Read To Kill a Wolf: BBW Werewolf Erotic Romance (North Wolves Novella Series Book 1) Online
Authors: Natalie Kristen
Tags: #Adult, #Romance, #Shifter, #Erotic Romance Fiction
TO
KILL A WOLF
By
Natalie Kristen
Copyright
© 2014 Natalie Kristen
ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED
No
part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to or downloaded from file
sharing sites, or distributed in any other way via the Internet or
any other means, electronic or print, without the author's
permission.
This
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are
used fictitiously or are the products of the author's imagination.
Any resemblance to actual locales, events, establishments or persons,
living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
*****
A pack is only as strong as
its weakest wolf.
Curvy,
half human and unable to shift, Leah Miller is
the
weakest link in the Dark Moon pack.
To
prove herself, she has to
attend
the centennial anniversary banquet of the rival Thunderfalls pack.
And
kill
their
Alpha.
But when she is caught by a
dark, dangerous Thunderfalls wolf, she finds herself unable and
unwilling to run.
*****
“Has she ever shifted
into wolf form?” Mason rubbed his whiskered chin and asked his
counselors.
“No, Alpha. Leah
Miller isn't a full werewolf. She's half human. She can't shift,
she can't fight, she's...weak,” Deadra answered with a gleam in
her cold, blue eyes. “We've tried to train her, but she has
never succeeded in shifting. We have done all we can for her, Alpha.
There is nothing more we can do.” She paused and added in a
snide whisper, “There is nothing more
she
can do. Leah
is—weak. The weakest link in the Dark Moon pack.”
Mason leaned back in his
leather chair and listened to the assenting voices of his counselors.
His expression betrayed nothing. His eyes drifted over the six
werewolves seated round the conference table. These were his six
strongest wolves, his inner circle. They held all the power and
authority in the Dark Moon pack. Mason narrowed his eyes as he
considered the plan. A pack was only as strong as its weakest wolf.
And right now, their weakest wolf wasn't even a wolf. She was a half
human, half werewolf who couldn't even shift. And she wasn't a good
fighter. He had watched some of the training sessions, and Leah had
never won a single fight. She was always beaten up good and proper
during the sparring sessions, and she never fought back.
The other trainees picked on
her, and the trainers did nothing to stop them. It was every wolf
for himself. If you couldn't even defend yourself within the pack,
how could you be counted on to defend the pack?
Mason smirked. Leah Miller
deserved to be thrashed. But to her credit, Leah took her beatings
in silence. She never cried out, never begged for mercy, and never
asked for help from anyone. But of course she would know that no
help would be forthcoming. Pleading and grovelling would only earn
her more scorn and more bruises.
Mason had plans and
ambitions for the Dark Moon pack. To be the strongest wolf pack in
North County, he had to make sure that only the strongest wolves
remained in the pack.
Deadra was right. Leah
Miller was their weakest link.
A culling was necessary.
For the good of the pack.
Mason held up his hand to
silence his counselors. His counselors instantly ceased their debate
and six pairs of wolf eyes turned to stare at him.
“I am in agreement
with you, my esteemed counselors. We have done all we can for Leah
Miller. And it is clear that there is nothing she can do for us.
It's time for Leah to leave us. The only question is—how.”
“She can have an
'accident', Alpha,” Tomas spoke up.
Mason inclined his head at
the brash, young werewolf. Tomas wasn't known for his smarts, but he
was brutal and ruthless in a fight. The sort of wolf Mason needed
for his expansion plans. If he wanted to take over the territories
of the other packs, he needed fighters, killing machines who could
obliterate the rival packs.
“We've had too many
accidents in the last few months. If the body of another Dark Moon
wolf is found floating down the river, the other packs would get
suspicious. We don't want the Sheriff and his nosy bears to come
sniffing around our territory,” Hazlynda countered with a shake
of her head.
His counselors nodded.
Hazlynda had a point. They had culled quite a number of wolves from
the pack, but they didn't need anyone poking their noses into their
pack business. If the Sheriff sent his men in to investigate the
Dark Moon pack, they'd have to get rid of the investigators before
they found all the skeletons in the closet and in the ground.
Getting rid of a bunch of external investigators was just too messy
and bloody.
They just needed to kill
Leah, without getting her blood on their hands.
It was Deadra who came up
with a plan.
That she-wolf had a mind
that was almost as cunning and devious as his own. He would have to
keep a close eye on her.
“The Thunderfalls
pack is throwing a banquet to celebrate their pack's centennial
anniversary. Every pack is to send a representative to attend this
very formal, lavish dinner. The banquet is held at Thunderfalls
Manor, their pack's headquarters and the residence of their Alpha,
Andrew Clark,” Deadra said with a slow smile. “If an
assassination attempt is made...”
Mason read the rest of her
plan in her smile.
“You're proposing to
let the Thunderfalls pack do the killing for us,” he said,
lounging back in his leather chair. He smiled back at his counselor
without showing his teeth.
“Yes, Alpha. We won't
get our hands dirty. And we'll have a legitimate reason to declare
war on the Thunderfalls pack.”
His counselors began
murmuring furiously, and he saw Deadra bask in the awed glances of
her fellow counselors.
Mason decided he could be
generous with his praise. Words cost nothing, but they could
accomplish a lot.
“That is fucking
brilliant, Deadra. We'll go ahead with your plan. I'll put you in
charge of this, Deadra.” He pushed back from the table and
stood behind her. “Inform the Thunderfalls pack that the Dark
Moon pack is pleased to send Leah Miller as our representative to
attend their centennial anniversary banquet.”
He clapped his large hand on
her shoulder, letting her feel his strength and power over her. The
veiled threat was not lost on her. She stiffened, but kept her head
bowed in submission. “I'm counting on you, Deadra. Serve me
well.”
“Don't I always,
Alpha.”
Leah
smoothed her clammy
palms
down
her black gown and adjusted her shawl. As she passed one of the full
length mirrors in the hallway, she glanced at her reflection. She
looked presentable enough. Her strawberry blond hair was pulled back
into a bun and her makeup was artfully applied. Her strapless
evening gown showed off her generous cleavage beautifully.
It
had been bought in a hurry in a second-hand store, but it looked good
on her.
Under her
gown, she wore thigh high boots. And strapped to
the
inside of
her right
boot was a silver knife.
Her nice gown and makeup did
nothing to hide the panic in her wide, green eyes. Leah blinked
rapidly and forced herself to take a steadying breath.
She could do this.
She had to.
It
was the only way to prove herself to the Dark Moon pack.
She
had always been the outcast, the freak, the lowest of the low in the
pack. But she was a member of the Dark Moon pack, even if she wasn't
a full werewolf. Her mother was human but her father was a Dark Moon
wolf. When her mom died, her father had brought her into the pack.
He had tried to protect her while he was alive, but he wasn't a very
high-ranking wolf. While her father was alive, she was tolerated in
the pack, but after his death, she was completely ignored.
And
when she wasn't being ignored, she was being picked on, laughed at,
kicked around. She was bullied and beaten, and the few times she had
tried to fight back, she had sustained even more vicious injuries for
her trouble. She had learned to keep her head down an
d
just
keep mum.
She
still trained with the
Dark
Moon wolves, but
she
hated and dreaded the sparring sessions with them. The other
trainees ganged up on her and used her as a punching bag. And the
trainers never stopped them.
Some
of the trainers even goaded them and egged them on, exhorting them to
use more force.
She
was allowed to
live in
the tiny apartment that her father left her. The apartment
belonged
to the
Dark Moon pack.
And she was
given
a job as a
lowly
kitchen assistant
in
one of the restaurants owned by the pack.
She was still part of the pack, but she was never made to feel like
she truly belonged.
But
just last week, she had been called in to meet the Alpha. The Alpha!
Imagine that.
She
had seen Mason and his inner circle of wolves on a few occasions, but
always from a distance.
The
Alpha and his counselors had ordered that she present herself before
them
for a top secret
briefing
. They had a
task for her, a
highly
dangerous, secret mission. It was a chance for her to prove her
worth to the pack. Her success would cement her posi
ti
on
and boost her ranking in the pack.
But if she failed...
“
You
have to prove that you are more useful to us alive than dead,”
Mason had said to her. He had smiled as he handed her the silver
knife, but the threat was unmistakable.
Kill, or be killed.
Her mission was to attend
the banquet as the representative of Dark Moon pack, and bury the
silver knife in the heart of the Thunderfalls Alpha before the dinner
was over. To stay in the pack, to stay alive, she had to kill the
Alpha of the rival Thunderfalls pack.
Leah
forced her eyes away from the mirror and stared at the glittering
hallways of Thunderfalls Manor. The Thunderfalls pack was hosting a
formal dinner for all the wolf packs in North County
to
celebrate the pack's
one
hundredth
anniversary.
The Thunderfalls pack was a relatively young pack, but they had grown
swiftly in size and power. Leah had heard Mason say that this dinner
was a show of strength for the Thunderfalls pack. By hosting a
lavish dinner at their Manor, they were displaying their wealth,
influence and power to the older wolf packs.
Each
pack was to send a representative.
Leah
wasn't at all honored to be the representative of Dark Moon pack.
H
er feet
felt
like lead as she dragged them down the red carpet.
She
smiled and
shook hands
with the long line of Thunderfalls wolves
but
she didn't hear a word that was spoken to her
.
Her blood was roaring
too loudly in her ears and she kept wondering if her hosts suspected
that many of their impeccably dressed and outwardly affable guests
came to the banquet armed to the teeth.
Her
hosts were all handsomely dressed in long coats and lush gowns,
and
they
welcomed all their
guests politely. They didn't refuse to shake her ha
n
d
because she was half human. Any wolf, any full-blooded shifter,
would be able to tell from her scent that she was only half werewolf.
She was a lesser werewolf, not pure of blood.
She
was a half-breed, a
mongrel.