Page 8 of New Blood (Werewolf Alliance #1)

A fter making sure that every member of his team knew what they had to do, Jude followed Chase Crowley’s directions to the master suite.

The big-boned, muscular werewolf was soft-spoken and not at all what his rugged exterior suggested.

It would be good to win this man’s loyalty.

He wasn’t part of the Gallagher family, and therefore, it would be easier to bring him to his side.

The door to the master suite stood wide open, and the lights illuminated the large room as if it were daytime. Upon entering, he spotted Flora opening drawers and putting items into a cardboard box. When she heard him enter, she looked up.

“I’m just packing up William’s personal things,” she announced.

He nodded. “Are the sheets fresh?”

“Yes, and the bathroom—”

“Good. Please continue with your packing tomorrow. I’d like to turn in for the night.”

“But I’m not done,” she protested.

He suppressed a sigh because he didn’t want to be outright hostile to the woman who clearly managed the household. “Trust me when I say that every one of William’s personal items will still be here tomorrow. I have no need for them.”

“But the—”

“Please,” he insisted, infusing firmness into his voice to make her understand that he was at the end of his patience.

“Of course,” she said quickly, her voice tight.

She might as well have said fine . He knew exactly what that meant coming out of a woman’s mouth. But he wasn’t in the mood for a prolonged argument. He needed to unwind.

When she took the box and walked toward the door, he added, “Thank you, Flora.”

“Good night,” she replied, and it sounded just as forced as his own thank you had sounded. It appeared he wasn’t the only one who needed a good night’s sleep to shake off the tension that had built up during the past few hours.

The door shut behind her, and finally, silence surrounded him.

He unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged it off.

His eyes found his travel bag that somebody had brought into the room earlier.

He was about to reach for it to remove his toiletry bag when he heard a sound from the direction of the ensuite bathroom.

Instantly alert, he held his breath. Without making a sound, he slipped out of his shoes, and, wearing only his cargo pants and socks, he approached the bathroom door.

He was prepared for everything, not that he thought that the Gallagher pack would have already had time to mount a rebellion, but there was always Byron, the hothead of the family.

Jude wouldn’t put it past the second son to take matters into his own hands to wrestle control of the pack back from the Alliance, no matter how foolish the plan was.

The door was ajar. The bathroom light was on, and he saw movement through the gap between door and frame.

With one swift move, he pushed the door open fully and barged into the room, ready to immobilize the would-be assassin.

He snatched the person’s shoulders, spinning them around to face him, but in mid-movement, he already realized how wrong he’d been.

For starters, the shoulders beneath his palms were softer and much smaller than those of a man.

In fact, the entire body of the person in the bathroom was much smaller than that of any of the male members of the Gallagher pack—because this person wasn’t a man.

It was a woman. A female werewolf. As he took a breath, her tantalizing scent teased his nostrils.

Still frozen in mid-movement, his hands on the young woman’s shoulders, he ran his eyes over her.

At first glance, she seemed unassuming, somebody he could have walked past on a busy street and not even have noticed.

She was pretty, but not in an obvious way, not in the kind of way that made men turn their heads to catch a glimpse of her.

Her figure was petite, and her dark hair touching her shoulders sparkled.

Her skin was tanned like that of somebody who spent lots of time outside in the sun, not lying by a pool, but working with her hands.

Her lips were plump and inviting, the kind of lips he would have called dick-sucking-beautiful if he were still a randy teenager with little respect for women.

But he was a man, a grown man who shouldn’t have such base thoughts, a man who had himself under control at all times.

A man who made his decisions by using his brain, not his heart, and certainly not his dick.

However, standing in front of this woman, inhaling the tempting aroma that surrounded her like a cocoon, his brain was clocking out for the day, and his dick was suddenly in charge.

His manners had called it a day; otherwise, he would release her from his hold now and apologize for having snatched her with such force.

He knew he wasn’t hurting her. Werewolf females were practically as strong as their male counterparts, even though, judging by the size of this fine specimen, she would never be able to beat him. It would be a very unequal fight.

This woman hadn’t snuck into his bathroom to ambush him when he was in bed.

No, by the looks of it, she’d cleaned the bathroom.

Even as this realization settled in his mind, he barely loosened his grip.

He couldn’t: her eyes were pinning him as if they could paralyze him.

They—and her scent—were the reason why he stood there, frozen, unable to decide what to do next.

Her eyes were ice blue, and while in any other woman that color would have made her unapproachable and cold, in this woman, they invited him to delve deep and allow himself to be ensnared in the invisible web she was spinning.

As if she were a witch and had put him under a spell. This couldn’t be happening to him.

Fuck!

Before he could think anything else, he found his voice again.

“Who are you?”

The words came out as if he’d barked them, as if his inner wolf had tried to speak.

The woman blinked, sucking in an audible breath of air as if she too, had held her breath. “Danielle. I’m Danielle.”

Her voice trembled, but she lifted her chin as if to show him that she wasn’t afraid of him.

Her voice reverberated in his chest, bouncing back and forth, the sound appeasing him, telling the wolf inside that she represented no danger.

At least not to his body. What she could do to his heart was another thing altogether.

“I’m J–Jude.”

The moment he told her his name, he knew how stupid he sounded.

Fuck! Of course she knew who he was. She’d been in the living room standing in the back somewhere when he’d made his announcements.

And he’d barely noticed her, too preoccupied with figuring out what the members of the Gallagher family were all about.

He hadn’t even given her a second glance.

So why could he not tear himself away from her now?

He loosened his grip on her shoulders a little, not to let her go, but to gently stroke his thumbs over her collarbones.

“I’m sorry,” she said, lowering her eyes. “I’m finished with the bathroom. I’ll leave you to it.”

When she made a motion toward the door, instead of moving out of her way, he moved closer.

Why he suddenly released one of her shoulders and used his thumb and forefinger to lift her chin so she had to look into his eyes, he didn’t know.

He was barely aware of what he was doing.

As if he were in a trance, hypnotized by something or somebody.

Danielle’s lips parted, and a sweet breath rushed out.

She didn’t pull back, didn’t free herself.

Did she want this, want him the same way he wanted her?

Was she under the same spell as he? Was this an invitation to kiss her?

Was she trying to seduce him? The fact that she had cleaned his bathroom meant that she was clearly one of the lower-ranking members of the pack.

Was this an attempt on her part to make a play for the new alpha so she would rise to a position of power within the pack?

And what if it was? He didn’t care because all he cared about in this moment was to make love to this woman, take her to his bed, and forget his duty to the Werewolf Alliance.

Forget that he wasn’t free to choose his mate.

It was in that moment that the truth hit him.

Danielle was the woman he was fated to mate with.

He wanted to scream, to howl at the moon for playing such a cruel prank on him: to reveal his mate when duty had already made the decision for him to mate with another.

He wasn’t free. But even that knowledge couldn’t make him step back and release her.

He dipped his head to hers, and their eyes locked once more.

He filled his lungs with her scent, allowing it to infuse his entire body with the delicious aroma of arousal.

Her arousal. She had to recognize him as her mate too, because such a revelation was rarely one-sided.

Fate wasn’t cruel when nature was allowed to follow its course.

But as a member of the Werewolf Alliance, he wasn’t free to follow nature’s course.

He had a duty, a duty he would fulfill. But maybe just this once, he could taste what it was like to find one’s mate.

Just for a few stolen moments, he wanted to experience what fate had chosen for him. Just this once.

Another breath, and their lips were only inches from each other.

His lids grew heavy and lowered. Just another inch before their lips would touch.

His entire body coiled with desire, his cock hardened even more, and a pleasant tingling spread over his skin, when all of a sudden, Danielle freed herself from his grip and stormed out of the bathroom.

Stunned, he jerked back, hitting the wall, before he could comprehend what had happened: Danielle had fled.

A quavering breath ripped from his chest, and he ran a trembling hand through his full hair.

He’d been about to kiss her, and she’d run from him, putting him in his place, making it clear to him that she wouldn’t accept a kiss, knowing that he couldn’t commit to her, couldn’t take her as his mate because he’d already promised to mate with another.

In the same instance, Danielle had shown him that she was stronger than him, not physically, but emotionally, because she’d been able to resist the temptation when he’d been powerless at curbing his desire for her.

Had she not stopped him, he would have had her in his bed now, destroying everything he’d worked so hard for.

He should be happy that she’d been the cool-headed one, but he wasn’t celebrating.

Frustration spread inside him, and he knew that no amount of masturbation could quell the desire that Danielle had awakened in him.

Fuck!