For anyone who’s ever needed a cup of coffee more than life itself,but couldn’t find their shoes Chapter 1 CursedIt had been years since I set foot in the Armitage pack's territory, and I'd hoped to keep that winning streak going for a while longer. Of course, being kidnapped and cursed had a way of changing your plans.Not that I was really setting foot in it now, more like setting hands and knees. I'd fallen so many times that I'd stopped trying to get back up, and was just crawling through the thick, loamy mud under the drenched forest canopy.The patter of chill rain on the back of my neck was bad enough, every drop sending new shivers down my spine, but my soaked jeans were chafing in every direction and on every sensitive bit of me. Why had I worn skinny jeans this tight again? Oh, right, going out clubbing, and not planning on being kidnapped and cursed. Mud squelched through my fingers and seeped into my ankle boots.I'd been so careless, so arrogant. My father, such as he
Chapter 2 At the Mercy of the PackWaking up sucked nearly as much as passing out in the freezing-cold mud with an alpha werewolf threatening to kill me, but a lot less than getting chained up and chanted at by a shaman trying to turn me into a slave. So hey, chalk one up in the win column.I blinked, then blinked again, and then gave up when my vision stayed stubbornly fuzzy. I was dry, and I should have been warm — I was in a bed, and under a pile of blankets — but I was goosebumpy and shivering in spite of what felt like a real feather comforter and a set of flannel sheets.Looking around the best I could with only half my vision, I caught glimpses of ugly wood paneling, a ceiling painted mustard-yellow, and a few other items of bedroom furniture, probably a dresser and a nightstand and maybe a chair. There was some kind of psychedelic poster on the opposite wall, although thankfully I couldn't see it very well.Not that anyone had ever accused werewolves of having a lot of aesth
Chapter 3 The Only Option“It's not a list. I mean, I don't need any supplies, or herbs, or fucking chalk, for fuck's sake. Jesus.” I closed my eyes for a second, and the world felt like it was tipping around me. My stomach roiled. This was the last thing I wanted, but it was this, or die. And it turned out, I actually wouldn't rather die after all. “The ritual was forming a bond.”“Yeah, you said.” Matthew finally sounded impatient. I was surprised he'd lasted this long. Most people didn't, when they were talking to me. “Get to the point.”“If I'd interrupted it a little sooner, maybe the magic would just have broken. But the shaman finished the part that created the bond on my end. He hadn't started the part where the other guy got bound up too, but I was already hooked.”I swallowed hard around the lump in my throat, the words I needed to say dying out before I could even form them.Matthew leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “Tell me, Nate.”“I need to complete a
Chapter 4 In the Wolf’s DenThe next time I woke up, I was in motion. Gentle, careful motion, but it was enough to make my stomach turn over and my head spin. I sucked in a deep breath, and the scent of pine and fresh, rain-washed air settled my nausea a little. I was outside somehow, but I was still warmer than I had been, and the arms around me were…arms. Around me.My eyes popped open. All I could see was a stubbled jaw and one ear, surrounded by auburn curls, and beyond that, the deep-green shadows of tree branches against an overcast sky.“What the fuck?” I managed to choke out.“Thought you probably wouldn't want to mate in the house that Jerry Garcia built,” Ian rumbled. I could feel his voice as much as hear it, since I was pressed against his chest. Being carried bridal-style, Jesus. There was irony for you. “I know I don't.”And seriously? Ian had a sense of humor?Okay, I could worry about that later. So not the point. “Mate?”“I thought that was why you showed up here lo
Chapter 5 MatedWith my face pressed into Ian's pillow, I had to struggle for air. He pushed my thighs open, nudging so that my knees slid up the mattress and left me splayed open for him, completely exposed. I turned my head a little and gasped in a breath, squeezing my eyes shut.Ian reached over me and rummaged in the sideways milk crate he apparently used as a nightstand, and I cracked my eyes open enough to see him pull out a bottle of lube. It was only half full. Maybe he had visitors to his shack of solitude once in a while, then.The thought made my stomach twinge with…something unpleasant. How many of the Armitage pack had been on this bed, right where I was, ass up and ready for Ian to thrust inside? As the biker chick incident proved, he wasn't exactly picky — or at least, since according to Jared's account she'd been hot as hell, he might have been picky but he wasn't gay.Actually, strike that. Was he even bi?“Ian,” I whispered, and then let out a whimper as two slick f
I woke up.That was noteworthy on its own, because I'd been convinced I wasn't going to make it — that the drain on my magic was too much, and the mate bond wouldn't happen in time to save me.So I luxuriated for a few minutes, enjoying unexpectedly being alive. I ached, starting with the stinging bite on my shoulder and ending with the throbbing between my legs, but that was fine. I was alive to ache.And as I started to adjust to consciousness a little, I realized I wasn't hurting nearly as much as I'd have thought. My magic really was connected to Ian's, now. I might be mated to Ian — oh, fuck, I was actually mated to Ian, and now I was seriously wide awake — but at least I was also mated to Ian's super-speed werewolf healing. I wouldn't recover as quickly as he would have, but it'd be at least twice as fast as a normal human.I rolled over in bed and blinked. The shack of solitude was quiet, with that echoing stillness that comes with the absence of other people. I reached out a t
The night after Ian and I mated wasn't the best night of sleep I'd ever had.Strike that, it was the worst. For one, Ian hogged the bed. That shouldn't have surprised me, since in all fairness he should have gotten two thirds of it to start with. But I ended up with a tiny little sliver of mattress, and only sleeping against the wall — and I do mean against the wall, squished on my side with my spine crammed against a wood panel — kept me from toppling off and rolling under the bed, possibly never to be seen again. I'd glanced around a little more while Ian was at the pack house getting food, and it quickly became obvious that the only part of the floor Ian swept was the middle.For two, I was still hungry. Ian's idea of ‘food that came from a grocery store’ was a dented can of minestrone soup and half a loaf of whole-wheat bread with all the gross seeds in it. Without butter.And third, even if my fucking useless mate had scrounged up something more to eat and had a better mattress —
Chapter 8 Give Me Coffee or Give Me DeathWaking up alone in a strange room that smelled like dust and werewolf was starting to be a pattern — one I didn't like much.And since I was now mated to Ian, that might be every morning for the rest of my life. That was a cheerful thought before I even had any coffee.Coffee. I'd finally fallen asleep sometime after dawn, probably right before Ian got up and left. Exhaustion had kept me under while he moved around. Now it looked like it was about noon, going by the angle of the light. Of course Ian didn't have a clock, and my phone was smashed somewhere on the floor of a warehouse. Just as well. If I'd had one, Ian probably would have kept it anyway. I could picture him hunched over it, waiting for a text that read, “Oh hey this is the Kimball shaman. Killed Matthew Armitage yet? Report soon! :) Good luck!” I was pretty sure Ian actually did think I was that dumb.Asshole.I swung my legs out of bed, winced at the chill of the floor against