Bratt“You have been a very tricky woman to get a hold of. Lucky for me, you were out of town long enough so I could get past these cheap little window locks.”It was the first thing I heard when Marley answered the call.“Don’t be an idiot. Close the door, sit on the couch, and be a good girl.”I was too late.I was too fucking late.The phone line went quiet, my phone beeping to indicate a hung-up call.I flew into action, calling my sister immediately as I hurried out of the house and jumped into my car. She didn’t answer the first call. I cursed and called again as I peeled down the road.She finally answered her damned phone on the third call.“Bratt, I am not your private police det—”“You need to get a car to Marley’s house immediately,” I barked.There was a pause on the other line, then her quieted voice spoke again. “What’s going on?”“Her stalker is in her house. Curt Fowler. He’s a friend of a Wyatt Pierce, her ex-boyfriend, and some lycan supremacist dick.”“Wait, not the
When I’d first arrived in New Middle Bluff, I’d talked to Lana about my panic attacks and nightmares. I was having the strangest responses to the panic—it was almost like I wasn’t experiencing fight-or-flight at all—I just became paralyzed. I couldn’t do anything. Couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. “That’s because there’s more than just fight-or-flight,” Lana had told me. “There’s also fawn and freeze. It sounds like you’re freezing.” And that’s what I was doing now. Freezing up in this situation that had materialized right out of my nightmares. My stalker rounded the sofa and pushed my coffee table back until he could sit on it comfortably. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees with the gun sort of hanging from his hand casually. He captured my eyes with his black stare, and I swallowed hard. “This has been a lot of fun,” he said, the corner of his mouth ticking upward. “When my partner approached me to play this role, I was a little hesitant to take it on, but it’s be
BrattGood God, it was satisfying to finally dig my teeth into this prick flesh.I’d chased after him for weeks, dealing with his childish taunting and his smug face.My heart was a jackhammer, but now that we were facing off against each other as wolves, I had the upper hand. He might have been fast, but he was small, and when he attacked Marley, he’d opened himself up for me like a sitting duck.He put up a valiant effort. Getting a few strikes in on me before I managed to pin him and go for his neck.Of course, as soon I did, he shifted back into his human form, screaming and covering his face with his hands like a coward.“I yield, I yield! Please don’t hurt me,” he whimpered.It was so different from what I had expected. The complete opposite to that nasty, sneering jerk I’d tangled with, that I actually did stop, lifting my head to get a good look at him.“Police! Freeze!” my sister’s voice shouted from the other side of the beach. I looked over to find not only her but a few of
I woke to slow, teasing kisses against the bare skin of my shoulder. Each one left a tickling wetness that made goosebumps rise on my arms as Bratt’s breath blew across it. I hummed softly, a little laugh escaping my mouth as my eyes remained closed. “Aren’t you worried about Noah walking in on us?” I said sleepily. “Uncle Travis just came to pick him up,” he said, desire heavy in his voice. We spent the first few days after the attack healing. We talked through all of our miscommunications, and we apologized properly instead of those clumsy, rambling apologies we’d rattled off when tensions were high. Finally, on the night we decided to really define what we were to each other, we made love. He’d wanted desperately to do it again. Hell, I had, too. But a five-year-old with super-sonic hearing down the hallway was a surefire way to kill any bedroom activity. “Ah, is this what we’ll be doing until we soundproof the bedroom?” I teased, my toes curling as he pressed a kiss to the s
Accepting her fated mate’s proposal could prove deadly…Ciara Quinn wants to have it all and is beginning to believe that it’s possible when her fated mate Cillian proposes. But as soon as his family sees the ring, they start pressuring Ciara to consider a merger between their two companies.Ciara is torn between marriage to the man she loves and losing her personal freedom. Then they learn that there are some potentially sinister business practices occurring in Cillian’s family company, so Ciara agrees to use the guise of a merger to investigate.When footage of Ciara’s recent capture by The Raze is leaked to the media revealing her real identity, it puts her entire reputation is at risk. Ciara begins to suspect that the board members aren’t the only ones in Moon Valley keeping secrets. And if she doesn’t act fast, she may not live to see her wedding day…***Sheets twisted and tangled around my ankles, pinning my legs in place. My eyes popped open as I clung to the bottom sheet, try
CILLIAN How do I tell her? Should I just blurt it out and spill everything like some manic? Or am I supposed to be sensitive? Why does this have to be so complicated? I should be able to blurt things out to her. It’s not like she can’t sense my hesitation, and knowing her, she’s probably already thinking the worst. Okay, get a grip. Just open my mouth and tell her. Let it all out—consequences be damned. I glanced over my shoulder when I heard the clicking of metal as the doorknob to the guest bedroom twisted. To my sensitive ears, it sounded like nails on a chalkboard and caused my blood to run cold. My heart skipped, and my stomach flipped as time seemed to slow down. Ciara stepped out of the room. She brushed her hand over her shoulder to clear her dark, raven hair off her slender shoulder, and it was as if the world had stopped completely. I knew there would never be another capable of holding my attention the way she did. Ciara always had the ability to steal the very breath f
Iwrapped my arms around myself, trying to hold in the warmth of my body as I stepped outside. The ground was soggy from the torrential rain that had just come through, but the air smelled crisp and refreshing. It always blew my mind how the desert always seemed so barren and devoid of life, yet after a good rain, things always managed to come back to life.Moon Valley was no exception to the rule. Even though it was surrounded by a forest and tucked near the base of the mountains, the trees still suffered when there was a drought. Still, it could have been like Vegas, where instead of evergreens, there was steel and concrete. I could only imagine how Vegas would look under a few feet of water. The last time a monsoon this bad had come through, it damaged a few of the houses here but never touched the city.“And just what do you think you’re doing?”I whipped my head around to find the groundskeeper shaking his fist at me. Vlad had been tending to Harkness Manor since before I was born
CILLIAN “Ican’t believe they would even suggest such a thing. And did you hear them? They made it sound like they weren’t trying to steal your business out from under you,” I growled as I pushed through the side door and stepped out into the warm summer sun. Ciara was on my heels, and I could taste her irritation on my tongue. Every ounce of happiness drained from me as we trudged to the river. It was the only place I could think of to go to have some privacy. I needed fresh air, and to get as far from my parents as possible. I wondered if they’d follow us out, but when I tested the cord that bound me to them, I knew they weren’t stupid enough to talk to me at the moment. “Did you really not know what they were planning?” Ciara asked once we were out of earshot of the manor. I whipped around and grabbed her by the arms. The question stung me, but it was justified. My head shook profusely from side to side. A small part of me was offended that she would ask me such a question after