Series: Werewolves of Wall Street Series by Renee Rose
Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 59360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
“Have a good run,” she says. I accept a few last pets, and nudge her towards the waiting car. I wait until she is safely inside and on her way home before turning back and racing to catch up with the rest of the pack. I’ll do this run with the scent of my mate clinging to my fur.
The howls die away as the rest of the pack finishes shifting and starts to run. The cold has a razor edge, but it can’t penetrate our thick coats. The snow makes running a challenge, but there's nothing like a hunt on a winter’s eve. I let my wolf play, finding the scent of a squirrel and ducking under hemlock boughs to follow it.
Nickel does the same, bending a branch back only to let it snap in Billy’s face. Billy’s big white and gray wolf snarls and pounces. The two land in a snowbank, sounding like they’re going to kill each other. A minute later, they right themselves and shake off the snow before trotting along together, best friends again.
At least until Billy pushes Nickel into another snowbank.
The wind picks up, carrying our enemies' scent. I snap the air, tasting the cold and the Adalwulf’s stench. I trot to a rock overlooking the expanse of land. Below, my pack mates are romping, running everywhere as they please. From time to time, each wolf finds a tree, cocks a leg, and marks the trunk. Spreading their scent around, marking our territory wolf-style. Marking this land as ours.
I sit back on my haunches and howl.
The sound echoes through the valley, bouncing off the mountains. My pack members join in, amplifying the call. Billy and Nickel burst from the forest, running neck and neck. I bound in front of them, and we all race flat out, straight up the side of the ravine.
I put on a burst of speed, and the world blurs around me. The snow and shadow of the hillside turns into a haze. I reach the top of the tallest hill with my inner circle just behind me. We’re on flat land now, in an old pine forest thick with darkness. The moonlight streams through a broken patch in the canopy, illuminating the figure waiting for us.
Aiden fucking Adalwulf. He’s right next to the white flag marking the end of our land and the beginning of Adalwulf territory.
He brought back-up, too. About a hundred and fifty wolves from his pack, standing in a precise military formation. They look like something out of a Nazi propaganda film. Odin’s a dictator who rules with an iron paw. It wouldn’t surprise me if he mined the Third Reich for leadership ideas.
But Odin isn’t here. And according to my mother, Aiden is eager for his father to die, so he can ascend as alpha.
“That’s their weakness,” Madi told us. “That’s the fracture in their pack we can exploit.” For a human, my mate is brilliant at wolf politics.
I pad on all four paws up to the line and drop to my haunches. Billy and Nickel are right at my back. Jake, Vance, and Sully on either side of them, in an arrow formation. Eagle crowds in front of Ruby to protect her, even though she could stand her own with any wolf, even Aiden.
My Adalwulf cousin stands with his hands in the pockets of his black tactical pants. “I'll be met by moonlight, proud Titania,” he quotes A Midsummer’s Night Dream, like a fucking tool.
There’s nothing to stop me from leaping over the line and attacking Aiden. He’s shirtless and barefoot, but it’d take a second for his wolf to kick out of the torn pants. I could use those seconds to go for his throat.
He would be fun to fight. We might be evenly matched.
But that will come another day. Tonight, I follow the plan. The one concocted by my mother and my mate.
I suck in a breath and let the change sweep over me. I rise, naked, and face my cousin.
“So nice of you to visit, cousin. Do you like our land?” I spread my arms.
A muscle twitches in Aiden’s cheek. His eyes flash a brilliant silver, showing me the monster lurking under his civilized skin.
“We’ve enjoyed hunting on it,” I say. “Hopefully there’ll be some game left for you.”
Aiden shrugs. “My wolves enjoy hunting bigger game. Other predators.”
At Aiden’s right hand, a big bruiser of a brown and black wolf snarls softly at Billy. Billy ignores the wolf, which enrages it even more.
I smile, letting my canines flash. “Interesting.”
“You seemed to be on the hunt for a different quarry yourself. Last time I saw you in the boardroom, you were completely out of control.”
Great, we’re going to talk about this. “That hunt is over. I have claimed my mate.”
“A human,” Aiden sneers.
A growl rises in my chest. A warning. “My human. She has accepted my claim and claimed me in return. She is our pack’s luna. And we are here to demand satisfaction from those who tried to kill her.”