Wolf Fated

  Wolf Fated

  Fortitude Wolves - Book Two

  Nicole R. Taylor

  Contents

  1. Sloane

  2. Sloane

  3. Chaser

  4. Sloane

  5. Sloane

  6. Chaser

  7. Sloane

  8. Sloane

  9. Sloane

  10. Chaser

  11. Sloane

  12. Sloane

  13. Chaser

  14. Sloane

  15. Chaser

  16. Sloane

  17. Sloane

  18. Chaser

  19. Sloane

  20. Sloane

  21. Sloane

  22. Chaser

  23. Sloane

  24. Chaser

  25. Sloane

  26. Sloane

  27. Chaser

  28. Sloane

  Other Books in The Fortitude Wolves Trilogy

  Next: WOLF HUNTED

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  About Nicole

  Wolf Fated (Fortitude Wolves - Book Two)

  Copyright © 2021 by Nicole R. Taylor

  All rights reserved.

  This book is written in British/AU English.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  www.nicolertaylorwrites.com

  Edited by: Silvia Curry

  Chapter 1

  Sloane

  Courage.

  The word was losing all meaning, especially in the face of all I’d been through. When death stares you in the face, you soon learn the truth in it.

  In the distance, I could see the smudge of the dirty air, lights, and concrete of Melbourne. It was a warren of roads and buildings, a cesspool of glitz and glamour with mid-tones of middle-class suburbia and shadows of supernatural life.

  I was finally going home. I’d grown up in Melbourne, but after my mother’s death, it’d become something sinister.

  Chaser moved beside me. Glancing at him, I saw the colour wasn’t returning to his skin. He’d been shot in the heart with a wooden bullet, and as a vampire, it’d been a fatal blow…except he wasn’t a normal vampire. He was bound by magic to the Fortitude Wolves’s alpha—my father—and it’d been the only thing that’d saved him.

  He looked sickly, his skin grey, withered, and washed out. He’d lost a lot of blood and the little he’d taken from me hadn’t been enough to revive him.

  His body was slumped in the passenger seat, his head lolling to the side. His iridescent eyes were bright and alert, so at least I didn’t have to worry about him desiccating on the Calder Freeway.

  Chaser was… Well, there was a lot to him. He was this rough, devilish, bad boy with messy hair, scratchy stubble on his jaw, and the fashion sense to boot. Leather jacket, tight T-shirts, tighter jeans, and combat boots. He had a tattoo on his chest, but I didn’t even know what it was because I was always too caught up in his gaze. Chaser had this thing with direct eye contact. When he had you in his sights, you simply couldn’t look anywhere else.

  He had a perpetual scowl on his face, but when he turned on his heart… Damn. He’d taken a lot of heat in my name since he walked into my life—he’d been a literal human shield. His arrival might’ve started out as a direct order from my father, but we’d transformed into something else, something unexplainable.

  The vampire I wanted to hate but loved instead.

  The vampire who’d told me the truth about who I was.

  The vampire who’d stood by me as I’d turned into a wolf for the first time.

  The vampire I’d killed for.

  He’d taken my innocence, but I’d given it freely. Now we were on the road to something bigger.

  Revenge. Answers. Freedom.

  The Fortitude Wolves would bow to their new alpha, and Chaser would find justice for the one he’d lost…and his freedom from the spell that bound him to the pack.

  At least, that was the plan, but whether it turned out that way or not was another story entirely. There were too many variables to know how this was going to end…or how long it was going to take.

  “Let me do the talking when we get to the compound,” Chaser said, breaking the silence.

  “Why?”

  “They’re not friendly wolves and they don’t know you. You didn’t grow up in the pack. Loyalty is a big thing to these men. There’s a hierarchy bound by supernatural blood, one that’s not easily broken.”

  “I know I have a lot of work to do,” I told him. “I know they won’t trust me right away.”

  “I’m not doubting you.”

  I didn’t want to argue, not when I didn’t understand what I was walking into and whether they would look after Chaser. There was no way I was walking into the Fortitude compound with my rage on. There was too much I didn’t understand about being a werewolf and the supernatural world at large.

  Right now, I needed to have a clear head when I finally came face-to-face with my father. He would not manipulate me, not this time.

  “Listen, Sloane,” Chaser said, his voice strained, “if we’re doing this, then they can’t know about us and they can’t know you turned.”

  My hands tightened around the wheel. I knew we had to play this carefully. I had to hate Chaser for bringing me back, even though I wanted nothing more than to claim him in front of the entire world. Our screwed-up road trip had brought us together, and now it was over. What we’d been through was nothing compared to the war I’d just signed us up for.

  I had to be prepared to make sacrifices. Big ones.

  “I have to go back to doing what I was doing,” Chaser went on. “You have to forget about me.”

  “I could never forget about you.”

  He snorted, his silent and deadly ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ mask sliding back into place.

  “I didn’t know the truth,” I went on, already annoyed with how this was starting to work out, “but now I do. Now I understand…at least, a little.”

  Chaser grunted, turning his head away from me.

  “You owe justice to Loretta, but you deserve it, too,” I continued, fixing my gaze on the road ahead. “We’re not going to end up the same way. I won’t allow it.”

  “Glad we’re on the same page,” he drawled.

  “This isn’t the time to be an arsehole,” I snapped. “I saw the photo, you said ‘wife,’ and I flipped. What was I supposed to do? We were on the run, I didn’t know who to trust. I was still reeling from turning—honestly, I still am—and…” I wanted to run away with him. “You didn’t exactly make it easy.”

  “Nothing in life is easy, Sloane. Predators rule. Love is—”

  “Love always wins,” I interrupted, refusing to look at him. “I have to believe that.”

  “I wouldn’t hold onto that.”

  My hands tightened on the steering wheel as I took the exit towards the northern suburb of Coburg. “We’re almost there. The last thing I want to do is argue.”

  Chaser grunted, his hand finding my thigh. The contact made me shiver, but our dysfunctional relationship was quickly becoming the least of our worries. We would have time to figure us out. We had to. I needed to. Fortitude wouldn’t be forever.

  “You’re still reeling from your first transformation,” he said after a moment. “We still don’t understand what it means.”

  “The full moon is gone, but I still feel different,” I told him.

  “How?”

  “My eyesight is sharper, my sense of smell is turned all the way up… I reckon if I tried, I’d be stronger, too.”

  “Don’t try in front of anyone.”<
br />
  I snorted. “Of course not.”

  He fell silent, his gaze moving towards the city. We’d merged off the freeway and into slower city traffic, and my heartbeat had taken on an irregular rhythm. I knew he heard it, but I’d be a fool not to be at least a little afraid.

  “T-minus five minutes,” I said. “Any last words of wisdom?”

  “Don’t break eye contact. Wolves are all about dominance.”

  “I don’t plan on it.” I flicked on the indicator and turned down a side street, leaving the traffic behind.

  “You know your way around,” Chaser remarked.

  “Bad memories always stick.”

  Ahead, I could see the Fortitude compound lurking out of the half-light. It was bathed in the orange glow of the streetlights overhead, but the sign outside was lit up like a beacon.

  Fortitude Customs was painted in bright blue over the double garage, and a graffiti-style mural was plastered over the entire side wall. Motorcycles, skulls, flames, and the crossed swords the pack had taken for its emblem in modern times. Beyond was a factory-styled building.

  “It’s bigger than I remember,” I said as we approached.

  “Most of the pack lives here,” Chaser said. “The building out back has been converted. Bedrooms, common rooms, kitchen, storage, the works.”

  “And a business out the front.” I grimaced. They’d set themselves up in the modern world, putting up a human front for their supernatural shenanigans.

  Chaser gave my thigh one last reassuring squeeze as I turned off the road and passed a lineup of cars and motorcycles out front.

  I brought our car to a stop on the oil-stained concrete outside the garage, my skin crawling when I saw several pairs of eyes turn towards us.

  Big, mean, beefed-up men rose to their feet, the clang of tools echoing their deliberate steps towards their unexpected houseguests. Several reached for weapons, and I swallowed a ball of fear that had risen in the back of my throat. I’d imagined something like this, but seeing the wolves in the flesh was an epic wake-up call.

  Chaser opened the door and practically fell out onto the grease-stained concrete. The man at the front of the group reached out and pulled him to his feet, not even commenting when Chaser shoved him away.

  Climbing out of the car, I rested my hand on the roof and narrowed my eyes at the group of men who’d just seemed to realise I was standing there. My skin crawled as I was subjected to the ultimate staring contest.

  There were six of them, all big, dirty, and cut from the same dangerous cloth. Tattoos, scruffy beards, scars, muscles, flannel shirts, leather vests, bandanas… I breathed deeply and got a nose full of wet dog, oil, and grime that almost made me gag. They must be all werewolves if they smelled like that.

  “Chaser,” the man at the front of the group said. “We were starting to think you were strung up somewhere.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” Chaser drawled. “Worry about the other guy.”

  “Some entrance,” the wolf said before giving me the once-over. “This her?”

  He nodded. “Where’s Butcher?”

  The man whistled, and a scrawny guy at the rear of the garage ran off, disappearing into the building. Then he nodded at the other men. “DeLuca, Rocket, get Chaser inside.”

  Butcher? I curled my lip, knowing it was in my best interests to keep my mouth shut.

  The man’s gaze fixed on me, and I stared right back. His bulk was intimidating and paired with his full beard, hard lips, and fully tattooed body, he was one mean-looking piece of work. Most people would’ve shied away, peed their pants a little, or made a break for it, but I wasn’t most people.

  No one said a single thing for a full minute. The two guys known as DeLuca and Rocket hesitated, and Chaser leaned against the car, watching me closely. Weapons were still drawn and hadn’t been put away when they realised their token vampire was home with his cargo.

  These were the wolves I was hoping to win over? The mountain just got a whole lot steeper…

  “Put the guns away,” Chaser said with a roll of his eyes. “I’m half-starved, but I’m not hungry enough to go for any of you.”

  The men holstered their weapons and turned their attention to me.

  “She looks like a wallflower,” one of the wolves stated. “This really her?”

  “That’s her all right. She put down a vampire,” Chaser said, his voice loud in the silent garage. “A bullet through the heart. Didn’t even blink.”

  “And she didn’t want to put one in yours, too?” the tattooed wolf asked, still staring me down. His hostility crawled all over my skin like slime. I’d have to watch this one.

  “Settle the hell down, Harley,” Chaser snapped. “She understands what this is about.”

  The wolf eyed me and then stepped away from Chaser. “Get the vampire inside before he dries out. Betty—”

  “Don’t call me Betty,” I said, my voice low and full of warning.

  Chaser smirked and threw his arm around DeLuca’s—or was it Rocket’s?—shoulder.

  “Boss’ll want to see you,” Harley snapped. “Now.”

  Slamming the car door closed, I glared at the man who was at least three times the size of me as I rounded the bonnet. Ignoring the eyes trained my way, I followed Harley to the right while Chaser was hauled off to the left. I would face the next part alone, but I always knew it would be this way.

  It was time to go see Daddy.

  Chapter 2

  Sloane

  The alpha of the Fortitude wolves, my father, Anthony Marini, had never been a bundle of sunshine and rainbows.

  I’d always been a little frightened of him as a child. When I got into trouble, he was quick to anger, and my mother made sure I was never alone with him. She took the brunt of his foul temper for my sake, keeping me away from him and his criminal life as much as she was able to.

  Now, I was in the middle of it and had learned the hard way it wasn’t as it seemed.

  I glared at the back of Harley’s head as he led me into the compound. He looked like he had a fair whack with the ugly stick, and I wondered, besides working in the garage, how much whacking he did of his own.

  It had been a long couple of weeks, and I’d forgotten when I’d last slept. My eyes burned every time I blinked, my entire body felt like it was one large bruise, and I was running on fumes, but I still followed him without complaint. Thinking about Chaser, I knew he would fare better than I would. Vampires seemed indestructible, especially when they had spells binding them into servitude.

  Harley led me down a dark hallway, then into a common room. Glancing around, I was greeted with more wolves. What felt like a hundred carbon copies of Harley glanced up and stared at me, their eyes raking over my body and sizing me up. Women glared my way as the men leered, making my skin crawl.

  I painted my face with a mask of nonchalance. No fear or emotion. Cold eyes. Hard mouth.

  The hazy air in the room reeked of cigarette smoke. Music was playing in the background, some old rock ‘n’ roll record, while the clack of balls flying across the pool table caught my attention.

  A hand grabbed my arm, and Harley wrenched me towards him. “Don’t stare, sweetheart. Predators take it as a challenge.”

  “Let me go,” I snarled.

  The room fell silent with all eyes on us. This was my debut moment in front of the people I needed to win over.

  “You don’t get to touch me,” I said, wrenching away. “I’m a Marini wolf.”

  “You’re nothing, little girl.”

  I curled my lip and took a step closer, challenging him. “What was that you said about predators?”

  Harley snarled and pulled me forwards, dragging me through the common room and into another hallway. When we were out of sight, he pushed me against the wall and curled his big, greasy hand around my neck.

  “You’ve got a big mouth on you, Betty,” he murmured. “Around here, big mouths get people into trouble. You don’t want to get off on the wr
ong foot. You might be Marini’s daughter, but that won’t save you.”

  I shoved down the wave of fear welling up inside me and smiled the sweetest smile I could manage. “The moon isn’t full, so I guess we’ll see about that…won’t we?”

  He snarled and tightened his grip. “Bitch.”

  “You need to learn how to respect women.”

  “Harley.”

  He froze, his grip loosening.

  “Let her go,” the voice commanded. “That’s not the way to treat my daughter.”

  Harley’s lip curled and his eyes burned with unmasked loathing. Leaning close, he delivered a threat directly into my ear. “Daddy won’t always be around to save you, Betty.”

  Letting me go, he strode off down the hallway towards the common room, leaving me against the wall. I was hyperaware my father was standing a handful of steps away.

  I didn’t want to look him in the eye, but I had to. There was no avoiding it.

  I turned my head slowly, my heart pounding in my chest. How one man could cause such fear was chilling. I knew what he was capable of. I knew who he was. I knew what he’d done to my mother. Now I had to cozy up to him so I could stab him in the back. It would hurt—oh, would it hurt—but the look on his face when he realised I’d taken everything from him would be worth the salt in the wound.

  He’d aged considerably in the last fifteen years, but it was his eyes I noticed first. His Italian heritage shone through in their chestnut colouring, but they couldn’t be any colder. His short, scrappy beard was strewn with grey, and his severe, short back and sides haircut gave his hard angular face a menacing look. Broad shoulders, a hard chest, and a towering stature completed the picture. A picture was worth a thousand words and all of them said ‘don’t trust me.’