Redemption of a Wolf (Red Dead Mayhem #4)
T. S. Joyce
Chapter One
Something smelled good.
Kade lifted his chin and inhaled. Just over the scent of gasoline and oil, motorcycle exhaust and sweat…there was something clean.
He scanned the parking lot of the Harley Davidson store, but there were only small clusters of bikers in leather cuts tossing him suspicious glances. The Wulfe Clan was here and, hell yeah, he was ready to crack some werewolf skulls. He and that Clan of hot-heads had been going back and forth for months. They were the only shifters in this town he could depend on losing their heads and fighting him.
The newly sewn Blackwood Crow patch on his cut and the Lone Wolf symbol on his back confused the predators around here, but fuck it. He’d always confused people. That was the benefit to insanity—he kept everyone on their toes.
He sniffed again. The scent was so strong. He’d come here to pick a fight to satisfy the snarling monster in his middle, but the wolf was quiet now. Curious.
Find her.
“Shut up,” he murmured. The last thing he needed was his wolf pushing him to eat someone. Again.
Fruit shampoo. Mango? No perfume, no body spray…just smelled like shampoo and pheromones. There was a female here who was close to her heat. Did humans go into heat? Hmmmm.
With his thick-soled riding boot, he kicked down the stand to his Fat Boy and settled the big motorcycle. He got off smoothly and gave the Wulfe Clan bikers a predatory smile as he passed right through the middle of them.
They were who he’d been hunting, his knuckles itching to blast some teeth, but they were safe from him for the moment.
They’d been making threats toward Red Dead Mayhem lately. Now…he didn’t give a single shit about Clan politics, but he had an important interest in Red Dead Mayhem. His stepbrother Rike was Second there. And Rike’s mate, Bailey, used to be part of the Wulfe Clan. She was shunned now for being with Rike, but Kade was…protective. Yeah, protective was a good, non-psychotic word for what he felt toward his stepbrothers and their mates, but possessive and territorial were more accurate. They didn’t see him as family. They didn’t know him or accept him, but he didn’t care. They were his family to protect, so he would sit here on the outside for his whole life, letting his wolf have anyone who threatened them.
Rike and Ethan were safer than they even realized.
“Are we gonna have a problem today?” Darius, the Alpha of the Wulfe Clan, called after him as Kade opened the door to the store.
“I haven’t decided yet,” he answered. “Probably.”
Right now, his wolf was on the hunt. Usually when he hunted, it was to kill, but this time, he wanted to pin a female against the dressing room stall and make her come over and over. That would keep the animal happy for an hour or two.
He stepped into the cavernous store, lined with rows of Harley bikes, clothes along the walls, riding helmets, leather jackets, motorcycle parts in the back…but none of that mattered. He saw her right away, looking at a used Harley Sportster Superlow in a metallic maroon. She had blond hair that she’d ironed straight and pulled into a high ponytail. She wore sunglasses inside. Hmmm. Her skin was fair, as though she didn’t spend much time outside, and her profile was interesting—long, straight nose, thin lips, jawline that could cut glass. A black tank top hugged a fit physic and good boobs. Probably a B-cup. Small and perky. A handful. A pair of skinny jeans showed off the curves of her round ass. On her feet were a pair of shit-kicker riding boots. No wedding ring on her finger. He sniffed again. She’d filled the entire room with her scent. Smelled ready for sex. Ripe. He stifled a groan and adjusted his swelling dick. She was going to feel so good pulsing around him.
Maybe he should tell her his name beforehand so she could scream it.
She slid her slender leg over the seat and settled onto the motorcycle with her back to him. Mmmm, tempting little temptress. Never give your back to a predator, woman.
He sauntered toward her.
A salesman made a beeline for him, but Kade snarled “fuck off” before the salesman could get out a “Can I help you?”
He wound through the maze of Harleys up front, and when he was two rows of bikes away from the sweet little cupcake he was about to devour, he parted his lips to wow her with a one-liner that would make her ovaries beg for him.
“Stop right there, Wolf,” the woman demanded without turning around.
Kade startled to a stop. “What?”
“I said fuck off.” She gave an empty smile over her shoulder and lifted her delicately arched eyebrows. “Like you told that sales person.”
Interesting. She heard him from that long distance. One good sniff, and he could tell why. She smelled like fruit shampoo, pheromones, and fur. Shifter.
Well…this was unfortunate. From his experience, female shifters tended to be battle axes from a life of hanging with dominant shifters.
Because of the animal inside her, she was practically wearing a chastity belt made of fire and teeth. Fuck.
“It’s your lucky day,” he said low as he made his way to the motorcycle next to hers. Another Sportster and too small for his likes, but the seat was comfortable enough, and it was leaning heavy on a kickstand that angled him right toward her.
“Disagree,” she muttered, gripping the handles of the motorcycle she was balancing. “First, I’m in heat, which sucks. Second, I had to make my way through an entire Clan of werewolves outside. And now, one of you little dorks followed me inside. No four-leaf clovers here. Seriously, fuck off.”
Kade let off a surprised laugh. “No one has ever called me a little dork before. I meant it’s your lucky day because I’m not attracted to female shifters at all. You’re instantly safe from my advances, though I have to tell you, I would’ve given you some serious relief from those heat pangs you’re going through. I could’ve kept up with your needs. No strings attached, condoms every time, no little baby bear or fox or… What are you?”
The woman took off her sunglasses and hooked them into the cleavage of that sexy tank top, and then she leveled him with eyes so bright green he pulled the motorcycle off the kickstand and angled away just to put a few more inches between them. “You look creepy as shit.”
“Yeah, well so do you. Your eyes are almost white. Go back to your Clan.”
“My Clan ain’t here.”
The girl frowned. “Lie.”
“I’m not a liar. You could ask me anything, and I would answer. I have no shame and no agenda.”
“Why did you approach me?”
“You smell good and I wanted to fuck.”
Her frown deepened before her gaze flickered to the Blackwood Crow patch on his left pec, right above his name patch. “Kade,” she murmured.
“You could’ve been screaming that name in the dressing room. I had plans. You ruined them with your shifterness.”
The girl let off a soft laugh. It was pretty, like the dinging of a bell. Cute for a…whatever she was.
“Are you a predator shifter?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Ew.”
She laughed again and shook her head, stared at the gauges on the motorcycle. “You’ll really answer any question I ask honestly?”
Kade shrugged. “Until it bores me.”
“What is a wolf doing in the Blackwood Crow Clan?”
“Protecting the Alpha.”
“Who is the Alpha?”
“Ethan Blackwood.”
“Why would you pledge to that psycho?”
Kade smiled. “Because I’m a bigger psycho.”
“No, really,” she said softly. “I know Ethan. He’s not okay. He shouldn’t be anyone’s Alpha. Why did you pledge?”
Kade considered the question. He looked down at the sportster between his thighs and thought about getting up and leaving. “I don’t like talking to people much.”
“And yet here you are,” the girl said.
Fuck it. “Ethan is my brother.”