Hell hath no fury like a werewolf scorned.
All I’d ever wanted was to blend in among the humans, but my stepbrothers had other plans. When one of them sent a thug to abduct me, I had to let my true self out, claws and all.
That was the thing… The men in my world were always underestimating me.
Being the hothead that I was, I went straight to the source of the problem—the new alpha of my family’s clan, my stepbrother Sal. He had a surprise of his own, though, and when he hit me with a magically infused pure silver collar, I crumbled like I didn’t have A-plus DNA in my blood.
That was when the Duke brothers entered my life. Heroes in their own minds, they worked a deal with Sal to buy me…as if I were a commodity. To the males in my species, that was what I was, but to the Duke brothers I was the final piece in a prophecy puzzle. They wanted me to rule their clan, be alpha to their pack, which meant they wanted me to take the bites of all three of them.
To that I said, not on your life, boys. But, damn, they were hot, and I was willing to give cohabitation a try. I’d explore their old-world scrolls and prints and listen to their fairy tales about a superpowered queen alpha. I could even get behind training with their pack, but I wasn’t ever going to let a werewolf take a bite out of me.
At least that was what I kept telling myself. The beast inside me had other plans, and I’d never truly known how to stop her from getting what she wanted, no matter who she might have to destroy to achieve her goals.
Reader advisory: This book contains scenes of violence.
General Release Date: 26th September 2023
“Are we going to get some street meat or what?” Ruby gleefully shouted as she slung one arm out, pointing her finger in the direction of sustenance.
“Hang on, friend. I need to grab some cash.” I tugged Ruby’s other arm toward a side street where the bright glow of an ATM beckoned me.
It was late—or early, depending on what side of the moon you were on. Two a.m. and greasy sausages from the vendor down the road was top priority after a night of tequila shots.
Ruby was tanked, and I was feeling a nice floaty buzz, which gave me a perma-smile that hurt my cheeks and made my lips ache.
“Maybe I’ll crash at your place tonight,” Ruby slurred as she slumped against the wall next to the ATM, her body like a limp noodle. “Take a vacay from my life.”
The city streets were wafting some pretty heavy heat after the scorcher of the last few days. Summer was dying, and we were all paying for it. The patios had been full when we’d gone to grab dinner earlier, and the bars had been packed when we’d done a bit of hopping from one dive to the next. It had been fun, but I reeked of other people’s sweat, and I was ready to go home.
“My place is hardly a vacation destination.” Understatement of the century.
My place was a dump, with its hundred-year-old cracked plaster, peeling wallpaper and rusty pipes. But it was my dump, and I had been lucky to find something in the heart of Toronto. I got what Ruby was craving, though—peace, solitude, time away from her boyfriend’s two kids under five and her boyfriend, who might as well be kid number three. She wanted to stretch out her night of freedom, sleep until late in the morning. drink coffee that she didn’t have to chug and maybe have a bagel and some eggs that she didn’t have to eat cold. “I can’t promise you five-star anything, but you know my couch is always yours.”
“I love your place. It’s got so much old-world charm.” Ruby hiccupped as she rolled her head toward me, a silly grin making her eyes light up. “What’s taking so long? There’s a big fat juicy sausage calling to me.”
“That’s so dirty.” I attempted to joke, even though I was frowning at the machine, which had rejected my passcode twice already. “Don’t know.” I punched my code in a third time then slammed my hand against the side of the machine, because violence was always just under the surface for me. “What the fuck?”
“Here… Let me use my card.” Ruby pushed off the wall. “Move out of the way.”
“I can’t.” I was rooted in place. My feet stuck as I stared at the machine that was telling me my bank account didn’t exist. It doesn’t exist? “It won’t give my card back.”
I punched some buttons, agitation quickly turning to frantic rage. I had money in there. My monthly ‘shut up and disappear’ money would have gone in at midnight, replenishing the joint account with what I was owed. I slammed my open palm against the panel again, and the sting reverberated up my arm.
“Whoa there, lady.” A smooth voice slid out of the darkness, dripping with bad intentions. “That machine ain’t done nothing wrong.” He stepped too close to Ruby, pulling my attention away from the ATM.
Ruby’s eyes went wide. She straightened her back and winced. “Charlie.” My name was a squeak that shuddered past her lips. A tremor shook her shoulders.
The hairs on the back of my neck perked up.
He was wearing a gray hoodie pulled up over his scraggly dark hair. That and the shadow shielding his face made it impossible to get a good look at him. “You ladies are going to give me what you’ve got in your bank accounts.” He nudged Ruby, and she opened her mouth like she was going to scream, but he clamped his hand over her face. “Quietly.”
A loser holding up two women. Classy.
“I can’t give you jack,” I said with a nod to the machine, which was now flashing a recommendation to call my bank. “This piece of shit just ate my card.” He didn’t need to know about my other bank account.
He snorted what sounded like a laugh, and I got a waft of something not quite right. I mean, aside from the fact that he was trying to rob us, there was also a jitter about him that was making me think he was tweaked out on something. That, or he was really, really on edge. “I’m taking payment one way or the other.”
It was obvious that he had a weapon wedged against Ruby’s back by the way she was arching her spine. I didn’t know if he was hurting her or if it was fear, but she was contorting as far away as she could get with his hand on her mouth. “You scream, and I hurt you. Got it?”
Ruby nodded as tears spilled down her cheeks.
He lifted his meaty hand away. “You try your card.”
She made a mumbly noise then staggered toward me, towing the guy along with her.
I didn’t know if he had a gun or knife or if he was just using his fingers to scare the hell out of Ruby, but his eyes were dark and menacing, his pupils pinpricks. He licked his chapped lips as he gave me a once-over. I felt dirty just from his gaze. When he met my eyes again and his lips curled into a smug grin, I knew he wasn’t bluffing. The guy liked to make women scream.
I calculated the odds of Ruby getting hurt if I took action.
He was taller than me by at least a foot. Heavier, too. Probably had about a hundred pounds on me, maybe more. He likely had a weapon—cowards like him always did. I’d handled bigger men than him. I’d taken down meaner ones, too. I could deal with a bullet, even a few bullets. Nobody used silver anymore and lead, steel and brass are practically mosquito bites. Stab wounds? They would close with time.
“You do anything stupid, and I’ll kill her,” he growled like he was reading my mind.
It wasn’t me who would get hurt. Ruby was a fragile human—and not just physically. She was riding high on adrenaline right now, but that would crash soon, then she’d go into shock.
She was shaking as she frantically dug into her bag, presumably for her bank card. She was sucking air into her mouth and barely letting any go. Her fear was a rising tide, and she was going to drown.
I lifted my hands—the universal sign for surrender—and took a step back to make room for Ruby in front of the machine.
“I c-c-can’t find my c-c-card.”
Like a snake, the guy struck, smacking Ruby up the side of her head then threading his fingers into her hair. He pushed her head down toward her chest and shoved her closer to the machine. She choked on a sob.
“Stop fucking around,” the thief growled.
My hackles were up, flooding high-octane rage into my muscles. My body bulked. I rolled my shoulders back, cracked my spine, narrowed my eyes and did everything I could to keep the beast inside me under control. If she came out, this guy was going to die, and I didn’t want to have to explain that to anyone. “Take your hands off her.”
He skittered his gaze to me, tilting his head like I was intriguing him—like he found me amusing. “You ain’t calling the shots here, lady.”
“I found it!” Ruby whipped her card out but couldn’t seem to coordinate herself to slide it into the slot.
I clenched and unclenched my fists, tightening my jaw so my molars were grinding. The tingle of anticipation made my gums burn and my fingers ache.
Keep it steady, Charlie.
For Ruby’s sake, I was fighting the primal urge to lash out. If I hurt him, he’d hurt her. I needed to bide my time. Wait him out. He’d make a mistake. They always did.
When she failed to get the card into the slot on her third try, he tightened his grip in her hair. “I said, stop fucking around.”
“I’m sorry!” She managed to shove the card in, then worked on punching her code on the keypad. “I can only take out five hundred.”
“Fuck,” he muttered as he speared me with another disgusting once-over. “I guess that means you two are coming with me for the night.” As if that hadn’t always been his plan.
We waited as the machine whirred then spit out a wad of cash. He was practically salivating at the sight of it. He let go of Ruby’s hair then reached for the money at the same time that I curled my fingers over Ruby’s wrist to yank her behind me. The sudden movement startled him. He lifted his weapon.
Not a gun.
One badass-looking knife, though.
“Run,” I ordered Ruby as I leapt to block the guy from her. He lunged, and I swiped his face, my fist connecting with a rock-hard jaw and sending bolts of pain up my arm.
“Ow, you bitch!” He swung his curved blade down, reaching out to get a hold of my hair, but I ducked and weaved, nailing him in the side with another punch. This time my fist sank in, missing his ribs altogether, drilling him in the liver instead—or trying to, anyway. The guy was made of marbled meat.
He groaned but not surprisingly, didn’t go down. I ducked again when he tried to slam me with his blade but miscalculated his reflexes and took an uppercut to the chin. It sent me reeling backward, lights flashing across my vision.
Ouch.
As I was shaking it off, Ruby screamed. The guy pivoted in her direction.
Fuck.
I’d told her to run, but instead, she was frozen like prey.
I leapt onto this back and wrapped my arm around his thick neck. My fingers, complete with partially distended claws against his jugular, were hidden by his hood.
Blending in meant being subtle with my abilities—for both self-preservation and to avoid unwanted attention. I’d had three years to master my partial shift and was proud to say that Ruby had no idea her best friend was a werewolf.
“Take one more step, and I’ll bleed you like a pig,” I snarled against his ear. To punctuate my threat, I let my claws poke into his skin, drawing first blood. The smell of it revved me up, making my wolf want to howl and my beast want to rip his throat out. I tightened my hold and leveraged myself closer, clamping down on my predatory urges. My fangs dropped, burning through my gums. I scraped them along his jaw and took pleasure in his whimper. “One twitch and you’re dead.” My voice was guttural, filled with malice that I knew he understood.
The acrid smell of piss hit my nose. Oh, how the tables have turned.
“Drop the knife,” I ordered.
It clattered to the ground.
I urged my fangs to slink back into my gums but kept the pressure on his throat with my claws. “Ruby, call the cops.”
But really, what this guy needed was a good scare and some beastly tough love.
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