ANNA COULDN’T SHAKE the feeling that she had to run, but it made sense after the injuries she sustained. It was clear that she didn’t injure herself, according to the doctor, but what happened to her? Who would have injured her so badly and then left her for dead? She could feel that there was more that Collin and his family weren’t telling her, but since she was a guest in their house, she didn’t want to push her luck. As they were walking down one of the garden paths, she noticed someone disappearing behind a tree and she was once again reminded of her previous thoughts about this being some kind of cult.
“What religion are you?” The question was out before she could help herself and her eyes grew wide as she looked at Collin. “I’m sorry!” She gasped. She had no idea if she was someone who didn’t beat around the bush or not, but that was really way overboard!
“It’s okay,” Collin laughed, putting her at ease. He looked ahead and pointed at a bench under a tree. “Shall we sit down?” He asked and she nodded and she could see that he was thinking things through before answering her. “I guess you can say that we are spiritual and not a specific religion.” He looked as though he was finding it incredibly difficult to explain and she suddenly wondered if she was right! They were a cult of some sort! “We keep to ourselves mostly. Farming our land and taking care of each other. We are one big happy family.” He smiled. “But some of us do go out into the human world to work.” His last comment made her frown.
“Human world?” She tilted her head to one side. Oh, fuck! Did she just end up with the only group of vampires in the entire world?! Anna’s mind spun out of control and she jumped up. She was about to make a run for it when she realized that vampires couldn’t walk in the sun. Besides, they weren’t real! Wow! Her mind was really gone! She sighed as she sat down. “Sorry. My mind is all over the place.” She picked at her nails. Her mind really was all over the place, but did she hear him say “Human world”?
“It’s okay. To answer your question, yes, I did say human world, didn’t I?” He laughed. Collin was cursing himself on the inside. He had to be more careful of what he said around her! What would he have done if she ran away from him thinking he was some kind of monster?! “I see it this way.” He waved his arms out in front of him. “The people out there are human, but the people here at home are family.” Damn that sounded really stupid, didn’t it?! His wolf agreed and he felt like a real idiot, but when she nodded as if she understood, he breathed a sigh of relief.
It wasn’t like she had just asked him the easiest question! He guessed, if he looked at it from her point of view, it would look really strange. A group of people living in a rural area like that. There was no real town or anything. No way for them to make a living. It was also too big to be a farm of some kind, so he could see how she could think that possibly they were a bunch of weirdos. He didn’t think about that when he offered to take her outside!
“If you are worried about your safety,” He hesitated. “I can promise you that you are safe.” He smiled, trying his best not to sound like a serial killer.
“Yeah, I guess a serial killer or leader of a cult would say that.” She laughed and a bolt of lightning rushed through him as he wondered if she had perhaps heard his thoughts. Could it be possible that her wolf was trying to communicate with him?! He was still frowning when she turned to look at him again.
“Okay, so you are not a cult, and I don’t see any strange graves, so you can’t be a serial killer. What do you do around here?” She smiled and he breathed a sigh of relief.
“I am the leader of the pack.” He grinned for a split second and then it hit him that he did it again! Dammit! FUCK! But as soon as she burst out laughing, he had to smile.
“Okay, so you are a pack of wild wolves, living in this beautiful place and nobody ever noticed?” That question hit him right in the damn gut! What was it that the doctor told him? If she asked him outright … Could he tell her? Should he deny it? He would hate for her to regain her memory and then be angry at him because he lied to her …
“Yup, that is right. We are wild wolves who spend our evenings howling at the moon around a bonfire and then we go out and hunt for sweet, innocent young girls who want to join us.” He winked and she burst out laughing. He loved the sound of her laughing. Anna couldn’t help it! He was so damn funny, telling her that they were wolves! Werewolves weren’t real! If she was going to believe something like that, it would be that vampires were real. Not werewolves …
Something tugged at the back of her mind and she felt a little dizzy. She gripped the end of the bench and Collin suggested that they should probably go back inside. She had been through a lot and she agreed, but as soon as she stood up, the world started to spin around her.
Before her legs gave out, Collin caught her and when he picked her up, she breathed in his coffee scent. It really made her feel as if she was at home. As if he was her home. Was she meant to go through this horror so she could meet her wolfman? She teased him about it as he carried her inside and they were laughing so much that her tummy ached by the time they got back to her room.
She hadn’t seen much of the house, but it looked huge from the outside and she asked if he would take her on a tour later. He hesitated for a moment but quickly agreed, which she found odd, but she didn’t pay much attention to it. The fresh air had really done a number on her and soon after he put the music on, she fell asleep.
***
COLLIN WAS PACING in his room when his mother appeared to ask how the walk went. He told her and he hated that she was laughing at all his mistakes.
“Don’t worry son.” She tried to comfort him. “I’m sure that as soon as her memory is back, things will go better.” His mother rubbed the sides of his arms as she always did and he breathed in deeply. Collin knew that she was probably right. He told her that Clara wanted to take a walk around the house, and asked if she would arrange that nobody was around when they did that.
They still had to protect her from her own kind which was driving him insane, but until she regained her memory, he would do everything in his power to make her happy and keep her comfortable. He didn’t want anything to scare her and, at the moment, she thought she was human. Leah asked if there was any sign of her wolf yet and Collin shook his head. He had been trying to reach her wolf, but there was still no sign of her.
“It will take time, son. You will have to be patient.” Leah tried to comfort him as best she could. She wanted Clara to get out of the room more, but she couldn’t arrange that she had dinner with the pack. The possibility that Clara would find something out was very huge, but Collin didn’t agree. As soon as his mother suggested Clara join them for dinner, he thought it was the best idea she had ever had.
She could see the people who lived there and maybe, just maybe, a pack dinner would jog a memory. Leah wasn’t convinced, but if her son wanted their guest to have dinner with them, she would make sure that the pack behaved. Maybe Collin was right. Maybe some time with the pack was all that Clara needed. That reminded her that Clara still hadn’t chosen a new name for herself and they were still calling her Clara. If they were going to introduce her to the pack, she was going to need a name, and she told Collin not to push, but to make sure they had something to call her later that evening.
***
ANNA WOKE UP feeling refreshed and quickly washed her face. Collin wasn’t in her room, which was strange, and she had just switched off the music when he walked in with a huge smile on his face.
“You have been invited to have dinner with us.” He grinned and she frowned.
“Dinner with your family?” She tilted her head to one side.
“Hmm, yeah sort of, but before we go, I need to know what you want to be called. I can’t very well introduce you as my future wife without telling everyone your name, now can I?” Anna laughed at this as she thought about it for a moment.
“Ann. Call me Ann.” She winked as he held out his hand.
“Pleased to meet you, Ann.” He winked as they shook hands before he held out his arm for her. “Would you like to join us for dinner?” He tilted his head to one side and she had to admit that he was incredibly charming as she nodded.
“I would love to.”
HAVING DINNER WITH ANN by his side felt really great. Collin had to keep reminding himself not to stare, but she was just so damn gorgeous! His mom, of course, was incredible, and she had made sure that everyone knew the situation and behaved around Ann. He could see she was looking around a little frazzled in the beginning, but it didn’t take long for her to relax.Since everyone had heard that their Luna was going to eat with them, the dining room was pack to the brim for once. He had to admit that it did look really weird to have so many people together like this and for Ann to think they were some kind of cult was natural. He could just hope that it wouldn’t scare her off if she saw all of them together like this, but she seemed okay.“So how has your stay been so far?” His father smiled and Ann burst out laughing.“From what I’ve been told, it’s been good.” She laughed, making everyone around her laugh. “But since I’ve been awake everyone has been so good to me. I don’t know if I
ANNA WAS SO HAPPY that for a little while, she forgot what brought her there. Her family had been wiped out by the one man she thought she could trust. A man her father trusted so much that he made him the second most important person in the pack. Little did they know that he hated their entire family so much that he was planning to kill all of them.The memories of the day her parents were killed wouldn’t go away no matter how hard Anna tried to focus on Collin. She didn’t want him and his family fighting this fight on her behalf, but deep down, she knew they would. It was just the way things were in their world. She burst out laughing as she realized that she was part of this cult of being a werewolf!She decided to trust Collin and told him how she felt all the way through to being part of a werewolf cult. She knew that it was the mate bond that was pulling them together, but she also knew from what he had shown her these first couple of days that she could possibly fall in love wi
ANNA GROWLED AT THE BETA as her canines snapped and in the corner of her eye, she could see Collin smiling with pride. It distracted her just long enough for the Beta to charge and she felt his teeth piercing the skin of her upper leg. Howling out in pain, she couldn’t hear the gasps in the crowd around them. She had never been bitten before! Then again, she had never faced a fight to the death before and she shook her head to focus.“Well, well, well, the pup has a little mate.” The Beta grinned through the pack link as his eyes snapped from Collin to Anna. “Why didn’t you let him fight on your behalf? You know he is just going to take over control of the pack if you win.” Anna knew he was just trying to get under her skin and she charged. They clashed with a loud thud as their teeth snapped at each other, but this time nobody got in that one bite that was needed to end it all.“Poor little rich girl is going to find out what it means to submit to a man. I might just submit so I can
IT DIDN’T TAKE THEM LONG to find her father’s small safe behind some books. Anna tried her birthday and rolled her eyes when the safe opened. How stupid was her father using something so simple as his code?! No, how stupid was the damn beta that he didn’t change the damn code?! When she opened the safe, she saw the laptop right on top of everything else.She took the laptop out first and Collin pulled out all the files underneath it. While she tried to figure out what the beta’s password could be, Collin paged through the documents. There were a lot of emails printed that were from the same email address as the one they found on the desk, but none of them gave any indication of who the person could be. Anna couldn’t get into the encrypted laptop and she was on the verge of smashing the damn thing when Collin grabbed her hands.“I might have someone that can fix that for us.” He still looked calm, but a storm was raging inside him. There were a couple of emails in the files that confir
ANNA DIDN’T FEEL ENTIRELY AT home in Collin’s home yet. Even though she was going to stay in her room where she stayed before, now that she had her memory back, it all felt strange. She wondered if she had met Collin before she lost her memory and if it would have changed anything, and then she sighed. It wouldn’t have. This wasn’t her home.She spent some time with Collin’s mom to get her pack’s living arrangements sorted, but it was never an easy thing when you had to move an entire pack. Anna realized that that was probably the reason not many alpha females were ever born. It was just too much trouble to move the packs! She could see that this arrangement wasn’t going to work for long, and she would have to make her decision about Collin soon. She really wanted to be with her mate, but … Yeah, she would have to make a decision soon.Her pack deserved their own home, especially after what they had just been through under the rule of their previous beta. They were defensive even thou
Anna was stumped that Collin and his family were so understanding of her position. It made her feel really guilty. She was starting to feel as if she was being a total brat, yet all of them kept on telling her that she wasn’t. Life was indeed very strange at the moment, so she concentrated on the things she could do something about. As soon as she found where exactly the money went, she could figure out a way to get it back.She was in luck and quickly figured out that the beta was so stupid he saved all of his passwords on the computer. She could get into the accounts where he had stashed the money and she breathed easier when some of it was transferred back into the pack accounts. That meant she could give some money to Collin’s pack for her pack’s necessities, which would make her and her pack feel a lot easier being there.Collin joined her later in the day and he read through some reports while she figured out what else was urgent that might need her attention. There were a lot o
VICTOR SIPPED ON THE AMBER liquid in his class and nearly spat it out again. It had become clear that this backwater town wasn’t up to his high standards and he sent one of his men in search of a proper bottle of whiskey. Without it, he was going to have a hard time curbing his appetite. It truly boggled his mind that his brother Nathaniel lived here for so long without complaining!Then again, Nathaniel had his science and Victor never really understood how Nathaniel always seemed to be happy with that, but he was. Being in this human town, Victor and his men had to be careful who they spoke to and who knew they were there. By now, he knew that Nicolas would have sent out people to look for them since he didn’t ask for permission to come here, and they never arrived at the destination they faked.His scouts would be returning at any moment, and if he still had a beating heart, he knew that it would be racing right about now. It took longer than he anticipated to sort out their living
ANNA’S MATE … NO, his entire damn family were hybrids. Anna couldn’t wrap her mind around it. Her heart was racing as she rushed into her room and slammed the door shut behind her. Collin at least had the decency to knock and he didn’t come in as she tried to think. She didn’t answer him. He knew she was in there because he followed her as soon as she rushed out of his office.She was grateful that he didn’t force her to face him when, after a couple of minutes, she heard his footsteps walking away from her door. What the hell had she done?! Her pack! She put her pack in danger! Her mind was all over the place as she tried to figure out her next steps. Could she trust the hybrids? How many of their pack members were hybrids? How did she not realize this sooner? She looked at one of the cupboards and wondered how quickly she could get her pack packed up.Sitting down on the edge of her bed as tears started to pour down her cheeks, Anna prayed for the moon goddess to return her parents