Midnight Dare (A Paranormal Romance) (Golden Pack Alphas)
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Authors: Laurel Cremant
Tags: #Romance
Synopsis
Were-hybrid Georgia Walker's holiday has been cut short. Not only is she forced to return home while still in heat, but her escort, Marcus Legrand, is the one man she wishes would just stay away. Changes are coming and decisions are being made that will change the Golden Pack forever. Georgia needs all of her energy focused on making sure the wolves she considers family survive.
Marcus has no intention of letting Georgia fight her battles alone and a choice is about to be made that takes it all out of both their hands.
MIDNIGHT DARE
(The Golden Pack Alphas, Book II)
By Laurel Cremant
Copyright © 2014 by Laurel Cremant
Cover Art by
Taria Reed
EBook Edition
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this book ONLY. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Winged Moon Publishing, LLC
Hollywood, Florida
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales, is entirely confidential.
Dedications
To all my alphas out there...rock on ladies and gents.
One
A mosquito buzzed around the room. The drone of its wings whirring above the soft humming of the air conditioner.
Georgia lay tangled in the sheets of the plush hotel bed, focusing on the sound in an attempt to wrangle her mind and body into some semblance of control.
The clock on her phone read five a.m. and the darkness of an early morning pressed shadows into the room.
She'd given up all hope of sleep hours ago. Her body thrummed with unfulfilled need, and her mind raced at the implications of her encounter with Marcus.
"A lesson in kissing."
His gravelly voice whispered through her mind, sending a sizzling wave down her already too heated body.
She clenched the sheets at her sides, her nails digging into the mattress.
It shouldn't have happened, yet every moment since he'd left, her lips tingled as if his firm mouth had left a phantom imprint on hers. The moment he’d shown up, she should have found another hotel, another island. Hell she should have found another country—anything to put as much distance between them while she went through heat.
But he'd known and like any hunter he'd found her weakness and exploited it to his advantage. On some level she had to admire him for that—on another she wanted nothing more than to hate him as much as his knowledge deserved.
Damn him and his all too seeing eyes.
She raised her fingers up to touch her lips and cried out at the sensation of the cool cotton sliding against her naked flesh.
His kiss was more damaging than any taunt or touch and he'd delivered it like a calm surgical strike, cutting through her defenses and making her
feel
.
She avoided kissing for a reason. She couldn't ignore her heat cycle, but she always made sure to control how much of herself was exposed. Sex had never been a chore for her—she enjoyed it. But on her terms. Her cycle, forced sex on her as a necessity—an urge she couldn't ignore, but one she had no intention of letting cage her.
As daughter of an alpha, she had more than her fair share of men intent on trapping her into a mating bond. So she chose her sexual partners with care. They were always humans, unaware of her status and interested in the occasional physical release and temporary companionship she was willing to give them.
With them she never had to worry about power grabs or whether they'd see too much when they looked at her. And that was her problem.
From the beginning Marcus had seen too much.
Unlike her pack mates, he didn't look at her with suspicion or wearied tolerance, and that scared her almost as much as his kiss did last night.
He looked at her as if he knew exactly who she was and that knowledge threatened everything she'd strived to accomplish—blending in.
Flicking the sheets aside with a quick jerk, she sat up and flung her legs to the floor. She sighed as her feet absorbed the coolness from the smooth marble tile.
As a hybrid born between a werewolf and strong witch, she'd always walked the tight line between two species. Her mother's coven disowned her and refused to recognize her existence—and her father's pack...they loved and feared her.
Growing up within a wolf pack it was impossible not to feel the love and affection the group had for each other as a whole. That affection linked them all together and gave the pack its strength. A strong alpha solidified those ties and kept the group together.
Georgia never felt as if she wasn't welcomed within the pack, but from the moment her powers first began to manifest as a child, she felt her friends begin to pull away.
Hooray special powers.
Being able to read truths and get occasional glimpses of the future wasn't as fun as the comics portrayed. She didn't get a kick-ass leather costume and flowing cape. She got searing headaches and friends who refused to look her in the eye.
She held her hands out in front of her face stretching her fingers wide. What would they do if they knew the truth? The full extent of what she could do?
On some level she didn't blame them. No one wanted to have their deepest secrets exposed. And she more than anyone understood that. So she used her powers during the occasional difficult cases or when her father requested. She'd gotten used to suppressing that part of her, but during her heat cycle, her discipline often slipped.
Last night was a prime example of that. She needed to keep Marcus away from her now more than ever.
A small, growl, worked its way up her throat. She clenched her teeth against the sound. Her wolf was restless, and for once she welcomed the distraction.
It allowed her to focus and channel her energy into containing the pacing beast inside of her.
Closing her eyes, the vision of her wolf materialized in her mind. As she let her internal gaze roam over its dark thick coat, a small pang of remorse hit her heart at its forlorn expression.
And that was part of the problem. Shifters weren't supposed to see their beasts, let alone interact with them. From a young age shifters were aware of the animal within them. They weren't separate entities. Their beasts were a part of them, another side of themselves, not an alternate personality. Shifting allowed that part of themselves temporary reign of the physical body, but never over the senses.
Georgia didn't have the same experience.
Her wolf had always been a companion within her, both a friend and adversary. When she shifted, she didn't just change forms, her wolf completely surfaced and Georgia became a spectator. Her wolf was fully sentient, a characteristic that had always worried Georgia. It was a clear reminder that she would always be different from the rest of her pack. For as long as she could remember her wolf had been a presence in her head, filling her consciousness with images of warmth and acceptance.
She felt guilty for keeping her so confined, but she had little choice. Her wolf wasn't just different—she was strong. That strength coupled with Georgia's powers as a see-er would make others even wearier of her. That wasn't a risk she wanted to take. So she almost never shifted around others, she didn't participate in the full moon runs the pack held through the forests surrounding Golden Valley. And on the rare occasion that she did shift into wolf form it was never to her full strength or size. It was yet another secret she kept close.
Mate.
Her wolf's plea echoed through her head. Yes she had a treasure chest full of secrets. In essence she had around ninety-nine problems and Marcus was definitely number one.
Reaching across the bond she shared with her wolf she tried to calm her, pulling it close in a mental embrace, hugging her tight.
"He's not for us."
Her beast growled louder at the whispered words.
She spoke the truth. Marcus wasn't for them. He was too strong and too perceptive. If she allowed him to get close it would only be a matter of time before he saw what she'd been trying to hide her entire life. And as an enforcer, his loyalties lied with the Council. The possibility of losing her pack scared her, but the idea that the Council would find out, terrified her.
She didn't worry that they would try to eliminate her. Her fear lie in the fact that they may try to use her instead. She'd been able to fly under their radar for years. Her truth seeing capabilities weren't uncommon amongst covens and many packs employed witches to act as advisors—it was how her parents first met. However, the Council was known for their willingness to recruit what others considered the oddballs and the misfits. They cultivated them and turned them into political tools, like Marcus
—
an enforcer. She'd never heard of anyone ever refusing a Council request, leading her to believe that those who did were eliminated.
She didn't want that life. She wanted a home.
"Remember our goal. Remember the pack—our family," she said, her voice more insistent.
Her wolf understood the need for a pack, she craved it just as much as Georgia.
A piercing whine reverberated through her head, but the tension holding her tight loosened its hold in a slow slide. She let out deep sigh, welcoming the relief. Her agitated wolf had kept the worst of her heat at a roaring boil. Once calmed her heat reduced to a slow simmer.
She leaned over, placed her elbows on her knees and held her head in her hands.
How many more times would she have to endure this before the cycle was done?
She needed a plan—a way to keep Marcus from pursuing her and wrecking her chances at belonging.
Shaking her head she stood and walked into the large en-suite bathroom. Leaning over onto the vanity she peered into the mirror and let out a snort.
She looked like shit.
Her hair was a matted and tangled mess around her head and puffy circles smudged deep beneath her eyes. For a brief moment she wondered how much she'd be charged in hotel fees if she picked up the mirror and tossed it out of the big picture window in her room.
It might be worth it.
Turning from the mirror she stepped into the large walk-in shower and flipped open the rain drop shower head. Leaning against the cold stone tile, she thought about her mother's note.
Merry Christmas Baby-Doll, now get your ass home. Your Daddy's gone crazy.
Georgia had to agree.
Something serious must have happened for her father to decide to choose his successor so early.
She pulled up a list of possible candidates, thinking of all the pack members that may be contenders. Three topped the list and seemed fit for the honor. There was Justus, brother to her father's original Beta, Kaleb. Justus was both strong and incredibly smart. Another possibility was Adrianna. At thirty-three the she-wolf was a few years older than Georgia, and had developed a reputation amongst the pack as being a keen negotiator and cunning foe during a hunt.
Her mind skittered away from the last possibility—Marcus.
He already held the respect of the pact for his elimination of the rogues. And every day he seemed to ingratiate himself more and more with her father.
Shaking her head, she refused to believe that her father would choose Marcus above Justus or Adrianna.
Whoever, he chose didn't automatically gain the title. Being named heir meant that they were considered strongest of their pack after the current alpha—the one most capable of leading them when her father stepped aside. And to make the whole matter even more complicated, the successor would still have to survive any challenges from other pack members who disagreed with the choice. Basically, announcing a new alpha was a call for in-fighting, which was both tedious and dangerous.