Little Red (Not Quite the Fairy Tale #5) (8 page)

The End

Note from the author:

Size Matters.

I received most of my reviews over the course of the couple of weeks preceding the release of Little Red. I’m delighted most of you love what I write – and I’ve also read and taken your opinion into consideration: you’d prefer longer books.

Truth is, I write long novellas to short novels (between 25000 to 45000 words) because that’s what I enjoy reading. I’ll tell you what’s more important than what I want:
what you, my readers, want.

Little Red and Rule were already written by the time I read all of those reviews. As of June, though,
my books will
all
be novel length
(over 40000 words) as default, unless specifically expressed in the description. You asked, I’ll deliver <3

Now, if you’d like a heads up about my next release, please join my
newsletter
.

My next fairy tale is not on pre order as yet as I’m not quite sure when it will be ready...

But it will either be
Rumpelstilskin
or
White as Snow
.

Cover reveal scheduled on the tenth of June!

Stay in touch for a couple of previews!

First: I really had fun writing Little Red, and that made me want to attack shifter stories!

Hence my next release: Love Blows.

Chapter One

Hadley had heard them seven minutes ago; she’d distinctly identified their stench thirty second later. They weren’t pack.

There were different options for a lone female trailed by two very dominant male wolves; none of them was running, hiding or bargaining.

Other girls in Laketown Pack might have grabbed their phone and called the Beta for backup, but she was Hadley Lewis, so she gradually slowed her jog to a walk and once she’d cooled down, she waited for them on a bench.

The males had purposefully sought her out, of that, she was certain: they were on Pack territory, sure, but no one else ever wandered through that particular stretch of land, starting behind her house and ending at the outskirt of town.

The fact that the intruders wanted
her
meant that they were no threat; she wasn’t important enough to be targeted by a rival pack.

Hadley was the Omega, the lowest ranking female and as such, she didn’t matter. Hell, she wondered what two distinctly dominant wolves might want with her, until she identified their scents.

It was James and Ace, respectively Alpha and Beta of the Sphinx’s Pack, established on the other side of the lake.

They’d known each other growing up; James was two years her senior, Ace, five. That meant that they’d felt entitled to ruffle her hair and call her Runt for over a decade.

It had been a while, though. Hadley hadn’t been invited to an assembly since High School.

The wolves had shifted by the time they’d made it to her, so instead of two brown furry lupines, she greeted two very naked guys with
delightful
physiques.

James, despite being Alpha of a very strong, testosterone-infused pack, was actually quite lithe – lean, as dominant werewolf went, although no six foot three male of over two hundred pounds could ever be called scrawny: his muscles were preeminent, sculptural, but he would have been the ideal runner, while Ace was bulkier, larger, taller – the perfect quarterback.

Both were just as drop-dead gorgeous.

“Was that really necessary?” she sight, gesturing towards Ace’s eight-packs.

Why the hell wasn’t six enough nowadays?

“Tell you what, I’ll get rid of them when you stop staring.”

Yeah, not happening; Ace was seriously hot, but seriously hot, she saw everyday at home. She gawked because he was hot
and
decent, while the guys of her pack were a bunch of pigs.

Hadley was soon distracted from her ogling, though; there were very dominant, very overpowering and
very
dangerous vibes coming from the younger brother.

Turning to him, she was surprised to read sadness, rather than anger in his features.

“We’ve left you too long,” he told her.

Hadley shrugged; there was no point denying that a courtesy visit sometime within the last four years might have cheered her up, but she understood. They had their own pack to care for, and she came with a caseload of baggage.

“Your wolf was so strong I could always see her in your eyes. She’s gone now.”

Another shrug, not feeling up to elaborating.

“Hell Hadley, why didn’t you call us?”

“Because you couldn’t have done shit. I might have been an adult, but Chase wasn’t, and I wasn’t leaving my brother. We both know that. No point visiting memory lane, Carmichaels. Just come give me a hug.”

And they did.

It might have seemed like a little thing for anyone else, but Hadley didn’t get to touch anyone anymore, save for Chase; she longed for physical contact and affection like every wolf, but her Pack wasn’t giving it to her.

Actually, to be entirely accurate, Laketown Park just wasn’t hers – not anymore.

Four years ago, her drunk, stupid father, previous Alpha of Laketown, challenged a passer by who was just minding his own business at the bar.

He lost.

At the time, Hadley had been Alpha female, despite her age – at her mother’s death, she’d been put forward by the rest of the pack, and no one had challenged her since.

That meant that she’d had a choice, after the change of leadership: between submitting or fighting. Well, submitting or
dying,
really. Male wolves didn’t challenge females, but if she’d initiated a fight, the new alpha would have been free to respond.

She submitted; her dad wasn’t all that bad, but the memory of a careless asshole wasn’t going to kill her. Everything else aside, she had her fourteen-year-old little brother to think of.

There had been a lot of possible outcomes. The new Alpha could have killed her regardless, left her to rule the female, or he could even have asked her to become his mate – an Alpha Pair entity was much stronger than separate leaders.

He grabbed the back of her neck and sniffed her. For one endless instant she wasn’t likely to ever forget, Hadley had been certain – absolutely, one hundred percent positive – that he would choose the last option and claim her as his.

Kyle Jackson did none of that; he requested her to show her absolute submission to every single one of his wolves, making her Omega.

He was
that
kind of asshole. Unfortunately, it wasn’t her only – not even her biggest – problem with him.

Enough about the guy. She would not spare him another thought today.

The old members of the Laketown Pack left within months, everyone was new, save for Chase and Hadley, hence why they were both outcast in their territory, although most of the land still belonged to them on paper.

If it had been just her, she would have said
fuck that shit,
packed a bag and left eons ago – but Chase was doing well at school, the bar her father owned made a steady income and she had already been enrolled in the local college.

So she’d borne it, waiting for this particular day.

Chase would turn eighteen at midnight; he’d graduated last week. It was time to go.

James dropped his head towards hers and sniffed eagerly.

“Not gone,” he amended. “Sleeping.”

Not even sleeping; her wolf was just good at staying still – a trick she’d needed to learn.

“Hadley, come home with us. If the Pack had been stable, I would have taken you both after your father’s funeral, but we were at war at the time; there’s still a lot of issues… But you’ve got a cabin if you want it. Next to mine.”

This was going to be a shit day.

Kyle’s wolf had been restless since morning, snapping at the faintest noise. He was no psychic, but there was a fair bit of witch blood in his veins, so he knew to trust his instincts.

They were saying that a shit-storm was approaching, so he did what any Alpha to nineteen drop-dead gorgeous single shifter females would have done: he fucked three.

Kyle, his two brothers and his three closest friends had been drifters, after leaving their sorry excuse for a pack; they’d formed a pack of their own, moving from shifter town to shifter town, until fate dictated that an actual Pack should be entrusted to his care.

It hadn’t been part of the plan, and at the time he would have pretty much done anything to avoid the responsibility, but four years in, he wasn’t regretting it.

The Pack had been everything he’d tried to avoid, before – an archaic regime with pointless rules and traditions; however, realizing that he wasn’t into any of it, people had just packed up and gone.

Well, most of them.

He’d believed it had been back to square one; he, his circle and a couple of new faces, only this time, he had a territory.

Not too shabby, especially considering the fact that one of the two new faces was
very
nice to look at.

Things had changed after weeks, when the girls started to turn up.

Wolves loved physical contact; they touched each other casually everyday, and they also had sex – a lot. That meant that single female wolves were an awful lot of fun.

Somehow, a bunch of them heard that the Jackson boys were settled down in a gorgeous lake town and next thing he knew, he was welcoming the finest women, who were all ready to offer their pussies.

Generally, when female found their mate, they moved to their territory; staying around the female’s previous lovers never ended well. So, it made sense for unattached women to seek packs full of males they could have fun with; Laketown Pack was it.

Unsurprisingly, some guys applied to join, too – Kyle only accepted the fittest of the lot. In four years, they’d become the youngest, and one of the most powerful packs in the peninsula. He, their Alpha, was on top of the world; even the vampires ruling the world left him alone…

Telling himself that didn’t stop the uncomfortable underlying feeling that something horrible would occur soon.

“
Please
,” Lola screamed. He wasn’t sure whether she wanted him to stop of go harder; it didn’t matter anyway. He was in charge.

Kyle screwed her with abandon while she worked her red mouth on Jack’s balls. They were thus occupied when the sharp knock disturbed them.

Kyle – understandably, he felt – wasn’t paying a lot of attention to the scent of the newcomer; it didn’t matter. It was someone from the pack – that much, he could discern, even in his lust-infused haze.

The door opened in front of Hadley Lewis.

Shit. 

He didn’t see her often, thanks god, but she was a harsh slap on his face every time they crossed path.

She was his one failure.

Hadley Lewis was the strongest female in his entire Pack, hands down, but day one, his very first action had been to demote her.

He’d just won a challenge against a strong as fuck Alpha, and the high had been at its peak; he’d felt like the King of the Jungle, completely drugged by the taste of blood and victory.

Then that sweet, dominant, fucking gorgeous creature was presenting her neck to him. He recalled nipping her earlob, and damn if he hadn’t felt it down to his cock. He was practically drunk just from inhaling her. Her scent… four years later, he still wondered if he remembered it clearly. Was it really that fucking good?

Each time he saw her, he sniffed the air eagerly and confirmed that yes; yes, it was.

Kyle could see the strength in her eyes and he wanted it all. First, though, he’d wanted to show his prize to his brothers. He’d smirked all the way when each of them had smelt her neck.

He’d only stopped smiling when he’d seen her eyes.

When he’d realized he’d ordered her to give up her strength, her place in the pack. From her expression, it would have been kinder to kill her.

She could have fought for dominance and regained her status anytime, if she’d cared to; she hadn’t.

Truth was, Kyle realized his pack was unhealthy because the females didn’t have a leader.

The submissives were berated, sometimes even abused, and the dominants incessantly fought – not in a constructive way, with claws and teeth. No, they fought games designed to destroy each other’s spirits.

Kyle stayed the hell away from it all; he was in no way equipped to rule over women. It just wasn’t the way things were done.

That should have been Hadley’s job; the one he’d stolen from her.

He’d tried since – to talk, to get her involved – but every single conversation he’d attempted had ended abruptly by her dropping her gaze, agreeing to whatever he was saying, and going away as quickly as she could.

He’d done that to himself, to his pack.

Hadley had never sought him out – not once in four years. So of course, when she finally did, he was in the middle of a threesome.

She didn’t even blink, which meant that she hadn’t expected any different.

Kyle withdrew from Lola and pulled his trousers up, but Hadley interrupted his attempt to regain some sort of decorum.