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Chapter One
It came
from deep in the woods, a low, lonely howl that tugged
at Laney’s soul. She heard it and her ears pricked, her
body suddenly going tense. She looked up from the book
she was reading in the den of her small cabin and
waited, wondering if the sound would come again.
Seconds
passed. A minute. The teasing notes rose higher and
crested on the balmy night air, causing a slow, tingling
heat to creep over her body. Laney shivered and her
nipples turned into hard peaks. Hearing that sad,
tormented cry made her breathing ragged and her heart
quicken. What was it about that voice?
When the
haunted notes finally faded, she shook herself from her
sensual fog and snarled. This had to stop. For four
nights now, she’d been hearing that same relentless
baying. The new neighboring pack was going to start a
war with her brother if they didn’t back off the border
and stop calling out within hearing range of the wolves
under Seth’s protection.
Nerves
jangling, she turned her book over and got up from the
couch. Anger and frustration mounted within her as she
moved quickly through the house to the back porch. She’d
promised to watch over things and take care of any
emergency pack business while Seth was away for the
week, but she had a sinking suspicion that confronting
the alpha of a rival pack wasn’t what he had in mind
when he’d left his instructions. Be that as it may, she
had to do something. Seth and the other males weren’t
going to return for another two days, and that
persistent calling was really starting to get under her
skin.
Laney
stepped off the porch into the moonlight and crossed the
shadow-mottled yard with determined purpose. The wind
rose up and swirled around her, strengthening the odors
of pine and moist earth--and something else she couldn’t
quite identify. The combined scents filled her lungs and
made her feel strangely restless as she headed toward
the tree line that began a short distance from the
house.
She walked
straight into the woods, choosing to remain in her human
form even though her jeans and bootlaces kept snagging
on the briars as she moved over the rough ground. It
would be faster traveling in the form of the wolf, but
she preferred the slight sense of protection wearing
clothes offered her.
Dressed or
not, she knew going into the woods unescorted was
potentially dangerous. Seth would likely strangle her if
he ever found out about her going near the border alone,
but it would be so much worse for everyone if he came
home and discovered members of a rival pack stirring
close to the border, marking their territory. She had to
reach this rogue male and talk sense into him before
anyone else from her pack could answer him and stir up
trouble.
She walked
maybe ten feet farther into the woods before the male’s
call rose up again. The notes struck her with the force
of a silver bullet, shooting hot sensation from her head
straight to her toes. Her breathing hitched. Her senses
swam. A tiny tremor wracked her small body. Now that she
was closer to the source of the call, the lure was more
pure, more potent. Alluring.
Laney
stopped in her tracks and clamped her eyes shut tight as
heat pooled thick and wet between her thighs, soaking
her panties. A tender ache started inside her and she
gritted her teeth to hold it at bay. Still, the notes
played over her skin like the brush of velvet fingers.
The sound beckoned her, called to her inner
beast until she shook with pent-up desire.
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