Real Men Snarl: Real Men Shift Read online

  Real Men Snarl

  Real Men Shift

  Celia Kyle

  Marina Maddix

  Contents

  Blurb

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  About the Authors

  Blurb

  Ally doesn't want to have anything to do with werewolves. Kade is a werewolf who wants to do everything to Ally.

  Just because Ally Rose can turn into a wolf, doesn't mean that she's happy about her status as a shape-shifting, occasionally howling, never-butt-sniffing werewolf. As a result, she has only two rules in life: 1) avoid werewolf packs at all costs and 2) stay the hell away from the man who turned her against her will. Packs are evil…violent…deadly… And the wolf who turned her is the worst of the worst.

  Just because Kade Blackwood is the Alpha’s brother, doesn’t mean he can ignore a direct order — even when it’s something as mundane as packing up an old woman’s belongings and hauling them back to the pack house in Ashwood. But all of his good intentions fly out of the window the moment he steps foot in tiny Pepper, Georgia…and smells her. His mate.

  He wants her. Craves her. Aches for her. But first he has to find her…before the wolf hunting Ally gets his paws on her.

  Chapter One

  One false step and Ally Rose would be down for the count. Strips of woven nylon wrapped around her legs, randomly tightening and then loosening. It was only a matter of time before she hit the pavement.

  Well, pavement and probably a dog or two.

  Six dog leashes twined around her legs while the mutts on the other end sniffed and barked and pooped. Everywhere. Then they had to pee on the exact same spot as one of the others or the world would end.

  When Bernstein, a fluffy white Pomeranian with the personality of a bull mastiff, weaved between her open legs, then jumped and tried to lick her hand, Ally decided enough was enough.

  The pups grumbled and whined but a few creative lunges, a handful of ducks, and one twist into a pretzel and she was final free. The dogs looked up at her, panting happily, as if her bid for freedom had been a fun game.

  She crouched low—not an easy task for a big girl who stood five-foot-nine—and allowed each one to give her a slobbery doggy kiss. She ignored the passersby, pretending she didn’t have an audience while she allowed herself to be licked to death by a pack of over groomed furballs.

  “Okay kiddos,” she raised her voice above the barks and yips as she stood, “time to head back.”

  Like everything else during their walk, turning around and going home wasn’t that simple. She reached down to pat Jake the bulldog on the head, which was when Bernstein decided to tug on his leash and make a break for it. And he did, the little ball of adorable pain-in-the-assness.

  The silly fluffball sprinted headlong into the street, and Ally’s heartbeat picked up its pace, thumping fast and hard. His pink leash bounced along the ground behind him, a bright spot of color against the dark asphalt.

  A quick glance down the empty street reassured her that Bernstein wasn’t about to become hamburger, and she breathed a little easier. This wasn’t the first time in the last few years that she was thankful she’d moved to sleepy Pepper, Georgia.

  Ally glanced around once more, this time for anyone who might hear what she was about to do. She was fine with her reputation as an anti-social hermit, but she didn’t want to add ‘crazy lady who thinks she’s a wolf’ to the list. Crouching low, she allowed her inner wolf to come forward. Its rumbling, feral growl had brought more than one uppity pooch back in line over the years, and it didn’t fail with Bernstein.

  The little Pom skidded to a stop, turned on his heel, and scampered back to her, head low and tail between his legs. He laid down at her feet, whimpering his puppy apology. Ally’s heart surged with affection for the little rebel and rubbed his head to show there were no hard feelings.

  “Aw, sweetheart,” she murmured. “It’s okay,” she whispered as she scooped him up with one hand. “You have to be more careful. You could have been flattened.”

  He took her reassurance as praise and nearly wriggled right out of her arms as he showed his happiness. Still wiggling that little tail, he gave her a very wet, and more than a little disgusting, face bath with his tongue. She groaned and tipped her head back, trying to stay out of reach and keep an eye on the others, but Bernstein was a persistent little shit. She rounded the next corner and passed a tall man in a baseball cap. She pasted on her normal, polite smile as she and her unruly pack scampered past.

  “Looks like you have your hands full.” He seemed friendly enough, but Ally kept her eyes averted.

  She nodded, then hurried on without a word, as she always did. She loved walking the dogs, but they were people magnets. Unfortunately, Ally most definitely wasn’t a people person. At all. Sure, once upon a time, but… Life had kicked her in the teeth and taught her to keep to herself. It was safer that way.

  Two blocks down and one block over on Front Street was their destination—the town’s small veterinary practice. Getting them inside the building and into the back area with the kennels took almost as much time as their actual walk. Between the wiggling, the yapping, and flat-out barking, she hardly managed to get everyone behind the swinging door.

  Every walk ended with a treat, and they wanted theirs now!

  Mia, a young, African American vet tech, took the leads from Ally and helped her tuck each pup back into its assigned cage. “Did they all behave?” She glanced up from behind pretty purple and black twists.

  “For the most part,” Ally popped Bernstein into his cage, “except for this little monster. Tried to make a break for it, right into the street.”

  Mia laughed and shook her head, curls swinging with the movement. “That’s a man for you. Never knows what a good thing he has till it’s gone.”

  Ally smiled awkwardly as Mia chuckled and finished up with the dogs, fighting the urge to laugh along with Mia. She liked everyone at the vet’s office well enough, but her policy of keeping humans at arm’s length included her coworkers, as well. She’d only allowed herself the luxury of becoming close with two humans, and that was simply because they wouldn’t accept anything less.

  “Lucy coming home soon?” Mia asked. “Tessa must be going cray-cray.”

  When Ally’s best friend from college, Lucy Morgan, had decided to reconnect with her roots in Ashtown, a couple hours away, she’d asked Ally to watch over her grandmother. Tessa was a vibrant and sassy eighty-two-year-old who knew everything about everyone in town—much like the rest of the population of tiny Pepper, Mia included.

  Well, almost everything—not even Lucy knew Ally’s deepest, most revolting secret, and she planned to keep it that way. Which wouldn’t be very difficult now that Lucy had decided to stay in Ashtown permanently. She planned to take Tessa back with her, too. Leaving the town—and Ally—in her dust.

  “Oh, she’s doing fine,” she twisted her fingers in her long, brown waves as she fought yet another wave of anxiety. “I’ll let you know when Lucy’s coming back. Later!”

  She barely gave Mia time
to say a word before she spun and rushed out the door. She spent every waking minute trying to not think about Lucy—literally her only friend in the world—deserting her. Of course, that was impossible. She didn’t resent Lucy finding the love of her life and everything that came with it, but… what about Ally?

  Guilt assailed her, and she felt childish for even thinking such things, but sometimes it couldn’t be helped. She’d spent so long on her own that when she’d run into Lucy years after high school ended, she’d held on for dear life. Now, Lucy and Tessa were the only family she’d been able to lay claim to for longer than she cared to remember.

  Ducking down a side street, Ally headed for a familiar route home. The narrow path along the forest—made by deer, according to her wolf—bordered private property. It was gated off from the world, but the world didn’t have a determined inner wolf who sniffed out an opening. Once she snuck in, the path was hidden from view by a latticework of white and yellow honeysuckles that twined along the chain link fence.

  Breathing deep, a smile tugged at her lips as the air filled her. She could practically taste the sweetness of the honeysuckle. The sun’s bright rays snuck past the rustling leaves, casting dappled shadows across the forest floor. A bird sang from the branches of a nearby tree and she was sure she heard a squirrel racing through the underbrush.

  Pepper would be different without Lucy, but maybe she could continue to call this place home. Her wolf liked the quiet and lack of overwhelming scent of pollution. There were forests and trees and plenty of prey for her animal to hunt. Maybe… She closed her eyes and took another deep breath. She expected those same soothing scents to fill her lungs but… But she nearly choked as a new aroma filled her nose. One that sent a bolt of fear down her spine and caused her heartbeat to stutter.

  It had to be the dogs, right? She’d been walking the pups and their scent was confusing her nose. Because what she thought she smelled she didn’t really smell.

  Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt, Ally.

  The scent held an essence of smoke, cherry wood, and warm fur.

  She swallowed hard and fought to draw air into her lungs. Another wolf had walked this path. Recently.

  An all-too-familiar urge to race home, grab her go-bag and get the hell out of Dodge rushed forward. It didn’t matter that the scent wasn’t his. The fact that a strange wolf prowled around teeny, tiny Pepper was a bad enough. Because there was never only one. She’d learned from experience that where there was one, there were more.

  She’d had a good run—more than a few months in one place had seemed almost decadent to her and she’d made it years. But it was her own damn fault for getting comfortable, for letting herself think she might actually be able to settle down in one spot forever, surrounded by people who cared about her.

  She cared for them even more. Which meant it was time to go. Attachments weren’t a good thing in life.

  With wolves in the area, Tessa would be safer with her gone. Besides, the older woman would be moving to Ashtown with Lucy any day now. The timing couldn’t have been better for Ally to hit the road. Just as she had a dozen times before.

  She quickened her steps, managing to take a half-dozen strides before her wolf rushed forward. It fought for control, tugging at the reins and fighting her forward momentum. She struggled against the strength of her wolf, ignoring its snarls and growls as she tried to continue. Tried and failed. Even when she told it to quit being such a stubborn ass, it held on and refused to budge.

  What the hell!

  The beast surged then, attempting to force her shift, but she beat it back into submission… for now, anyway. That didn’t mean it was done. The animal ached to chase this new, delicious smelling wolf. To capture more of its scent and wallow in its natural flavors.

  No way. She mentally shook her head at the beast. Ally wouldn’t risk it. If they’d learned anything from the past, it was that no good could come from being around their kind. Too much pain, too much torment. Had it already forgotten the harshest, most painful lesson?

  The beast whined, wanting to comfort its terrified human half but still controlled by its animal instincts. Chase. Protect. Hunt. Calm. Stalk. Comfort.

  It retreated at the final thought—the wolf attempting to comfort its human half. It didn’t withdraw fully, the beast still hovering just beneath her skin, but it was enough for Ally to resume control. When she came back to herself, she realized she’d bent over, one hand clinging to the chain link fence to keep her upright. Her skin shone with a sheen of perspiration, thoughts of the past forcing her long buried panic to rise.

  She wasn’t sure what was up with the wolf and had no idea why it was suddenly all keen on finding another of their kind. It could feel the agony from their shared memories, experiencing them just as keenly as her human half. So why was it so eager to chase trouble? Then again, she’d never understood much about her wolf all together. That was what came from being forced… She mentally shoved that thought aside and straightened fully.

  “Thank you,” she muttered and returned to her path.

  She kept her nose attuned to every scent that drifted past her. Maybe the strange wolf was simply passing through Pepper on his way somewhere else. Maybe it wasn’t time to panic…yet. If he stuck around, she could decide whether to hightail it out of town—or set her wolf on him.

  Then again, what if he’d been hired to hunt her down? Only one person on earth would do that—her ex-boyfriend, Brian Riverson. He’d vowed to stop at nothing to find her, dead or alive. A shudder wracked her frame, causing her to stumble to her knees. She stayed where she was, unhurt but panting as if she was experiencing tremendous pain.

  It was the memory of pain, she knew that, but it felt as fresh as the day it happened. She could almost see the leering faces of the jackals Brian had called his pack mates. She could almost feel their claws dragging against her flesh. She could almost smell Brian’s sour, cloying scent. It clung to her lungs, lingered in her nose. It reeked of rotten garbage and wet dog and spilled blood.

  Ally lowered her head and struggled to calm her breathing. She was having a panic attack, nothing more. She could handle this. Internet research had taught her deep breathing techniques. On her first deep breath, the pain eased. On her second deep breath, the jackals in her mind faded. On the third deep breath… she still smelled him. She took another breath, then another. Still there. Still there and fresh and still as slick and disgusting as ever.

  “Shit!”

  It was him. He’d found her. The scent wasn’t imaginary. It was real and based on the strength, he’d been past only minutes before. Nausea gripped her stomach and rose into her throat, but she fought it back. She pummeled it into submission. She needed her wits about her if he was on the prowl. No matter what happened, she wouldn’t be taken out mid-vomit.

  A nearby bird cawed, a loud call before it burst into the air, sending leaves raining down on her. She glanced around at her surroundings, searching for him among the trees. And that was when she realized exactly how stupid she was. She’d found the perfect path for him, hadn’t she? She practically handed herself to him on a silver platter. The path was isolated, hidden from view, and had more than one blind corner.

  He could be hiding around the next bend for all she knew. Him and one of his goons, just waiting to jump out at her. He’d brought that strange wolf—that other scent she couldn’t identify—with him. Side by side, they’d come after her.

  Her inner wolf tried to argue that the owner of the other scent wasn’t necessarily working with him. Ally almost snorted aloud. Right. She didn’t believe in coincidence.

  Her heart thundered so loud she was sure it could be heard in outer space, the rumble constantly increasing in speed. She whirled in place and raced back the way she’d come. She broke into a sprint, pushing her body to hurry over the rotten leaves and dirt. For the first time in her adult life, Ally wanted to be surrounded by people, in full view of the world. Witnesses. She needed witnesses when h
e finally found her. Knowing him, he’d corner her somewhere. He’d want her afraid, trembling and filled with panic. Then he’d strike.

  The last time she’d been in his presence, he’d turned her into a werewolf. That was when he’d wanted her as his “mate.” That was when she’d escaped, and she’d turned him into a failure.

  The Riverson family—Brian Riverson—didn’t accept failure. This time, he’d kill her.

  Chapter Two

  Kade stared at his cell phone, a mix of reluctance and loyalty to his brother warring inside him. On one hand, he didn’t want to get bitched at. On the other, Mason wasn’t only his older brother, but also his alpha. And when the Blackwood Alpha called, the wolf better pick up.

  Dammit.

  He tapped the green circle on the screen and placed the phone against his ear. “This is Kade.”

  Mason skipped pleasantries and his irritated voice blared through the phone’s speaker. “So, how’s Tessa? You remember Tessa, right? Eighty-two. An older version of my mate? Ring any bells?”

  Kade knew his brother’s question was rhetorical. If Mason expected an answer, then Kade was a pretty princess in a pink tutu. At the moment he sported his typical snug shirt, worn jeans, and boots that’d seen better days. No tutu in sight.

  “Now, Mason—” Kade tried to soothe the angry wolf, but his brother’s growl interrupted him.

  “Don’t even try to tell me you haven’t found her. Hell, you didn’t even have to look. I gave you her address.”

  Kade scrubbed a hand over his stubbly jaw. “Yeah. I know, but—”