Marked wolf protector wo.., p.1
Marked Wolf (Protector Wolf Shifter Series Book 2), page 1
MARKED WOLF
PROTECTOR WOLF SHIFTER SERIES
BOOK 2
LILLIANA ROSE
Marked Wolf by Lilliana Rose
Copyright 2023 Lilliana Rose
All Rights Reserved
Ebook ISBN: 978-0-6454402-9-4
Print ISBN: 978-0-6458070-1-1
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
For my dogs,
Kimba and Sprinkles
for waiting patiently.
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
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
About the Author
Acknowledgments
BLURB
Tamaska is hunted by vampires and needs protection.
Kodiak is the one to keep her safe. But after discovering he is a wolf shifter, Tamaska is confused and fearful. She vows to find the Blood Opal herself, unwittingly going straight into the vampire lair.
Kodiak must find another way to protect her before the vampires capture her for the completion of a ritual to heighten their powers. If he doesn’t, he will lose the woman he’s falling in love with, and the vampires will dominate humans making them their blood slaves.
Kodiak can’t stop this from happening alone. Will his pack be able to help him protect Tamaska? Or will the vampires hit them hard and begin a change that could bring chaos to the world forever.
1
Tamaska
I don’t trust you or your kind.
Tamaska’s words reverberated in her head as she backed away from Kodiak.
Pain ricocheted from her knee. The fall when fleeing the vampire in the bushland left her body hurting. But it was the image of him as a wolf that scared her the most.
Kodiak moved closer to her. She shook her head, everything shrieking in protest as she staggered away.
“You don’t mean any of that,” said Kodiak.
“I do,” replied Tamaska.
Kodiak wasn’t just something she didn’t believe in: a shifter. No. It was worse. A dog…wolf…in her brain canines were the same. Something to be feared, hated. Creatures who wanted to destroy her, almost as much as the vampire.
A laugh, hysterical and wild, bubbled up, but she swallowed it down. Vampires. Shifters. What was next? Things that went bump in the night? No, if she let herself laugh, scream, or cry, she’d lose her very mind.
“I do. Now leave me be. I never want to see you again.”
This time she turned. His stare burned into her back. An unexplainable need to stop and go to him grew inside of her. But there was no going back. She had to get somewhere safe, whatever that meant.
Somewhere safe, somewhere she could lick her wounds and formulate a plan.
The noise of Sydney’s inner-city called to her, as if it could take her away from her living nightmare, take her into the hands of safety where reality was as it always had been.
Boring, safe, mundane.
“Tamaska.”
She closed her eyes at the quiet command, the plea to hear him out.
But how could she do that? Her entire life had spun out of control the moment he’d stepped into it as part of the team hired to protect that cursed Blood Opal.
Since then the opal had been stolen, someone had stalked her, and—
And she’d slept with this man, given him something, a piece of herself she’d never wanted to give.
Only to discover he wasn’t a man at all. Kodiak was a monster, a reviled thing, and—
She was losing her mind.
How could any of this be real?
She limped across the scrub to the openness of the grassed area of the park, the boundary before the rising apartments and busy roads. Sydney’s landscape erupted into high-rise buildings and congested roads with thousands of cars. The scene sent a sense of relief through her.
She rubbed her wrist as it throbbed from the impact of her earlier fall. What had she seen? It couldn’t have been real. But it had been. Real as she was. Hadn’t it?
The further she walked away from it all, the more it wavered in her mind. The real world, the grass, trees. Planes overhead, the high rises and the Harbor Bridge, the traffic, and the people. Normal, regular folks.
Her head throbbed as reality took a beating. She’d witnessed fur turning to skin, paws morphing to hands, bones cracking, and so much more she wished she could unsee.
A couple strolled past, and their gazes caught on her. Christ, she probably looked like a mess.
Tamaska raised a hand to brush her hair back, to smooth it, and to her horror it shook. Dirt and something dark like blood was smeared over the back, the scratches a vivid red. Averting her gaze from the staring couple, she limped along the path before they could say a word.
What could she say if they asked if she was all right?
Vampires? Shifters? Curses?
She fingered the lump on her head.
That had to be why her crazy thoughts of wolf shifters and vampires wouldn’t vanish. Her fear of dogs didn’t help, either. She couldn’t be anywhere near them. That was another reason not to trust her thoughts.
Tamaska’s skin prickled as she accelerated away from Kodiak. How could he be human and a wolf at the same time? It made no sense. At the same time, a familiarity in the truth of his existence chilled her to the core.
She was making excuses, trying to find a way around the horrible, glaring truth: The world wasn’t simple like she thought.
Creatures like Kodiak, like that vampire, existed.
And no amount of so-called rational thought would change the ugly truth.
A sharp pain rippled through her as Kodiak’s words echoed in her mind.
Her best friend Tahla was dead, killed by a vampire who wanted to do the same to Tamaska.
Let them fucking try.
The pain in her knee eased as she maintained her speed towards the main road. Clearly not a serious injury. She thanked whatever stars that might be lucky for that. By the main road, she would be visible to a city full of people. Kodiak wouldn’t dare try anything then.
Automatically, she glanced over her shoulder to see if he had followed her.
But no.
Something called to her, like he’d physically hooked into her, chained her to him somehow. He was a fever in her blood, and she knew he was still there before she turned.
When she did…
Her gaze found him immediately.
Kodiak stood at the tree line, his gaze firmly fixed on her, his expression almost unreadable. Almost because something glimmered in his eyes like determination, like regret. Want. Disappointment.
She shivered. It didn’t matter what they’d done, how she’d learned his body, the feel of his skin, those hard muscles, the heat of him, his kiss…no, she didn’t want him—not beyond that physical call.
Unable to move, she stared back. He wasn’t coming for her. He was naked and that thought made her shiver.
With relief, she told herself. He couldn’t risk chasing her without drawing unwanted attention and possibly getting arrested.
She gave him a stormy look, as if to dare him to follow her. If he did, she would make him regret it. By God, she would. Her pulse quickened as anger boiled through her. How dare he try and convince her she needed him? Apart from everything, he’d lied to her. Lied.
About who he was, what he was. Oh, all the arguments sounded in her head, but none of them made up for the lie.
Yes, she tried to justify and think around the truth that made no sense. Yes, she understood if he’d told her what he was straight out, she wouldn’t have believed him until he’d proven it. But he waited until he’d gotten her guard down, until he’d had her, stirred feelings she didn’t want in her, made her long for him…or at least the idea of him she’d had in her head.
And now he what? Wanted her to think she needed him? A creature she hated? A man she didn’t trust?
No.
Tamaska would find the Blood Opal herself and get out of this fucking mess she was in.
All on her own.
She turned and hurried onto the footpath, desperate to escape those burning, watching eyes, then hailed the first taxi to come along. She slipped in, closing the door with a bang as if shutting Kodiak out of her life.
“Where to, Miss?” asked the driver, peering into the rearview mirror. His dark eyes momentarily gave her pause.
Could he be a wolf shifter too? How the fuck would she know?
She clutched the door handle hard, ready to flee. Her muscles tensed, ready to respond to her command.
“Miss, you want a lift, or not?” His sharp tone cut through her irrational thoughts.
Tamaska forced herself to gain control, to grab on to reality. The new reality.
Not everyone was going to be non-human.
She glanced down at her scratched hands.
Where did she want to go? She was here, in a damn taxi, and… She needed to solve this problem. There was only one place she knew she might be able to find answers. She lifted her gaze and looked back at the driver.
“To the Blood Moon Nightclub.” The words came from her mouth, firm and cold.
Impulsive? Perhaps. But impulse didn’t mean she was wrong.
After all, where the hell else could she search for answers?
She’d tried all other avenues.
“Where?” He said this like he must have misheard.
“Blue Moon Nightclub.”
The taxi driver’s eyes widened, and she met his stare coldly. He nodded, then drove off.
Tamaska exhaled slowly and steadily. Her heartbeat settled to a regular rhythm and that tremor of adrenaline calmed. What she needed to do was think, and to do that she needed this calm.
It was daytime.
Day.
Vampires weren’t active during the day. Even the one that attacked her had been scared of the day’s light. She could see that now as she looked back.
A bubble of hysteria threatened to overtake her, but she pushed it away
Despite the blood drinking she’d seen at the club, she was going back. Kodiak had confirmed the Blood Opal was there. If she wanted to find it, that was the first place she needed to look, no matter how dangerous it might be.
No, how could it be dangerous? It was daytime.
The vampires wouldn’t be there. Tamaska snorted at the thought. Vampires…she was either losing her mind or it had been opened. Right then she didn’t know which, or what, was worse.
“You all right, Miss?”
“Sure.” She shrugged. This was the craziest thing she’d ever done times a hundred, to go back to the nightclub alone a second time. Even if it was day.
But one thing she knew was this was the safest time she could choose.
It wasn’t even open.
Vampires were creatures of the night.
And if they had humans on staff, well… What were the chances that anyone would be there after such a big weekend celebration? No one in their right mind would be there. Not this early.
It might not be early in the grand scheme of things, but for someone who lived a literal nightlife, it was.
Heck, even she could use more sleep. In normal circumstances that’s where she’d be, tucked up in bed. Instead of…whatever this was. But she’d take this weird advantage and run. Turn her life getting this messy and chaotic so rapidly, into some kind of blessing.
Tamaska wriggled in the seat, impatient to get to the club. How much daylight was left? Five hours, maybe? Surely that would be plenty of time to look around before dark.
She chewed her bottom lip, the surroundings through the window blurring. The image of Kodiak changing forms had frozen in her mind.
It can’t be real.
But it was. And she wasn’t a weakling, wasn’t one who shied from tough truths or difficult things. And this…
Tamaska closed her eyes, squeezing them tight as if to push away what she’d seen. If only the simple action could push away the image forever. The mental battle fizzled out as she shifted her focus to finding the Blood Opal.
“You going to pay?” asked the taxi driver.
Her eyes flicked open. The sight of the Blood Moon Nightclub set her stomach roiling as memories of the blood drinking filled her mind.
The old warehouse looked black even during the day, as if it harboured dark secrets. Her blood pounded hard and fast through her veins, hammering in her pulse points as she reached again for the hard-won calm.
“Don’t tell me you don’t have any money?” He frowned.
“Hang on a minute.” She fumbled to unlock her phone and paid the fee for the trip. Ironic that she had to pay her way back to a place she’d never wanted to return to.
But if that was what she had to do to get the Blood Opal back, then she would push aside her fears. Her life depended on getting that gem back in the hands of its owners and putting her life back on track to running her own marketing business.
“You sure you want to get out here?” asked the driver.
Tamaska hesitated, overwhelmed by the building staring down at her. She refused to let the images of the previous night, or of Kodiak’s transformation, scare her away from finding the Blood Opal.
“Yes.” She pushed the door open and got out before she changed her mind. The sound of the taxi driving away made her stomach clench.
Then a sudden rush of heat, zinging with a sexual need, shot through her. Memories of what she’d done with Kodiak the first time they’d had sex, rushed in and threatened to buckle her knees. How could it be so good when he was everything she hated?
She put her hand on her belly. Things had been going so well between them. The connection had been strong, and she’d started to allow him into her heart, more than she should have.
The taste of acid rose fast to her mouth. She bent, resting her hands on her thighs as she fought the nausea threatening her. But as she breathed that wave passed, and she slowly straightened, hating the sensitivity suddenly taking up residence in the pit of her belly.
She couldn’t even blame her sickness on being drunk. It was good that things had ended with Kodiak.
He was a dog, not to be trusted.
As much as she didn’t want to believe it, she did. She’d seen it with her own eyes.
But one thing she knew was she’d never allow him to get close to her again.
This wasn’t about him. This was about her, the future, finding a way out of the mess, and hopefully by returning the opal, she could somehow use that to bring this place down and avenge her friend’s death.
All she could do was try.
She squared her shoulders and looked up at the building.
I’m out of my depth.
No. She wasn’t letting defeatist bullshit in. Not now, not ever. This was another facet of her. She prided herself on taking whatever came at her.
That’s how she needed to view this.
Her skin prickled with excitement. She loved a challenge, especially when so much was riding on her success.
If she was going to find the gem, she had to think of a way to get in without being seen.
2
Kodiak
Goddamn headstrong, idiotic woman. Rage curled inside Kodiak, wanting to solidify. But he refused to let it.
If he did, he might lose control of the anger that was building its own pyre, bringing its own high-octane fuel to the party.
And fucking Tamaska? A match.
His body healed from the fight with the vampire as he stood, deep in the bushes, having watched her go. Having let her go.
For now.
She wasn’t going to walk from him. Not when there was so much unfinished business. Not when he’d tasted her, like he’d lapped her blood, laid claim. Marked her as his.
