I stop just outside the living room. Jackson, Cole, Vance, and Ford have their heads together, their voices low.“You sure you can trust her?” Vance asks.“You sure you can trust Carla?” Jackson spits out.“She’s my wife, motherfucker. Of course I trust her.”“Don’t pull your shit with me, Vance. She was a random girl you saw at the club one night, and that was it. You claimed her as yours and didn’t care how insane you became because of it. I was there when you chopped off a dude’s finger ’cause he touched her elbow. One look at her, and you’d claim her as your ride or die. Ashley is mine. None of you fuckers are to scare or intimidate her. You give her the same level of respect you give me. Got it?”The three of them exchange tense looks. I don’t want Jackson to lose his family because of me.“If you say she’s in, then she’s in,” Cole says. “I’ll always have your back.”The other two nod, which seems to satisfy Jackson.“So who’s watching him at the warehouse?” Jackson asks.“Tony a
“What? You two are pretty fuckin’ disgusting. All this lovey-dovey bullshit. All my boys are dropping one by one like flies.” He points a finger at Ford. “And this one is no barrel of laughs. He barely fuckin’ talks.”“I can’t wait until you find someone, asshole,” I say, my arms around Ashley’s shoulder, moving her body closer to mine.“Fat fuckin’ chance. Once you settle down, you’re fucked for life. Besides, my tastes are a little too much for most women to deal with long-term.”Vance and I stare at each other and both start laughing. “Yes, we said that too.”*****The warehouse is on the outskirts of town. Vance and I bought it years ago, thinking we’d turn it into a club. Maybe we will someday, but in the meantime, we’ve been using it to dispose of people who’d become a liability. It was a discreet place that didn’t bring about questions.As we walk in, our men circling around Vergelio, step aside. When the fucker sees my face, I can see the fear flash in his cold, calculating bl
AshleyTWO YEARS LATERMy cheeks hurt from smiling, from looking at the giant-ass rock on my ring finger. “I can’t believe we’re married.”Jackson drapes his arm around me, placing a kiss on my head. “Better believe it, baby. I signed, sealed, and delivered.”“So when are you two popping out a kid like this fool over here?” Cole asks while pointing to Vance.“Never,” Jackson and I say together.When we got married, I made it clear to him I didn’t want kids. For some, that’s a deal breaker, but I decided early in life that motherhood wasn’t for me. If I have kids, I want to do an older adoption. Kids like Jackson, Cole, and Ford once were. Children who were put into situations they had no control over needed love and guidance as much as a little baby. When I’d told Jackson, he’d lifted me off the ground, kissing me like I’d told him the secret to eternal youth.“What the fuck is taking so long?” Vance asks for the hundredth time as he twirls a blade on the waiting room table. A few of
John London looked at his watch for the seventh time in ten minutes. He hated waiting. Time was money for him, and ten minutes meant he had already lost at least a million dollars. Nobody made him lose money. It annoyed him that this guy thought he could be different. If John didn't need the goods so badly, he would have left already.The only joy in his life came from making money—more than he would ever need. Ever since he was outlawed and forced to leave his pack and never join another, his life has been all about making money.There was no higher purpose for him than making money, especially after losing everything else. Keeping a firm grip on the case beside him, he listened and sniffed for an approaching wolf. He was an alpha wolf, or he would be if he still had his rank. But it was taken from him, along with everything else.He bore the mark of an outlawed wolf. Rubbing his chest, he tried not to think about the pain the silver mark had left. There were nights he woke up scream
Christal—such a sweet name for a sweet woman—stared at him, terrified.They were selling her because of her weight. If he were the alpha of their pack, he’d make sure her parents suffered a fate worse than death. Seeing as he was neither an alpha of a pack nor part of one, their ugliness had given him a woman.Turning her head this way and that, he sensed her fear increasing.“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, hoping his words would ease her. Taking her hand, he led her towards his car.Crap. He had hoped for this night to run smoothly. From the way Christal was acting, he doubted she’d be ready to fuck when he got back home.For many years, Christal had heard the term “runt of the litter” when people talked about her. She hated it but pretended the words no longer affected her. Being told she was fat, ugly, and hated by all of the pack hadn’t prepared her for the final humiliation she’d been dealt this night. The words hurt, but she’d grown used to them.Sitting alone in her room,
John felt the fight go right out of her. Loosening his hold, he waited for her to submit. Her head bowed within seconds of her body relaxing. Releasing his tight grip, he tilted her head back to look at him.Christal’s scent and body didn’t repel him at all. Buying a wolf online had been troublesome, and he had been worried about what she would look like. The only word to describe Christal was beautiful. Her family didn’t see what a prize they possessed. Many wolf males, even alphas, would have taken her off their hands.Their loss was his gain.Tears fell down her cheeks, cutting him up at the sight. “Don’t cry.”“I’m not allowed to feel now, either?” she asked.She looked completely lost.Staring into her eyes, he was struck by the glorious shade of green. Running his thumb across her smooth cheek, he moved towards her lips. She showed no sign of jerking away. Her lips were plump and heart-shaped. He couldn’t wait to see how they felt pressed against his own.“You’re allowed to feel
Christal waited for him to say more. She didn’t know why she asked him about being a wolf. Of course he was a wolf. The smell along with the depth of his voice told her he was an alpha. She didn’t know why there was no pack, and there certainly were no signs of a pack. Dean hadn’t been part of the pack either.“Are you a virgin?” he asked.Glancing down at the floor, Christal stayed quiet. Christal didn’t know why she didn’t tell him the truth. For once, she wanted to keep a little part of herself to herself. She wasn’t going to tell him the truth yet. Being a virgin within a pack wasn’t something to boast about. During the full moon of a female’s eighteenth birthday, many women lost their innocence. The men would surround them, take what they wanted, and come morning they’d be full women in every sense of the word.No man had gone near her on her eighteenth or nineteenth birthday. When all the pack were fucking, she’d scampered away to be alone and mourn what she could never have. So
John left the shirt, but he didn’t leave without looking at her lush body first. He found her naked in the shower with eyes closed looking up at the shower jet. Her body was so full and round, she made him ache with need to possess her. She’d take the fucking he so wanted to give her.He left the bathroom before she scented him close by. The smell from the bath soaps along with the noise of the shower would stop her from hearing him. John closed all the doors so she wouldn’t know he’d been in apart from the nightshirt.Sitting down on the edge of his bed, he ran a hand down his face. His shaft was rock hard and showed no signs of diminishing even though he wanted it to. There was no female close enough apart from Christal to fuck.The game was set. She would fight him at every turn, but he felt the need inside her body. In no time at all she’d be begging him for more, and he intended to give her everything.Removing his clothes, he didn’t bother with a shower. He changed into a robe t