JASMINE Jack and Tyler pulled into my driveway on Sunday afternoon. I ran out as soon as they arrived and hopped in the back of their SUV. “Are you ready?” Tyler turned in his seat to look at me as Jack backed out of the driveway. “I think so,” I replied. “Why don’t you tell me more about this group you’re bringing me to?” “Remember how I told you there are more gay people in the pack than just Jack and me?” I nodded. “Well, over the years, the queer people in the pack have found each other and formed a secret support group. We all meet on Sundays, and I’d like you to join us as an ally—our first ally actually.” “Your first ally?” I asked. “There are no others like me?” “Since the LGBTQ+ community was so unwelcome in the pack for so long, most people are suspicious of outsiders. But Jack and I spoke with them and convinced everyone to let you come since you’re going to have so much influence as our luna.” “But I don’t know how to help,” I replied, my anxiety brewing. “I didn’t
JASMINE “Oh my Goddess, Jasmine, you look beautiful.” A tear trailed down my mom’s face as I turned in my wedding dress for the photographer outside of our house, a white fur stole wrapped around my arms to keep me warm. This had to have been maybe the third time in my life I’d ever seen my mother cry. She was usually so cold, but today she was acting very motherly for once. “She’ll make a wonderful luna,” my aunt said to my mom. “I remember the day I married your brother Lance. It was such an exciting day. You know, I saved myself completely for him. I was a virgin on my wedding night.” “You’ve already told me this, Julia.” My mom lifted her eyes to the sky in a look of annoyance. “Isn’t it so nice to save yourself for marriage, Jasmine?” My aunt smiled at me. “I bet you’re so excited for tonight and the wonderful gift you’ll be giving your soon-to-be husband.” My entire body burned with embarrassment, and I had no idea how to respond, shocked she'd say that. “Julia, don’t talk
JASMINE When my dad walked me down the aisle, the only thing I saw was Blake’s handsome face as he smiled at me from the altar. My heart beat forcefully against my chest, and I returned his smile, feeling as if I were walking on clouds. The ceremony was long and tedious as we had to go through different chants, prayers, and meditations. I did glance over at the pews and notice that, true to his word, Blake had arranged for Paige and her family to be seated near the front. Once the priest finally pronounced us husband and wife, my stomach fluttered as Blake kissed me, dipping me as he did. When he pulled away, he mindlinked me, “Can’t wait for the wedding night, Mrs. Alpha.” He gave me a mischievous smile, and then we finally marched out of the temple to head to the reception. A limo was waiting for us outside, and we hopped in. “I figured if we’re going to have sex in the back of a car, we should find one that’s comfortable.” Blake snickered. “Stop!” I pushed on his arm, laughing.
JASMINE Toward the end of the night, Blake and I made our way to the bridal suite so I could change into my going-away dress. We were planning to have one final dance and then leave to begin our honeymoon. “Can you help me undo the back of my dress?” I asked as we entered the suite. “With pleasure,” he replied, standing so close behind me I could feel his body heat. He lowered his mouth to the back of my neck, gently kissing it down to the buttons of my dress. He brushed his hands across my shoulders to find the top button. My breathing shallowed at the intimate gesture. “Do you think we have time for a quickie?” he whispered in my ear as he unbuttoned the back of my dress. My stomach fluttered at the thought. “Not with how long you take,” I replied playfully. “If you prefer quickies, I can definitely make that happen for you. Fast, slow, medium speed. Your wish is my command. I can do them all.” I laughed. “I think I want it slow tonight. It’s really special.” “I can guarantee
TALIA Alex and I danced the whole night away on the crowded dance floor. I couldn’t believe how many people showed up to Blake and Jasmine’s wedding. I’d never seen so many people in one room before. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Alex was actually a very good dancer. He spun me around until I was dizzy, dipped me low, swung with me to the beat of the music. “My turn!” Lucy cut in at one point. “You’re hogging my dance partner!” She playfully elbowed Alex out of the way. He chuckled and gave my shoulder a squeeze, “Have fun. I’ll go grab us some more drinks.” “No need, I have our tequila shots right here!” Lucy pushed one into my hand. “You’ve gotta love open bar! Now just follow what I do!” She put her shot glass out in front of her, and I did the same. Then I mimicked her movements as she shouted, “Arriba, abajo, al centro, pa’ dentro!” We both threw back our shots, and she grabbed the empty glass from me to put onto the empty tray of a waiter walking by. She then g
ALEXANDER My father and sister were both pretty fucked-up, but, damn, Blake was sick. Because we had to make do with what was available in the casino, which wasn’t much, Blake had a bunch of his warriors holding the members of the Bois Sombre Pack down while he tortured them. They were both fully naked after being forced into their human forms. Chef’s knives were brought in from the kitchen, and Blake tested each one of them out on the men’s torsos until he figured out which one was the sharpest, their ensuing screams widening his smile, his eyes gleaming. “You know what I should be doing right now instead of torturing you motherfuckers?” Blake asked menacingly. They both struggled against the men holding them down, expressions like deer in headlights. “I should be enjoying my wedding night. But since you assholes interrupted it, you’ll just have to enact it for me.” He laughed evilly. “Normally I wait a few hours until we get to the main event during my tortures. But I promised my n
BLAKE “We’ve got our warriors stalking the perimeter of the Bois Sombre Pack. But their territory is too big to cover every part of it.” Beta Alfred walked into the bridal suite where I was now congregated with Luke, Jack, Kyle, Alex, Talia, and Tyce. “Alpha Antoine is sending his warriors to join ours,” I replied, barely able to move my mouth. I was trying desperately to hold it together, but I knew that if we made one wrong move, Alpha Édouard wouldn’t hesitate to kill Jasmine. And, even if he didn’t kill her, I could only imagine what else he might do to her. The man was completely unhinged. He’d beaten his own mate half to death even when he would have felt the pain as he did it; there was no reason he wouldn’t do the same or worse to someone else’s. The graphic thoughts wouldn’t leave my mind. The only thing that kept me half functioning was that I knew she wasn’t dead yet. I would feel her death, same as I felt anyone in my pack when they died. No, she was still alive, but who
BLAKE At around five in the morning, we finally gave up on torturing the assholes and transported what was left of their bodies to the pack cells. All the alphas in Jasmine’s family had gotten involved, taking turns. After Jasmine’s grandfather began his work, it wasn’t long before Jasmine’s uncle also joined us. True to Tyce’s words, he shoved the knife into their literal assholes. But even with so many people taking turns to find new and creative ways to torture, it ended uneventfully. The pack members we held hostage either truly didn’t know where Jasmine was or they were exceptionally good at keeping their mouths shut. I leaned toward the former. I didn’t think it was possible anyone was that good. We’d tortured them in every way possible, they were begging for death, and they still didn’t talk. It seemed futile to keep going, but we decided to keep them alive for now, with the small hope that if we resumed in a few hours, maybe they’d finally break. But it was doubtful at this p
TYSON "Good night?" Blake smirked at me, as he caught me entering the packhouse after I'd gone for a run, his eyes crinkled in an amused expression. "What?" I asked, confused. "I saw that girl you had here last night doing the walk of shame this morning. Don't worry, your secret's safe with me." He chuckled. "I see you're enjoying everything my pack has to offer." "You saw her?" I asked. "Yeah, her family was worried about her so we put out a search. Like the pack security? Make sure you report that back to your family." "Do you know who she was?" "You dog!" Blake pushed on my shoulder with an amused smile. "You didn't even get her name? I always at least got the name." "Well, what's her name?" I kept my expression neutral, not sure whether it was better for Blake to think I'd banged her or not. I still needed to find out what she was hiding from her parents. As much as she infuriated me, I didn't want to blow whatever cover she had for whatever the fuck she was doing—which I a
GINGER Oh Goddess, fucking Artemis. My head hurt, my stomach burned, my chest wheezed. The sun was so bright. I kept trying to open my eyes, but the light streaming in through the window made it very difficult. I moaned, in terrible pain, my whole body sore. This was worse than my worst hangovers. Even when I blacked out it was never this bad. I really did need to go to the pack clinic. I'd cry out for Paige to carry me there. She was a full-time warrior—her muscles were definitely strong enough by now. I finally forced my eyes open and was instantly confused by my surroundings. This wasn't my bedroom. I'd never been in this room before at all. Had I hooked up with someone the prior night? I tried to think back. What had happened? The full moon! It all hit me at once. I had taken the double batch of the potion and then everything got blurry. And, oh my Goddess, was that a dream, or had that douchebag from the fortune-telling shop really appeared? It had to have been a dream, right?
TYSON If I were being completely honest, it was nice being away from my pack for once. That place could be so suffocating most of the time. I mean, my grandfather was a complete dick, and my dad wasn't much better. It's like they say, alphas always have to be in charge, and more than one alpha is volatile—an explosion just waiting to go off. In the case of my pack, there were three of us, which made the whole thing pretty combustible. I'm actually surprised we hadn't battled it to the death yet. Granted, things weren’t exactly smooth sailing coming to Alpha Blake's pack either. We were still two alphas with competing personalities, but it was better than dealing with my father and grandfather. Blake was pretty reasonable and wasn't hell-bent on making my life miserable. Although, I'm pretty sure Blake wanted nothing to do with me coming to his pack to "check things out". But he was desperate to make his mate's family happy, so he agreed to the arrangement for the summer. That worked
GINGER "Gigi!" my sister Paige wrapped her arms tightly around me as soon as I entered the house. I hugged her back, so appreciative to be reunited with her again, returning to my pack in Vermont after finishing up the school year. Being twins, we had a special connection. It had been much stronger when we were younger, a lot of my own resentment toward her pulling us apart over the years. It wasn't her fault, but I couldn't help but feel envious that she was able to accomplish all my dreams. An unsettling feeling that someone else was living my life constantly choked me, salt rubbed into the wound. The thing is, becoming a warrior was always my dream. Our dad was a warrior, and I was always way more into it than Paige. I'd love to go with Mom to watch him spar on nice days out. I loved when he spent time training me to fight and defend myself in the backyard. Yes, I was a daddy's girl through and through. And the way I hung onto my dad was the way Paige hung onto me. Even though she
Thank you for reading Wolfblood. This now begins book 3 of the series, Wolfborn, which introduces some new characters and also continues Jasmine and Blake's story. Happy reading!*** GINGER Secrets. Everyone has at least one, right? Mine was that I lost my wolf. It happened a long time ago—it was an accident. It was one of those moments in life that changed everything. You know what I mean. One day, everything was normal, great even, and the next thing you know, your life is destroyed over one bad decision. Yep, all it took was one stupid decision and my wolf was gone. I kept crossing my fingers that there was a chance she might come back—that she was still somewhere deep within me, stagnant, in a coma, just needing a little shove to wake up. That's why I went to see a witch on a regular basis. That was my other secret. My parents were suspicious of witches—us werewolves and witches didn't exactly have the best relationship. Lots of old wives' tales, I think—that whole 'be carefu
*** 2 weeks later *** TALIA “Good morning, beautiful.” Alex placed a mug of coffee onto the bedside table early one morning and then instantly slid into the bed next to me. The connection between us was much stronger now that we had marked each other. It was almost as if we had become one, our emotions connected when we were near each other, his running beside my own. At that moment, Alex felt both content and worried. I was sure that the worry was for his mother. “Is your mom okay today?” I asked, brushing my hand through his hair. “She seems okay today. I brought her her morning tea and toast, and she seemed happy with the small gesture.” “You’re such a good son.” I kissed him on the forehead. He grabbed me, pulling me tight against his body, kissing me deeply. “Ow!” I pulled away. “What’s wrong?” he asked, furrowing his brows. “My boobs are just really sore.” I rubbed one of them. “Does that happen often?” he asked. “No, not really. Sometimes when I get my period, but I do
JASMINE “All set, our flight’s been rebooked for tomorrow night.” Blake smiled as he plopped down on the hotel room bed—the one we were supposed to have slept in the previous night until, well, things didn’t exactly go as planned. He stared into my eyes. “Your face is looking much better now. My only regret is that I didn’t get a chance to torture that motherfucker for what he did to you.” “It’s okay. It’s over now,” I whispered to Blake, wanting to forget what happened. “You were amazing today, a true luna.” He brushed his hand through my hair. “I can’t believe you ever even doubted yourself.” I sighed. “I’ve actually realized a lot of things in the past week,” I replied. “Really? Like what?” “Like I’m excited that I’ll be able to use my influence as luna to make changes in the pack.” “What kind of changes?” “Like Tyler and Jack took me to a secret pack LGBTQ+ meeting. And everyone came up with great ideas for how they could feel more welcomed in our pack. I want to help them.
TALIA After I completed my portion of the mission, I went back into Alex’s car, and Jack and Kyle followed me inside while some of Alex’s men stood guard outside of it. I couldn’t lie, my heat was unbearable. The longer I went without petting my cat, the more painful it became. Tears were brimming my eyes as I squirmed in my seat. “Blake owes me big time,” Jack said from the back. “Goddess, this is awkward,” Kyle replied. “I can’t help it,” I cried out. “Can’t you just go outside?” “Can’t, we have two alphas on our asses now,” Kyle replied. I whimpered in response. I glanced in the rearview mirror as he turned to Jack and said, “I mean, maybe we should, Jack. Let her have some privacy.” “The last thing we need is to give her some privacy and then someone from Bois Sombre sweeps in when none of us are looking. Bad idea, Kyle.” “Just a thought, bro.” He frowned. “Consider yourself lucky. I had to go through over four hours of this before.” I grumbled, reminded of the last time,
JASMINE Not even an hour after I killed Charlie, a man in either his later thirties or early forties with the sleeves of his shirt rolled up, tattoos covering his forearms, approached my cell. His distinct gray eyes scanned the entirety of the small room I was in. I could instantly sense this man was evil, a shiver traveling up my spine. My instincts were in full overdrive, my inner wolf howling with fear. I stood up, panicked. “Hmm, not such a weak mate, I see.” The man spoke with a French accent, scanning the room, smiling evilly at me. I stared at him, wondering what he was planning to do to me. After some time, he said, “I can’t decide if I should cut you up or fuck you. Why not both?” He pulled out a switchblade, exposing the knife to me. I began hyperventilating and the world was spinning around me as fur sprouted up my arms and legs. I was having a panic attack. As my body tried to force me to shift, agonizing pain shot up my arms. I cried in agony from the metal cutting into