Winter Lodge Wolves Complete Boxed Set E-Book

Kayla Gabriel

• Herausgeber: Kayla Gabriel
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 271

Beschreibung

The ultimate boxed set! All 3 exciting Winter Lodge Wolves books in one! Howl- When she drives into a wild Winter Pass snowstorm, she's trying to outrun her problems… Growl- No one ever said loving an alpha wolf would be easy… Prowl- The heat of their joining consumes them both, spiraling out of control, and soon they're fighting for more than just their lives...

Leseprobe

Winter Lodge Wolves Complete Boxed Set

Books 1-3

Kayla Gabriel

Contents

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Howl

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Growl

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Prowl

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Also by Kayla Gabriel

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About the Author

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http://freeshifterromance.com

Howl: Copyright © 2020 by Kayla Gabriel

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electrical, digital or mechanical including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning or by any type of data storage and retrieval system without express, written permission from the author.

Published by Kayla Gabriel

Gabriel, Kayla

Howl

Cover design copyright 2020 by Kayla Gabriel, Author

Images/Photo Credit: Deposit photos: Angela_Harburn, HayDmitriy, zamuruev, Curioso_Travel_Photography

This book has been previously published.

1

“I can’t believe I let her talk me into this,” Penny Harding muttered, using the back of her hand to dash away the tears brimming in her eyes. She leaned forward and squinted through the windshield of her battered blue Honda subcompact, but it was no use. The foggy windows were only obscuring a thick blanket of fresh white snow, stretching out in every direction.

Reaching out to wipe at the window for the hundredth time, Penny found she could just make out the road. Hysteria rose in her chest at the thought of having to turn back and face the nightmare scene she’d just left behind. As tears stung once more, she brought the car to a halt. She didn’t even bother to pull over, because she was so far out in the middle of nowhere that seeing another car would be shocking. In this weather, it was less likely than Penny winning the lottery and getting struck by lightning at the same time.

Penny didn’t have that kind of luck. Never had.

The radio was on in the background, and Penny caught a quick snippet. A man interviewing a woman, his tone serious and dramatic in a way that made Penny want to roll her eyes. Still, the word werewolf jumped out at her, and she turned the volume up for a second, trying to hear the interview over the staticky signal.

Ma’am, is it true that you were once mated to a werewolf? He singled you out, had his way with you?

The woman’s response was even more silly, something straight out of a telenovela.

That’s right, Jack. He said I was going to be his mate… He tried to kidnap me… It was so terrifying. He used me…

It went on like that, and Penny got the impression that this lady wasn’t being too forthright. All the photos Penny had ever seen of known werewolves had shown sexy, rugged men that most women would throw themselves at, or modelesque women that men would kill to get with.

Penny could use a man like that in her life, that was for sure. A lot better than the losers she’d dated recently, and a hell of a lot more interesting than this dead-end town where she was currently idling, praying for a backup plan.

“Why the hell am I back in Winter Pass?” she shouted, slapping her palms against the steering wheel. “I can’t believe I was this stupid.”

Putting on the hand brake, Penny leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Trying to convince herself that things weren’t that bad, that her life didn’t suck as much as it did at this particular moment. She wanted to think that it was just a bad day, but that wasn’t close to true. A bad month, more like. Or a bad five years, if she were honest.

As much as she hated Winter Pass’s small-town mindset and distance from any decently sized city, things really hadn’t gone right for Penny since she’d left. All during college she’d stayed close to Winter Pass, managing to graduate with honors despite her parent’s mud-slinging divorce and her mother’s subsequent high-profile remarriage.

When her new stepfather, a skeezy lawyer and wannabe town politician named Steve, had come onto her repeatedly and forcefully, Penny ratted him out. Her mother threw it back in her face, gave Penny endless grief over it, and eventually Penny decided to get the hell out of Dodge.

Moving to the city for a thankless job teaching art at a fancy private school, Heston Academy, Penny met her very recent ex-boyfriend. Strangely enough, he was also named Steve. This one was a real estate salesman, which was different enough for her taste, apparently. Penny should have known then and there that the boyfriend would be just as bad as the stepdad, but noooooo.

Penny refused to see anything bad about her new beau, even when she caught him in small lies. Then bigger ones, hurtful ones. Even when she found his shirts marked with lipstick and smelling of strange perfume, which he always explained away. Even when he borrowed large amounts of money from her meager teacher’s earnings, promising great returns on a real estate deal, then pronounced that the deal fell through and the money was gone with the wind.

No, no. None of that had driven Penny away, besotted as she was. After all, Penny was a short, curvy redhead with freckles and a timid personality. Steve was a muscular, tanned charmer who’d never met a stranger, her complete and magnetic opposite. To be fair, Steve was kind of short. He also lacked the ability to… fulfill… Penny in the bedroom, but she let that slide.

All the time, wondering why Steve was with her when he could be with someone else.

And then Penny caught Steve with someone else. Her boss, actually. The tall, elegant, snooty headmistress at Heston Academy. Specifically, she caught Steve banging Headmistress Samuels on his desk, during what was usually the one lunch period a week that Penny and Steve both had free. He’d canceled at the last minute, and Penny showed up with some takeout, trying to be sweet.

Instead, she’d got an eyeful. When her boss finally managed to notice Penny standing there, brown paper bag of burgers and fries in hand, she gracefully pushed Steve off and stood. Then she righted her skirt and cleared her throat.

I suppose there isn’t a better time to tell you, then. Heston Academy has decided to go in another direction with your position, Penelope. We’re letting you go.

It sounded a lot like what Steve said later, after a silent car ride back to their shared apartment.

You’re just not what I need, Penny. Look at you, and look at me. What did you expect? Still, take your time moving out…

Three weeks later, things were so bad that when Penny’s crazy, narcissistic mother called and invited her home for a long weekend, promising that her stepfather was gone on a retreat of some kind and that Penny wouldn’t bother him, Penny actually jumped at the chance. All her stuff was in storage, since her name wasn’t on the lease of her and Steve’s place. She had no job and no prospects. Her sometime-friend Amber, whose couch she’d been crashing on, had politely asked her to find somewhere else to stay because Penny was such a bummer.

Then it had all boiled down to one moment. Penny pulled up outside her mother’s house. The front door swung open as Penny climbed the porch steps. Her mother and stepfather came out…

Followed by her ex, roses in one hand, a ring box in the other.

“He called and said you two had a fight,” her mother gushed, holding her own Steve’s hand. “He sounded so remorseful, and we always did like you two together…”

That did it. Finally, after months of pent-up frustration and blaming herself, something inside Penny broke.

She turned and fled to her car, backing all the way down the driveway and flooring it down the rural one-lane road, heedless of the steadily increasing snowfall.

All of which led to this singular moment of foolishness, with Penny sitting in her car and crying because she was stuck between an untenable situation and a freaking mountain of snow… and right now, facing the snow was easier.

Penny glanced at her fuel gauge and frowned. Only a third of a tank. Wishing she’d filled up before she got into Winter Pass, she sighed and tried to think of what to do next. Leaning over to the glove box, she popped it open and rifled through the contents. To her relief, she had a local map stacked in with her insurance paperwork and other car junk.

Unfolding it across the steering wheel, Penny found her mom’s house and then traced the turns she’d made. Tapping her fingertip on the map, she found the spot where she was idling, then looked all around it for something nearby, anywhere she could go to get out of the storm.

“Come on, come on…” Penny whispered. Part of her wanted to shout that she’d literally let herself freeze before going back to her mother’s house, but in truth she’d managed to get almost five miles away and now she might be too far away to go back… even in dire circumstances.

The map was old and a little faded, and Penny knew for a fact that the trailer park, gas station, and tennis shoe warehouse listed in driving distance were long gone. Her finger wandered across the map, seeking…

“Winter Pass Ski Lodge,” she muttered, brow creasing.

Of course she remembered the place from her childhood, having taken day trips there before her dad passed away. Some of her fondest early memories took place at Winter Pass Lodge. The image of it popped into her mind: a huge dark wood and granite building surrounded by smaller cabins, lots of roaring fireplaces and cozy couches for sipping hot cocoa.

Yeah, that sounded good right about now. But there was something else breaking into her thoughts, a fuzzy memory of her mother giving her the town gossip a few years back.

What had it been?

Something about the owners passing away and the place closing for a while. Mr. and Mrs. Harbin had passed away, their son and daughter had inherited their business and land, but he wasn’t around to care for it. Wasn’t that it? Penny tried to remember something about the son, but couldn’t get anything solid.

Blowing out a breath, she looked at her options again. The ski lodge still might be closed. Then again, she knew everything else was closed… Even if it was closed, she might be able to get inside, warm herself by lighting a fire in one of the many fireplaces. It might be trespassing, but the storm outside was only growing with each passing minute.

Surely no one would mind… no one would probably even notice. And it wasn’t like she had a lot of other choices in any case, not with the snow piling up in huge banks all around her car. Penny threw her car into drive and moved down the bumpy rural road at a crawl. The last thing she needed was to hit a patch of ice and lose control.

Her caution cost her a little. It took her over half an hour to drive just over half a mile. When she spotted the old Winter Pass Lodge sign, barely readable through the ever-growing snow drifts, she almost cried with relief.

Unfortunately, she could only make it about halfway up the ski lodge’s long, unpaved driveway. The road rose at a slight incline, just enough to make the car’s tires start to spin out as they trod over and packed down the slick snow. Though she could see the lodge’s hulking main building from this distance, the walk there looked like a serious challenge. Penny wasn’t in bad shape, but her simple parka and fleece gloves were going to get icy and wet as she tromped up the hill to safety.

“Just get out of the car!” she scolded herself, cutting the engine. She turned and fished a lightweight tote bag out of the back seat, stuffing it with a couple changes of clothes, a few snacks, and anything else handy she could find in her back seat.

She put the tote bag inside her parka, high and warm and safe against her chest, then zipped up her coat and pulled on her gloves. After one last deep, fortifying breath, Penny shoved her car door open and launched herself out into the snow.

To Penny’s dismay, the white powder was already close to knee deep in some places. She stuck to the very middle of the road, something of a high ground that had a little less snow, and pushed toward the main building.

Lifting her knees high, she hiked through it, shivering for a minute until warmth built from her exertions. With the warmth came a trickle of sweat on her lower back and chest. Snow quickly melted on her jeans and socks and Converse, weighing her down.

“Fucking snow,” she muttered, the icy air making each breath harsh.

Up ahead, the sun was just starting to set, making Penny glad she’d left the car when she did. She was so wrapped up in her movements that she didn’t see the dark-clad hunter until it was almost too late. Until he was raising his shotgun, Penny in his sights.

BOOM.

It was no warning shot. Penny saw him in time and flung herself to the ground, and the buck shot tore up the bark on a tree only a foot away from where she’d been standing.

“What the hell!” Penny gasped, pushing herself up from the thick snow bank where she’d landed. She only dared to move a few inches, and her vantage was blocked on three sides. What little she could see was all just snow and trees.

Where was the man she’d seen? Who the hell was he? Someone hired to protect the property, maybe? Or the son of the previous owners, standing his ground?

But why would they shoot at her? Penny was obviously alone and unarmed. She might be curvy but she was a small person, no threat to anyone.

She heard a rustle nearby, a tree branch creaking as it bent under someone’s hand. Penny let herself sink back into the snow drift, trembling from fear and the damp chill penetrating her clothes. The snow blanketing her body was melting fast, and in a few minutes she’d be completely soaked.

“Don’t move.” A strange, harsh voice, only a few feet away. “Don’t give yourself away.”

Penny’s breath froze in her throat at the sound of a man’s deep growl. His command hit her hard, unsure as she was about the man’s intentions. Don’t give yourself away? What did that mean?

She heard movement, another soft rustle. Then a man’s shout, much farther away. She couldn’t be sure, but Penny thought there were at least two men in the woods with her. Her brain went into overdrive, trying to understand what the hell was happening.

More shouts, and then another shot.

BOOM.

She heard someone give a grunt of pain, heard what she thought were bits of tree branches hitting the ground. Another shot. BOOM. Another, and another. BOOM. BOOM.

There must be more than one armed man, Penny thought. And the man closest to her, the man who’d ordered her to be still, might have been hit. If he had a weapon, he wasn’t using it.

She might have been crazy, but Penny could swear she’d heard a dog barking and growling close by, and a howl in the distance. Not being able to see was clearly making her hallucinate.

It was then that Penny noticed that she’d stopped shivering. She felt strangely numb and tingly, a little warm in fact. For a second, her suddenly sleepy brain thought that it was the igloo effect, that she’d cocooned herself in the snow and now it was protecting her.

The voice of reason in the back of her mind disagreed. She needed to get up and move before she fell asleep. Only, she was so comfortable…

She heard a soft, chuffing sound. Penny opened her eyes, surprised that they’d been closed. Above her, she saw a glorious black dog. No, not a dog. It was at least four feet tall, its fur sleek and dark against the snow. And its eyes, the brightest spring green… they seemed to glow.

The wolf looked down at her, seeming concerned. It made Penny’s lips twitch, wondering what kind of allegories her snow-drunk brain was making up now. Then she closed her eyes with a sigh, drifting off.

2

Harlan Craig was having a bad day. No, actually a bad week. Or was it a bad year?

What did you call it when you were hauling ass through a thick layer of snow, carrying an unconscious woman, and trying not to get shot? Or shot a second time, to be specific.

The wound on Harlan’s arm was nothing major, but it did hurt like a bitch. Not quite as bad as shifting, all those bones breaking and reforming from human to wolf, but… still.

A thunderous crack rang through the woods, echoing in the freezing air. Harlan slammed his back against a tree, panting for breath and trying to determine the direction of the shooter. 4 o’clock, he was pretty sure.

Harlan closed his eyes for a second, listening intently. Even with his heightened senses, he couldn’t hear anyone moving around. The hunters must be heading away from the main lodge, no doubt fanning out to cover more ground.

Please, please let them be doing that behind Harlan, not ahead where his cabin lay. A single glance down showed that the girl’s lips were white with cold, and there wasn’t a damn thing Harlan could do about it out here in the open. He needed blankets and hot water bottles and… fuck, soup? Thoughts banged around in his brain like panicked, trapped birds, desperate to find somewhere to land.

Harlan waited one more beat before springing forward again. Thankfully, the woods were silent as he sprinted toward his cabin at full speed. In the back of his mind, Harlan couldn’t help but think that his boot camp instructors would be proud. Military drills had prepared him for exactly an event like this, though no one could have foreseen the need for it back here in the States.

On top of the guys in the woods, hunting Harlan and his friends, on top of getting shot, now there was the girl.

Like Harlan’s life wasn’t hard enough.

Like he hadn’t literally been through hell and back fighting in Afghanistan and Syria.

Like he hadn’t then been bitten and turned into a fucking werewolf by one of his best friends. Enslaved to the moon’s whims, at times no longer the master of his own fucking body.

Like he hadn’t consequently been stuck out here with his two nearly-insane best friends, the only other werewolves he knew. With no other company to speak of for a year straight, nothing to do but slowly repair the ski lodge and grounds and try not to fight with Chase and Paxton over who of the three of them was the most at fault for all of it.

Nope. That wasn’t enough. On top of all that, she had to arrive on the scene, fall right into his lap. Sexy little redhead with big blue eyes and heart-stopping freckles, stumbling right into a live firefight between Harlan, Paxton, and the Hunters, almost getting shot.

Getting Harlan shot, actually.

He grimaced at the pain in his shoulder as he shifted the slight woman in his arms. He’d taken a little buck shot and flying bark in the upper arm, some ricochet from a nearby tree. He was bleeding freely now, and the girl’s face was perilously close to getting bloody.

He focused on the pain as he booked it back to his cabin, trusting Pax to draw the Hunters off in a merry chase across the most rugged parts of Winter Pass. It was hard country out here; if the wolves were lucky, it might actually kill a few of the Hunters, give their prey some peace.

Yes. Better to focus on death and gore, what Harlan knew best. Anything was better than looking at the girl, feeling the way his pulse raced, listening to his wolf bristle and whine at the sight of her.

Ours, his wolf seemed to say.

No fucking way, was Harlan’s response. No matter how hot she was, he couldn’t even consider bringing a woman into the shit show that was his life at the moment. That was a whole world of bullshit he didn’t need, no matter how cold the nights got up here at Winter Pass…

Harlan made it to the door of his cabin, heart in his throat. When he swung open the door, his stomach dropped. A tall, dark-outfitted figure stood in the middle of the cabin’s simple living room, waiting.

When Paxton turned to face him, Harlan groaned.

“What the fuck, Pax. Aren’t you supposed to be leading the hunters around by their noses?” Harlan said, stamping his feet to shake off some of the snow clinging to his legs and boots.

He stepped over and laid the girl out on the couch, then stripped off his damp coat.

“Aren’t you supposed to be helping me? Yet you’re here, with a female. And here I thought I was the ladies’ man of the Triad,” Pax said, arching a brow. The Triad was a reference to the nickname Chase had drunkenly come up with for their group once they’d been through basic training together and somehow ended up in the same unit.

“Is that what they’re calling man whores these days?” Harlan asked, moving to unzip the girl’s coat.

“Getting right to it, then?” Pax grunted. A joke, but the teasing implication made Harlan growl.

“She’s hypothermic, asshole. I need to get her dry and warm. Make yourself useful, go get some blankets from the closet in my bedroom.”

Harlan went back to work. He freed her from her jacket, surprised when a canvas bag fell out of her jacket. He picked it up and set it aside, then got her coat off her. She didn’t so much as twitch as he moved her limbs around.

He touched her shirt and pants, finding them icy and wet. He frowned, realizing that he needed to strip her down all the way. A quiet, unwelcome voice told him that he needed to preserve her privacy as much as possible.

She was so small, so frail lying there. Harlan wasn’t about to take advantage, and he wasn’t going to let Pax get an eyeful either. But how?

Drawing a thick fleece blanket off the couch, Harlan half-covered her body, managing to shield her freezing, naked body from his gaze. It was awkward, made doubly so when Pax returned and watched Harlan work. Harlan could almost hear Pax smirking over his shoulder, laughing at his ridiculous attempt at valor.

Even worse, now that her clothes were off, the scent of honeyed apples was rolling off her skin, filling the air in the cabin, invading Harlan’s senses. What the hell kind of shampoo or soap made a woman smell that good?

“Give me the damn blankets,” Harlan said, holding out a hand.

Pax handed them over without a word. Harlan spent a couple of minutes working one under her body without touching her too much, then swaddled the rest of them around her until she looked like a fleece and wool burrito. Everything was covered except a little of her face, enough to breathe with ease.

“This is easily the worst decision you’ve ever made,” Pax commented when Harlan stood to survey his work. “I mean, other than coming to Winter Pass in the first place.”

Harlan shot him a look.

“I remember you being the one who thought we needed to come here and check on Chase, make sure he hadn’t gone off the deep end,” Harlan said. It was an old argument, half a joke and half an accusation.

“Speaking of Chase…” Pax crossed his arms and looked down at the sleeping girl. “He’s going to lose his shit when he finds out you have a girl here.”

“I know.”

“He made a pretty big deal out of being the alpha wolf, and commanding us not to let any humans come here.”

“I know.”

“And yet… here she is anyway,” Pax said, giving Harlan a long look. “This is basically what he meant, in a nutshell.”

“Fuck, Pax. I know! What was I supposed to do, let the hunters catch her? Leave her to freeze to death in the snow?” Harlan gritted out. He scrubbed his fingers through his short, dark hair, knowing there was no real answer to his questions forthcoming.

“Just saying that Chase is going to be pissed if he finds out. Not to mention that the full moon is coming, and unless you want to hunt and turn your new friend into a werewolf, you’ll do what Chase says. Avoid her and every other human. It’s the only sure way to keep from doing what he did to us.”

“I’m surprised you even care what Chase will think. You guys aren’t exactly on talking terms, last time I checked. Haven’t been in almost… what, ten months?”

Paxton regarded Harlan for a long moment, then shrugged. Harlan kicked off his boots and peeled off his wet socks, fighting to keep from clawing off his pants and shirt. His wolf desperately wanted to get much, much closer to the pretty redhead in his care, so bad he felt like his skin was crawling.

“I’m telling you because I think you care,” Pax clarified. “And I also said if. If he finds out. As in… I will do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

A tiny knot of tension eased in Harlan’s stomach.

“Yeah?” he asked, keeping his eyes on the girl.

“Help the only person I both see regularly and can stand be around? Yeah, man,” Pax said, sounding offended. “I’ll take one for the team and go start some shit with Chase, keep him away for the night. You have to get her out of here first thing in the morning, though.”

“That’s your solution?” Harlan asked, a smile tugging at his lips. “Picking a fight with Chase?”

“It’ll be believable,” Pax said with a shrug. “I mean it, though, about getting her out of here. This is a bad, bad idea, H.”

“I couldn’t just… I don’t know how to say it,” Harlan said, turning away from the girl and pacing to the window. “My wolf is like… obsessed with her. I think if I’d tried to walk away, he would have taken over and dragged her back here on his own. He won’t shut the hell up, either. He’s been rattling the cage for the past hour, trying to get me to…”

Harlan trailed off, unwilling to finish the sentence. Paxton cleared his throat, a strange look on his face.

“Like that weird mate bullshit we saw on TV?”

Pax referred to a popular news show’s coverage of supposed information about werewolves, from diet to appearance to how they found and kept so called mates. Pheromones, love at first sight, inescapable attraction, that kind of thing. Half of the stuff on the show had been way off base, so there was no reason to think that the mates thing was accurate. Pax was probably kidding, but the idea gave Harlan a chill.

“You’re overthinking it,” Pax said, cutting into Harlan’s rising panic. He clapped a hand on Harlan’s shoulder and made for the door. “In any case, all the better reason for you to get rid of her ASAP. Tomorrow morning, man. I mean it.”

“Yeah,” Harlan said, nodding. “Of course.”

Pax shot him a dubious look as he left. To his shame, Harlan felt a moment of relief when he shut the door on his friend.

Turning, he stared at the woman on the couch. Maybe if he got lucky, she’d sleep all the way till sunrise and then be out the door before they had to interact.

His wolf growled at the thought of her leaving, hating anything except the idea of Harlan taking the girl straight to his bed. Kissing her full, pouty lips, squeezing the perfect breasts he’d carefully avoided while undressing her. Sinking deep into her heat, watching her eyes blaze with passion as he made her call his name…

Harlan gave himself a shake. He needed space. Man and wolf were both obsessing about a woman they didn’t even know. They didn’t know her name, didn’t know what color her eyes would be when she woke.

She was a stranger. Hell, for all he knew, she had arrived with the hunters and gotten separated from them somehow. Or worse, she was some kind of bait to soften the wolves up and lead them out into the open.

Harlan went over to the couch and gathered her in his arms. Holding his breath to keep her delectable scent at bay, he carried her into his bedroom and laid her on the bed. Unable to help himself, he tucked her under the covers, just to be absolutely sure that she’d warm up on her own.

As opposed to with his help… naked… in a fashion featuring a lot of very aerobic sex…

Snarling at himself, Harlan left the bedroom, shutting the door tight. Grabbing a beer from the fridge, he settled himself in his armchair, the only other piece of furniture that didn’t smell like her.

Snatching up his battered copy of Master and Commander, Harlan sipped his beer and pretended to focus on the book, though his mind wandered from the page again and again.

Morning simply could not come soon enough.

3

Heart pounding. Breath ragged. Leaves and branches whipping at her bare skin as she raced through the forest. Sultry moonlight filtering down through the trees, the scent of dark, rich soil filling the air.

Behind her, a man. A glance back shows him to be tall and broad, all rippling tanned muscle, dark hair and glowing green eyes. He grins as he chases her, challenges her.

Penny surged forward, arms pumping, feet flying, heart filled with indescribable joy.

She won’t win.

Can’t. Not against him.

Still, the chase… the chase is everything.

Just as she spots the edge of the forest, where the trees will break and she’ll be free, strong arms band around her waist. Warm lips find her neck as he slows her down, stops her in her tracks.

A soft bite, just in that place at her nape, the spot that makes her weak in the knees. Hands cup her breasts, and she feels his long, thick cock pressing against her lower back.

Penny shivered. He was going to take her, possess her, brand her with his body…

Penny blinked and squirmed. She was way, way too warm. Sweating. Also weighed down with a ton of blankets. She squinted up at the ceiling. This wasn’t Amber’s lilac living room… the walls here were stark white.

The blankets weren’t her favorite comforter, either. These were fleece and wool, and they didn’t smell like her floral-scented detergent. They smelled like fresh pine needles with a little musk, like… like man should smell.

Penny shot up, looking around. Where the hell was she? The room was just white walls and wood floors, very simple. The decor was bare bones, nothing but the bed and a side table stacked high with thick novels. The Sun Also Rises caught her eye.