penny’s neck and helped her lean forward so that he could stuff some pillows behind her back. Just that little movement made every single muscle in Penny’s body scream for mercy.

“What…” she mumbled, unsure why she felt so terrible.

“Have a sip of water, okay?” Harlan said.

Penny sipped from the straw he offered, then settled back with a sigh.

“You’ve been out for a couple of days straight,” Harlan informed her. “It’s like that, after the first shift. At least it was for me.”

“First shift?” Penny squinted at him, her brain stuffed with fuzzy cotton balls.

“Into a wolf.”

Harlan gave her another concerned glance.

“Ohhhh,” Penny said, giving a jerky nod. “The blood… the snow… Oh god, I killed them, didn’t I?”

“You saved us,” Harlan told her. “And I’m pretty sure you only killed one of them. The rest climbed into a Humvee and got the hell out of there.”

Penny cringed.

“Am I a monster?” she asked, afraid what Harlan would say. She didn’t even remember the shift or anything she’d done, but he had every right to be disgusted with her. After all, she’d
killed
someone. In ice-cold blood, if she remembered correctly.

“Oh, sweetheart,” Harlan said. He leaned in and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. “You only did what I wished I could do. You protected your mate. If I’d been the one to see you locked in a cage, wounded, I would have done a hell of a lot worse.”

“You’re not mad? You’re not going to like… kick me to the curb?” Penny asked, dumbfounded.

“Would you have done that to me?” Harlan asked, easing back to look at her.

“Of course not!”

“Well, I guess I’m going to have to keep you, then.” Harlan gave her a gentle, teasing smile.

“Oh.” Relief flooded Penny’s chest.

“You don’t mind that, do you? Being kept?” Harlan asked, arching a brow.

A slow smile spread over Penny’s lips.

“I can’t say that I do, as long as you’re my keeper,” she told Harlan.

Before she could say more, Harlan kissed her, long and sweet. In that moment, Penny was pretty sure she was the luckiest lady werewolf on the planet.

She threw her arms around her mate, knowing that fate had indeed blessed her.

“
S
hit
.”

Paxton looked up at Chase, who was sitting in the chair across from his, enjoying the surprisingly warm winter morning weather as they sat on the main lodge’s porch. Chase was sifting through a pile of unopened mail, opening letters as he drank a cup of coffee.

“What?” Pax asked, sipping his own cup of coffee as he eyed Chase.

“Nothing, man,” Chase said, avoiding Pax’s gaze and stuffing a ripped-open envelope at the bottom of the pile he held.

“You are seriously the worst fucking liar I ever met,” Pax said, reaching out and snatching the envelope from Chase’s hand. “I don’t know how you get by without even being able to fib.”

“Pax, man, you might not want to—” Chase tried.

Too late.

Pax pulled the fancy piece of card stock from the shredded envelope, turning it over.

S
taggered
, Pax almost dropped the wedding invitation on the floor.

“Your sister’s getting
married
?” Pax asked, incredulous. “You didn’t think to mention this, Chase?”

“Pax, man, I’m sorry—” Chase rose from his chair as Pax did, but Pax was already stripping off his clothes and shifting into his wolf.

It was all too much. Brooke belonging to another man, forever…

The thought stifled him, made him ache. He needed to escape himself for a while, get away from Chase, too.

Breaking into a run, Pax loped away from Winter Pass Lodge, wishing he could leave his humanity behind for just a little while, just long enough to forget
her
…

“
I
s
there any chance we can just not talk about this right now?” Brooke asked, pulling a face. “I haven’t exactly been my best self tonight.”

Pax’s lips twitched, and Brooke could tell that she’d been forgiven.

“I guess I’m okay with any self you want to be, as long as it’s wearing this dress,” he said, reaching out and running his fingertips down her hip, tugging at the hem of the ridiculously short garment.

“Yeah?” Brooke asked, catching his hand and pulling him toward the packed dance floor. “Come see it in action.”

Pax let her tow him into the crush of gyrating bodies, surprisingly unresistant. She could tell from the look on his face that the bar wasn’t playing his kind of music. At the moment a sultry remix of a Nine Inch Nails song was playing. The bass was low and persistent, the song’s lyrics were more than a little suggestive, and the crowd was writhing enthusiastically along.

Pax took the lead, pulling Brooke up against his body as they swayed to the beat. He pressed one muscular thigh between hers, his hand splayed against her lower back to hold her close. Brooke bit her lip and stared up at him, their gazes connecting and holding, tension building between them.

It was like stoking a banked fire, flames leaping to life again like no time had passed. Like the last six years never happened, like she and Paxton hadn’t missed a single moment together. Even now, past and present blurred, the memory of Pax’s lips on hers so fresh in her mind that she wasn’t sure where they were, what they were doing.

The song shifted and Pax turned her around, pulling her ass back against his body as he swayed his hips. He was hard, and the feel of him made Brooke’s mouth go dry. Pax’s hands guided the movement of her hips, squeezing her flesh, reminding her of how dominant and confident he was in bed.

Damn, the man was pure sex.

W
hat would
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Three rugged, dominant bear shifters are about to find out...

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