Wolf's Promise (Caedmon Wolves)
Read Wolf's Promise (Caedmon Wolves) Online
Authors: Ambrielle Kirk
Wolf’s Promise
by Ambrielle Kirk
Wolf’s Promise (Caedmon Wolves, 2)
Selene is thrust into the aftermath of Caedmon pack rivalry when determination to help a friend leads her to the foothills of the Virginia mountains. She doesn’t anticipate that her generosity would earn her a place behind bars and at the mercy of man who saves her from a sentence worse than death. Soon she discovers that Nick is far from ordinary. Under the façade of his commitment to protect her from evil hides a secret that shatters her faith in him.
Nick knew his life would be forever changed when Devin, the new Caedmon leader, honors him with the title of Second-in-Command. With this responsibility, he’s introduced to a web of pack politics and threats. Darius, the banished wolf who lost the most coveted title within the pack, turns out to be a sore loser, and he demands either complete dominance or total destruction. Someone must stop him before he tears down the unity that has held
the pack together for decades.
In the midst of it all, he meets a tempting brazen beauty. Selene is not just any woman, and the wolf inside reminds Nick of this fact every time she’s in his presence. She awakens raging passion within him, and he desires her like no other. Nick’s past misfortunes has taught him many things. For one…never trust a woman
with his heart.
True love awaits in the path of danger, but will Selene and Nick let the chaos destroy their bond?
Copyright © Ambrielle Kirk, October 2012
Cover Art by For the Muse Designs © October 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. The characters, places, incidents, and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or person, living or dead, is completely coincidental.
Don’t promise forever. No one knows the future. Love day by day.
~
Anonymous
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Wolf’s Touch (Caedmon Wolves, 3)
S
elene Moore
pulled her Honda into the slump of a gas station.
She cringed in distaste as the storefront
came into her full view.
It looked like one of those rest stops straight out of a stupid C grade horror flick. As she expected, t
h
e
town was completely deserted with nothing but trees, fields, and barns for miles.
Every so oft
en she would see a stray critter
run across the road. S
igns of
any human life form were vague
.
Her cell phon
e barely got reception out here, and the GPS had given up on finding a signal
hours ago.
So much for technology
when you really needed it
…
After s
lowing down to a complete stop, she leaned over
the armrest
to peer at the map in the passenger side seat.
According to it, s
he had another fifteen to twenty
miles to go before she reached the exact coordinates.
Selene returned her attention to the store. T
here were
people moving around inside.
Finally! Some actual
people.
She glimpsed the silhouette of a woman walking around.
There were two cars parked out front and a sign on the door that said:
H
ot
B
oiled
P
eanuts
. Another sign hung on the inside facing out that read:
Yes, We’re O
pen
.
This gas station
wasn’t any better looking
than the last one she passed
.
One thing was for certain, she needed to pee really bad
ly
. There was no way she could hold her water for
even
one more mil
e
. No use waiting any longer. S
he wasn’
t anywhere near her destination, and she cer
tainly didn’t want to reach it in
wet undies.
This was what she got for acting on impulse. Couldn’t she leave things as they turned out to be? No, she j
ust had to be miss nice pants and
try to go out of her way to help people.
This, though, was personal. She could not let Tamara down. She’d promised the woman that she’d
personally
see to it that she was completely safe. When she’d spoken with Tamara
on the phone
, there wa
s something in her voice that worried Selene
.
What would have made her change her mind about the new life and identity offered to her?
The plans had all been in
place—it was a quick way out of
the life Tamara had declared she couldn’t lead anymore. What had led her astray?
Selene
only hoped that she didn’t find trouble again. She
needed to see for herself that Tamara was alive and well.
Her conscious would not let her rest until she did.
She swallowed down
all her reservations, opened the door, and got out of the car.
As she walked toward the store, a burly man stepped out from the corner of the building. She hadn’t even noticed him before.
He took a cloth out of
his pocket and cleaned his car
grease stained hands on them. “Do you need gas, ma’am?” His ancient had a hint of southern drawl to it.
“Yes.” She could probably make it on a half a tank of gas, but she didn’t want to risk it. “Yes, please. Can you fill it up?”
Relieved that the man posed no threat, she made her way into the store as he headed toward her car.
Upon entrance, the woman looked up
over a shelf
and the man at the cash register also stared rudely.
“May we help you find something?” the lady finally spoke as she rounded the corner.
“I’m looking for the restrooms.”
“Straight to the back.” She pointed to a door near the back of the store.
Selene hurried toward it anxious to relieve herself. When she got inside, she immediately turned up her nose. It wasn’t as bad as she expected, but there was still a smell of must and dirty mop water lingering in the air. What could she expect from a p
ublic restroom at a gas station anyway?
She held
her breath and did her business,
careful not to touch the toilet seat. After washing her hands, she headed back out into the store. Both the woman and man looked up at her once again. They weren’t even trying to be discrete about staring at her.
Selene cleared her throat an
d headed toward the snack aisle
. She’d been craving something salty the who
le ride. There was one bag
of her favorite brand of potato chips
left on the shelf
, and she snatched it up. As she ventured down the aisle, she couldn’t resist picking up a packet
of vanilla crème filled cakes. The place was filled with junk food, so she didn’t feel the least bit guilty about it. She hadn’t seen a reasonable place to stop and eat for hours.
She damn sure wasn’t going to go hu
ngry out here
.
Damn
her diet. Desperate situations called for desperate measures.
“Are you finding everything alright?” The lady came up behind her.
“Yes, thank you.” Selene
turned a
round to acknowledge her
.
“You’re not from around here.”
The wor
st thing she could do was admit to a
complete stranger that she was alone and had no idea whe
re the heck she was. Much less—
where she was going.
“Do you have anything
hot to eat?” she asked.
“We have
hot boiled peanuts.” The lady motioned toward a food station in the back of the store.
She followed, and her mouth watered when she saw the
espresso
machine. “I was thinking more along the lines of a nice hot drink.”
The lady smiled. “It is rather frigid outside. This is one of the coldest winter
s I can remember in a long time, but there’s warmer temperatures on the way.
”
Selene grabbed a large cup. “I was born in New York City, so the cold doesn’t really bothe
r me. The air here is rather humid
though. Do you get much snow?”
“Oh yeah, we got a bunch of it
a couple of weeks ago. M
uch of it has melted away
.”
She filled her cup almost to the brim, exhaling deeply when the rich coffee aroma wafted under her nose.
“Where are you headed?”
“To the mountains,” Selene said, quickly. It was better than telling her that she had no earthly idea. She had a paper map and the coordinates picked up from the tracer
report she received from Tamara’s cell phone
.
It was her only hope for finding the woman.
The lady looked at her as though she smelled something rotten. “This time of year?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“It’s a mighty dangerous place to be for such a young woman. Where’s your companion?”
“I’m meeting her
,” she lied.
The woman’s nose wrinkled. “Just be careful up there.”
“Thank you.” Selene backed away and headed toward the cash register. She was relieved to be fre
e from the woman’s prying. But she was right.
Coming out here may have been a mistake
,
but
she’d already driven t
o
o far to turn around
. No matter what she told herself, she could
not bring herself to go back
.