Taken by the Wolf: Collection Read Free

lot, close to the road. She felt on top of the world, half skipping as she made her way across the gravel lot. Maybe her life wasn’t going to be so bad after all—maybe eventually she would be able to save up to go back to school.
    She didn’t see the man until his reflection appeared in her window and his hand shot forward, slamming her door shut and pinning her between himself and the car.
    “How’s it going, beautiful?” the greasy biker from earlier asked. “How about that date?”
    The stench of alcohol mixed with his foul breath burned her nostrils. It smelled like a dead animal was rotting just behind his teeth. Even though he stunk of alcohol his eyes were completely aware, not drunk at all.
    “Please leave me alone,” she begged, turning her face away from him.
    “Oh come on, beautiful,” he said, leaning forward and sniffing her neck. “I can smell the fear on you, and that’s not a good smell. Don’t be afraid.”
    “Don’t touch me,” she moaned, feeling tears streaming down her face.
    “Shhhh,” he said, stroking her hair with the back of his hand. “You don’t need to be afraid beautiful, Axel won’t hurt you.”
    “Please, Axel,” she begged; hoping that her using his name would calm him. “Let me go home. I’ll give you all the money I have.”
    “I don’t need money,” he whispered. “I need something else.”
    He reached up and squeezed her left breast hard, causing pain to shoot through her chest.
    “Those are real nice,” he whispered. She cringed and nearly screamed as she felt his snake-like tongue run its way up the side of her neck.
    “NO!” she screamed, bringing her elbow up underneath his chin, knocking him off balance. He cried out and stumbled to the side, leaving her an open path to the bar.
    She took off running, her legs pumping as hard as they could. It seemed like she’d covered a good distance, but the man was on her in less than a second. Her vision blurred as she felt him grab her hair, yanking her hard to the ground. All the air left her body as she hit gravel. A stinging sensation shot through her head. She tried to cry out, but her breath was completely gone. Instead she could only whimper as she rolled over, trying to get away. The hot, sticky sensation of blood trickled down the back of her neck. She was feeling lightheaded and dizzy, but she had to get away.
    “Crawl all you want, beautiful,” the man said, walking up behind her. He put his boot on her ass and shoved, sending her sprawling onto her face from all fours. “You’re all mine.”
    * * *
    Rowan sniffed around the back of the building, looking for some trace of the Satan’s Angel. He had never seen the man before, meaning he was probably a low-level thug. Still, he wouldn’t have traveled this far without his pack. The wolf’s motorcycle sat behind the bar, all by itself in the open. His scent was easy to pick up, but he wasn’t out here—at least not out back.
    Where the fuck did he come from? Rowan cursed in his head. He continued to curse himself, ashamed that he had let a human woman distract him so much. Instead of doing his duty as Sheriff of Bucklin, he had stayed in the bar to make eyes with the human woman. She was beautiful, probably one of the better-looking humans he’d ever seen, but that didn’t excuse his not following the biker when he was thrown out of the bar.
    Rowan started to walk around to the side of the building, ready to give up and return to the alpha council with his head bowed in defeat. They would not like this failure; if any other alpha besides his own sat in the head chair he’d probably be busted down to deputy or worse. Even so, he was going to have to endure quite the ass-chewing before all was said and done, if any of the alphas were brave enough to confront him.
    He started to open the door to his ‘89 Chevy when a stiff breeze blew through, bringing something new to his nostrils.
    Blood, he thought. He sniffed again. The biker.
    Rowan was