Wolf on the Run: Shifter romance (Shifters of the Glen Book 4) Read online

  Wolf on the Run

  Shifters of the Glen - Book Four

  Published by Skye Jones

  Copyright 2016 Skye Jones

  All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced or used without the written permission of the publisher.

  All events depicted are fictional, and any resemblance to places and persons is coincidental.

  This work of fiction is intended for adults age 18 and over.

  Editing by Lisa A. Hollett at Silently Correcting your Grammar

  Cover Design by DW Art and Design

  Interior Layout by Rachel Medhurst

  Contents

  Acknowledgements

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Epilogue

  Wolf at the Beach

  This book is dedicated to my gorgeous furbaby, my beautiful goldie. She’s been my best friend and writing companion for ten years now, and I love her to the moon and back.

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks as usual go to my amazing critique reader, JM Stewart. You always make my stories better!

  My editor, Lisa A. Hollett, who is simply fantastic.

  To Rachel Medhurst for her formatting skills!

  To the readers who support my work—your support means so, so much.

  At the end of this story is a sneak peek of book five in the Shifters of the Glen series. That book is Adam and Pam’s story.

  Enjoy the snippet!

  Prologue

  Boyd

  He stared out over the hills and valleys of his once beloved home, his wolf raging at him to run and not come back. Today the spring woods were ripe with vibrant life. It flat out offended him—when everything he’d loved the most was dead.

  In this form, running free as his wolf, he sometimes forgot his sorrow. If he ran far and fast enough, he liked to believe he’d outrun the damn thing. But it always followed. A sharp, lingering grief, it snapped and nipped at his ankles.

  The wind howled in the trees, a spring storm brewing, and he wanted to join in and sing along with the mournful music, but he’d journeyed too close to the edge of their territory.

  Normally, he ran for the sheer joy of it, but today, he ran away. The female he didn’t want to see once again visited their village. How long she’d stay this time, he didn’t know. He hoped her visit would be short. The last time she’d only been at the village for a few hours, and then she’d gone back home. She’d taken a real shine to him. His wolf had sensed it before the man noticed the signs. His wolf also seemed to enjoy it, which pissed off Boyd, the man, to no end. They didn’t want or need female company, and his wolf needed to learn as much.

  He’d failed his mate, and he didn’t deserve anyone else. His mind and heart, his very soul, were still filled with her. His mate. The only female he’d ever wanted. The one whose death nearly killed him, too.

  He flashed back to the day they’d buried her. So many years ago now, but the memory was still fresh in his mind. He’d stood by her plot in the woods and watched as they lowered her cloth-wrapped body into the ground. As they began to shovel dirt on top of her, he’d started to shake so badly his legs threatened to go out from under him. About to keel over, he had become dimly aware of two bodies next to him, pressing in on him, holding him up. The scents of Adam, the pack leader, and Boyd’s fellow enforcer, Louis, drifted around him, soothing him some.

  Somehow, he’d gotten through the day without screaming and dropping to his knees to dig her out again, but he still carried the pain with him. In fact, many days he loathed being left behind. Alive, but not living. Breathing, but not really existing.

  A plastic bag blew by him, and he cursed humans for trashing even this pristine environment. For a moment, he watched the bag being buffeted to and fro by the wind. Then a thought struck him. He resembled the bag in some way. He let life knock him from one direction to the next. He had no plan. No purpose.

  His wolf shook itself and huffed out a long breath, annoyed at his human brain ruining this moment. Normally, once in wolf form, a shifter found perfect symbiosis. Today, though, Boyd’s analytical mind kept interrupting their flow. It irritated his wolf, who gave a low yip and another fur shake. Fuck it. Boyd turned his mind off and let the wolf have free rein.

  They would run for a long time. They needed to. The female wouldn’t be gone for another couple of hours, at least. Part of him, a tiny, traitorous, clearly insane part, wanted her still to be at his friend’s house when he went around to visit this evening. But thankfully, his rational side knew any such desire represented a bad, bad idea. He didn’t need to be seeing her long hair, her smooth skin, and her big smile that lit up the dark Scottish nights better than any lamp.

  Something to light up the night might be welcome soon, for something dark haunted the forest around their compound, and he sensed it growing stronger. He wasn’t sure if the rogues were gathering their forces, or if something else stalked the edge of their world. Either way, he sensed a fight headed their way. The sensation reminded him of the moments before a storm—the momentary calm right before the vicious wind and howling rain.

  A hare darted out of the forest right in front of him, and Boyd’s nose twitched, his worries forgotten for a moment. The hare froze and then turned tail and ran back into the undergrowth. Boyd didn’t even hesitate for a split second. He shot after the hare, nose following the animal’s scent.

  Let the hunt begin.

  Chapter One

  The strong sense of foreboding tickled at my subconscious, making itself known as I sat and sipped at my tea.

  “What’s wrong?” Cait asked.

  I’d come to visit my friend Cait in her strange and wonderful new home amongst a wolf shifter pack. Ostensibly for a catch-up; however, this added up to the fourth time I’d visited in as many months. I worried she and her mate, Jake, grew sick of me. But I couldn’t seem to keep away.

  I loved being here with the pack. Felt more at home than I did back in my supposed real life.

  Izzy and Brooke, two other human females with shifter mates, soon became friends. And on my last visit, we’d spent half the night laughing and gossiping.

  The other reason for my regular visits was to see the man I’d been slowly falling for. Boyd, the pack enforcer, who had become my sexual catnip. I dreamed about him and thought about him often. But it was the other dreams I’d been having which brought me here to visit this time. The weird dreams, full of a sense of danger, troubled me, and I needed to share them with Cait. In case they were a warning.

  Of course, the visit came with the added bonus that I’d possibly get to see Boyd if I stayed for a while. Not that he’d seemed particularly interested in me when I’d been here before. Which took some getting used to.

  I’d always been the pretty girl, according to friends at school, at least. I’d been born half Irish and half Greek. It meant I looked exotic. I used to be called Gypsy Rosa Lee as a teenager by idiots, but since I’d become a young woman, I saw the way men looked at me. In fact, I’d grown bored of their fawning. Then I’d met him, and he didn’t look at me twice. Now, with my accident and the weight gain, I was sure he’d be even less interested. But some masochistic streak in me needed to see him. So, here I sat…again. Camping out in my best friend’s life like some saddo.

  My phone beeped,
and I glanced at it and rolled my eyes.

  “Crap. My landlady says my flat may take longer to sort than she thought. I may need to stay a few nights longer than planned.” I’d picked the perfect week to come visit Cait because the day before I left, my bloody flat flooded spectacularly due to a cracked pipe. “My parents are away on holiday, and Gem’s out of town.” I sighed and shrugged my shoulders. “Do you have something I can log online with? I’ll try to find a hotel if it will be an issue.”

  “Oh, no. Don’t be silly.” Cait jumped up. “You’ll stay here with us as long as you need. There won’t be an issue, will there, Jake?” She turned to her stupidly handsome man and raised her eyebrows. “Laura knows what we are. She’s in on it. I can’t see why she can’t stay for an extended visit.”

  I knew what they were, all right. I’d been let in on the secret of the wolf shifters and their pack in the Highlands once Cait had gotten together with Jake. Not because of our friendship, but because of the rare instances where I’d seen into the future. I think they considered me a useful asset—and one they wanted to keep an eye on.

  “Can’t see it being an issue.” Jake looked at me, and I knew in an instant he saw right through me and into my Boyd-obsessed heart. His cocky smirk made my stomach clench. I hoped he didn’t feel the need to share with Boyd.

  At the mere thought of the big, hulking man, my stomach did its customary flip-flop. Crap. I’d got it so bad.

  “Do you have enough stuff with you?” Jake’s eyes sparkled.

  I had packed for a longer stay, in the hope I’d be asked to hang around a while once I’d divulged my weird dreams. My cheeks heated at being busted, but I brushed it aside and gave him my patented, killer smile. The one to make most men’s knees weak, but I knew it would have no effect on Jake. And thank God it didn’t. The reason for his disinterest being his overwhelming love for my friend Cait.

  “I do have enough stuff for a few days or a week. I’ve got my gym kit in the car, too.”

  “Ah, the gym. I see.” Jake smirked again and plucked my car keys off the dining room table before heading out the door.

  Cait watched him with a slight furrow in her smooth brow. “Am I missing something?”

  I ought to spill. After all, we were best friends. “I hoped I’d be able to stay a while. I suppose I hoped if I stayed a bit longer, I might see some more of Boyd. Stupid, I know.” I rushed the words out in an urgent whisper, not wanting Jake to hear, despite his already having figured me out. “I need to talk to you at some point too, though. Not about Boyd—other shit. Nothing major, but we need to chat.” My damn face burned as I thought about Jake’s smirk. “I think Jake’s figured me out. On the Boyd front, I mean.”

  I grabbed her hand over the wooden table we sat at. “Please don’t say anything. Let him guess, but don’t confirm it for him. I’m so embarrassed at the way I feel. I’ve never been so head over heels for a guy before, and Boyd doesn’t even know I exist.”

  Cait gave me a soft smile. “I won’t say anything, but you’ve no need to be embarrassed. At least you didn’t strand us in a deadly storm, with only a tent for shelter, in your burning desire to see your man.”

  She referred to the time she’d dragged us all camping out here in an attempt to try to find Jake. All I focused on, though, were the words, your man. If only Boyd were mine.

  “He’s not interested. I know as much. It’s stupid, but I’ve got this overwhelming urge to see him. See if he is okay. He always has such a sad air about him. Of course, he’ll be even less interested now I’ve piled on weight and got a lovely scar.” I touched my cheek self-consciously.

  “Hardly.” Cait rolled her eyes. “You’ve great boobs now, though. And the scar is tiny. Even if it were bigger, you’re too gorgeous for a scar to make any difference.”

  I sighed. It did mar my face. I knew it. Scars were okay on guys. Cool even, if they weren’t too dramatic, but not on a woman. The usual double standards came into play, and women needed to be perfect to be desirable—or so society told us.

  “I’m used to being in shape and fit and put together well. It sounds shallow, but it’s how I’ve always been. You know me and the gym, but now I can still only manage fifteen minutes, tops, on the recumbent bike.”

  Jake came back into the room and placed my bags by the door. He headed to the sink, filled the kettle, flipped it on, and stood with his long legs stretched out in front of him.

  “How long do the docs think it will take for your leg to be fully healed?” Cait asked, snagging my attention.

  I’d ruptured my tendon, fallen, and managed to get a nasty gash down my cheek when I landed on some glass. All on a night out. My life changed, just like that. The cut left me with a thin scar where the stitches had been, but at the time, the tendon proved to be my biggest worry. The pain had been horrendous. I’d actually blacked out at first. Then I’d spent ages with a boot on, only able to shuffle around. No working out and weeks off from my job meant I grew bored, and for the first time in my life, I comfort ate. Now, where normally I possessed muscles, I’d developed curves. I’d been told the scar on my face would fade with time but never would go completely.

  “Another few months of physiotherapy and careful strength building.” I sighed. “It’s a real bummer about work, too. Because I’ve been away so much, my accounts have been shared out with colleagues. When I returned, I felt as if I’d been demoted.”

  “Surely it’s not legal to treat you in such a way?” Jake asked.

  “Doubt it is, but to be honest, I’m kind of bored of my job anyway.”

  “What?” Cait shot me a wide-eyed glance, her brows raised.

  I understood her surprise.

  “I know. I landed my dream job, but in the end, it turned out to be crappy. I thought I’d be lapping it up on all the fashion front rows.” I shook my head at my own idiocy. “Instead, apart from one glamorous trip to New York, I spend all my time traveling to trade shows in places like Birmingham. And the one time in this last six months when I did get to go to a real fashion show, I had my boot on and got treated like a leper. Let me tell you, the fash pack is not great with disability.”

  “They’re shallow,” Jake muttered as he rummaged around in a drawer.

  “No, they’re not.” Cait came to the defense of my industry—and me. “Not all of them anyway.”

  “Babe.” Jake stood up straight, brandishing a pen as if he’d found gold. “All I know is, you were made to feel like crap for years because you didn’t fit a certain size or ideal, yet you’re the most gorgeous creature I’ve ever laid eyes on. I don’t like those women’s magazines you read or the number they do on you.”

  He stalked over to her and dropped a tender kiss on her forehead. Cait looked up at him, and her eyes shone with happiness.

  I averted my gaze to give them their moment, but a smile hovered on my lips, my happiness for my friend bubbling over. The girl deserved everything she’d got. Cait was the nicest person I knew. Now, in Jake, she’d found a guy who saw her amazing inner beauty, as well as appreciating the hot package it all came wrapped up in.

  And he was a wolf shifter, for added bonus points. I worried I’d turned into a bit of a shifter fangirl. Since finding out these amazing beings existed, I’d become all but obsessed. I read everything I got my sweaty hands on about ancient werewolf and shapeshifter legends. The evenings I spent watching horror films or romances featuring vampires and other fantastical creatures. I dreamed about shifters repeatedly. One, in particular, kept haunting my nighttime adventures.

  Then there were the other dreams. The dark, scary ones, which felt alarmingly real to me even in the cold light of day. I needed to talk to Cait about those dreams. But for now, I let myself think about Boyd.

  Boyd. With his big body, his warm face, and soulful eyes. The sad air that hung around him like a miasma of sorrow only intensified my longing for him. I wanted to break through his barriers and make him smile again. On my last visit, I’d chatted to him a
little and managed to get a small twitch of his lush lips with a joke. I wanted more.

  My mum once told me the only thing more dangerous than a broken man came in the form of a woman intent on fixing him. I tried to listen to her, I truly did, but my heart and body wanted this man like no other.

  “We’re planning on having lasagna tonight. Suit you?” Cait broke in to my thoughts.

  I nodded.

  “Boyd is probably going to join us.” Jake kept his voice neutral, but when my head jerked up and met his gaze, his lips twitched.

  “Seriously?” The sudden drop in my stomach threw all pretense out of the window.

  “Yep.” Jake, who’d sat himself at the other end of the table to write a card to someone, said this as casual as anything. But his full-on grin gave him away.

  Shit. I mean, I wanted to see Boyd, but this? No. Too soon and too…close. Just us four, around this cozy table. Oh, hell.

  “He went for a long run, so it depends if he gets back in time. He might not.”

  Relief hit, immediately followed by sour disappointment. Jeez. I needed to make my mind up!

  Jake’s phone beeped, and he swiped at it and read something. “Oh, what do you know? It’s Boyd.” He loaded the words with sarcasm, and I gritted my teeth. “He’ll be over in ten.”

  “Tea won’t be ready for another hour,” Cait said.

  Jake gave a lazy shoulder roll. “Shall I tell him to come a bit later?”

  “Yes.” The word popped out before I stopped myself.

  Jake burst out laughing, and Cait let loose a full-wattage grin.

  “I mean…I know this is your house, but I… Oh, fuck. Can I have a glass of wine?”

  “You’ve got it so bad.” Cait pushed her chair back and crossed to a cupboard. She took down a glass and popped the glass stopper out of the top of an open bottle of red. “Here you go. Take a big drink. I’ve never seen you like this over a guy.” She handed me the glass and sat back down, still with the cup of chamomile tea in front of her.