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Chapter 1
Prologue
Anna
They came without warning. As I glanced out the window, lightning streaked across the dark, furious sky revealing half a dozen silhouettes just a few feet from the window. Before the sky darkened again, they were in the hut.
My father grabbed me and hurled me toward them like a bowling ball before shifting into his wolf form and breaking through the back door. Two bodies went down under me. Shock turned to immobilizing fear.
Something pulled me back up. “Hold her.”
Those were the only two words spoken, but the sound of his voice caught my attention.
Confused, I snapped my head around, but he was already a wolf. Melting into the darkness, he was just a blur as he went after my father.
They dragged me outside. Rain pelted the ground, and I slipped on the mud. It wasn’t a move to escape, but I was punished for it. Claws pushed me to my back and raked down my shoulder before resting against my neck. I stared into the dark eyes of the wolf and understood that this was the end. Fear melted away into nothingness. These weren’t allies. There was nothing to fear.
They were the enemy, and maybe now, it would finally be over.
The blow never came. I was pulled back to my feet as the other shifters started to turn. Two wolves tumbled back into the clearing. The large bloody gray wolf was my father. The slightly smaller black wolf was a stranger but packing an immense amount of power.
For the first time in a long time, the wolf inside me stirred with interest. Hesitantly, she rose inside me.
Gritting my teeth, I shoved her back down. Now was not the time to let her take over.
A ring formed around my father and his opponent. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that these would be the last few moments I saw my father alive.
He was a skilled fighter. Strength and intelligence were both on his side, not to mention a ruthless nature. It was how he’d survived for so long.
The black wolf was an alpha. He had the kind of natural power my father had killed again and again trying to obtain.
The black wolf also had rage on his side.
The fight was over in less than ten minutes. A victorious roar rose above the thunder from my captors as my father fell dead to the ground.
Thunder boomed as the storm blew even closer. The alpha shifted and dragged my father’s corpse in front of me. I immediately averted my eyes, not to avoid looking at my father, but to avoid looking at the alpha.
“I am Jax Bishop, alpha of the Black Diamond Wolves. Confirm that the dead wolf is Dirk Kipling.”
I didn’t raise my head. “It is.”
There wasn’t a single note of sadness in my voice. I didn’t expect there to be. There was no joy either. Or relief. I hadn’t felt those emotions in years, and my father’s death was only a small victory. It wouldn’t erase the years of torture I had endured.
Or the memories of what I’d done.
“You’re not his mate.”
It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t answer it. That only seemed to infuriate him more. “Who are you?”
“Anna. I am…I was his daughter.”
He grunted. “How old are you?”
“Twenty.”
“The only wolves I see at this camp are mine. Who else is here?”
I kept my gaze to the ground. My clothes clung to my skin and water dripped from my hair.
There was a chill in the forest, and I shivered. “There’s a small wooden container buried behind the hut. Fifteen feet back. Between the two small poles sticking up from the ground, you’ll find a trap door hidden under some forest debris. There are three female juveniles inside.”
The man holding me jerked, and I forced down a hiss of pain. “Find them,” Jax roared.
“Now.”
His wrath focused on me. “Anyone else?”
“No.”
“Look at me,” he snarled. “Your father has kidnapped and murdered countless wolves. Did you help him?”
It took some effort, and I had to fight my wolf every second, but I lifted my gaze to his.
Lightning streaked the sky again, and he took one step back in surprise. Inside me, my wolf howled in joy as something seemed to snap in place.
Fuck. Me.
Warmth rushed over my skin, and my thoughts emptied of everything but him.
Well over six feet tall, he towered over me, Dark hair tousled along his shoulders and intense dark eyes stared at me in shock. I’d never given much thought to heroes. As a child, I’d daydream that someone would come save me, but I quickly learned that daydreams and false hopes were just different forms of torture. A way of breaking your own heart.
But here he was. My hero, and according to my wolf, my mate.
The long-dead feelings of hope resurrected, and I actually smiled.
Smiled.
“Shit,” the man holding me growled. Belatedly, I realized that all the wolves had felt their alpha’s mating bond.
They were stepping back in horror.
“Answer the question,” Jax demanded hoarsely.
Reality slammed back in place. Inside me, my wolf wailed. She was innocent. Always had been. I gave everything to protect her. For the first time in years, tears pricked my eyes.
Furiously, I hoped the rain would hide them, just as I tried to hide the way my heart shattered.
“Yes,” I answered honestly. “I’ve killed.”
The guard behind me shoved me to my knees, but I didn’t look away. I needed to see his eyes.
Needed to know if there would be forgiveness.
There was only disgust.
“I would rather kill my wolf than accept this mating bond,” he hissed angrily.
“You will get nothing from me except the promise that if those children are dead, you will join them. Tonight. I, Jax Bishop, alpha of the Black Diamond Wolves, reject you.”
Chapter 2
Anna
Three years later
It was the third time in an hour that Danny’s hands accidentally brushed across my ass.
There was no point in glaring at him or pushing his hand away. He’d just give me a sleazy grin and mouth sorry. It was just a show for the customers, or at least those customers who didn’t know who I was. When we were alone, he didn’t even bother with the fake apology.
He didn’t have to apologize to me. I didn’t deserve it.
So I ignored him as I pulled the wine out of the cooler beneath the bar and smiled at the customer in front of me. “Our chicken caprese sliders would go great with this wine,” I said as I pulled the cork. After pouring his glass, I nudge the menu in front of him.
“Caprese, huh,” he grunted as he eyed me, the gleam of his wolf front and center. I didn’t need my own wolf to tell me that he was more powerful than me. Everyone was more powerful than me, but he wouldn’t touch me. This wasn’t his territory, and he had no idea who I was.
Shifter politics aside, he was a customer, and I was his bartender. “This used to be a simple cheeseburger joint.”
“Yup. That was also when we just served beer.” I tapped one manicured red nail against the wine glass. “But here you are, enjoying our expanded menu. Our new cook can do some amazing things with chicken.” Although he was also a complete and utter asshole. “If you’re worried that the meal is a little too fancy, we can always add a basket of our amazingly greasy fries.”
Snorting, he nodded. “Alright. Sounds good, sweetheart. I don’t think I’ve seen you here before. What’s your name?”
“Anna.” I moved to the computer to ring in his order. “I’ve been here for three years.”
“Three years, huh? I guess it’s been a while since I’ve swung back by here. You one of Jax’s?”
My hand slipped, and I hit the wrong key. Cursing under my breath, I fixed it and took a deep breath. “I sure am.”
Jax Bishop. Owner of The Fanged Smiles bar. Alpha of the Black Diamond Valley wolf shifters.
Alpha of me.
Most wolves were loyal to their alphas. Submissive. Protective. Proud. Black Diamond was no different. They acted like Jax was a god. The males wanted to be his right-hand man.
The females wanted to fuck him.
Scratch that. If rumors were to be believed, most of the females had fucked him. They wanted to mate with him.
Too freaking bad for them. Jax Bishop already had a mate. Me. Much to both of our dismays.
“Hard to believe he’d hide a pretty little thing like you in this little corner of his world,” the customer continued. “I don’t smell a wolf on you.”
It was all I could do to not roll my eyes. He was just another idiot who thought a female was only good for taking cock. “I like my little corner of the world,” I lied and shifted to avoid Danny’s wandering hands.
Truth be told, the bar wasn’t so bad. It sure beat the hell I’d been living with most of my life. Problem was that the bar had been run by a decent man. When Parker Hewitt was manager, he’d done the least decent thing a male wolf could do around a girl like me.
He’d kept his hands off me and made sure everyone else had done the same.
Unfortunately, Parker was dead. Two weeks now. I hadn’t even had time to mourn him properly. I was too busy fighting off Danny and the other assholes in the restaurant.
Instead of letting me go, Danny moved with me toward the beer taps and snaked a hand around my waist to pull me up against him.
“She’s Dirk Kipling’s daughter,” Danny said.
Cold slithered through me at the sound of my father’s name. The customer’s eyes widened, and he leaned forward, fascinated. “Is she now?”
Ah, even three years later, my father still held onto his reputation as the monster of Shadowed Moon Mountains. Kidnapping and murdering his way through his own pack. Failure after failure. Until he took three children.
And kidnapped the wrong female.
Everyone still hated him. Everyone still hated me.
Of course, most knew why he hadn’t killed me. I was his mate. The wolf his wolf had chosen to be faithful and loyal to.
Bullshit, if you ask me. Jax let me live because he liked having me as a prisoner.
He’d set me up here. At the time, it had been a dirty hole in the wall where even shit-faced drunks didn’t sit down without sliming sanitizer all over their hands. The night Jax had all but thrown me into the bar, Parker met him out front. He was an old and grizzled man even then.
Jax said a few words to Parker and walked away without a second glance back. I figured he was giving me to Parker. Like, literally. Instead, Parker set me up in the small apartment above the bar and left me alone.
After about six months of not knowing what the hell I was supposed to do, I figured I’d focus on the bar. A year later, I’d really turned the place around.
It became a hub for shifters passing through, whether they were Black Diamond wolves or not. We even started getting some of our own as regulars, although most came to enjoy the good food and harass me.
“I’d heard that Jax let her live. You working off your father’s crimes, little girl?”
My wolf threatened to surface, but I shoved her down. When he reached for me, I snagged the knife next to him and embedded it into the wood, right next to his pinky finger. With a gasp, he jerked his hand back. “First of all,” I said calmly. “I’m no little girl. If that’s your fantasy, you let me know, and I’ll show you just how much of my father I have in me. Secondly, there is nothing that would make me spread my legs for you. Do you understand?”
“Anna,” Danny growled and pulled me away. “Is that any way to treat the customers?”
His hand curved over my hip, and I turned and slammed the palm of his hand against his nose. Blood spurted out, and his growl turned feral. When he turned to me, his eyes glowed gold.
“On your knees,” he howled. “Now.”
I couldn’t control her anymore. I’d gone too far, and now my wolf, always prickling just below my skin, rushed forward. Her fear overwhelmed me, and I hit my knees and exposed my neck.
Luckily, I didn’t let her out. I never let her out. She was just as trapped as I was.
“Bitch. Beg for my mercy.”
I tried to will the wolf away, to ignore her submissive behavior, but tears pricked my eyes. “Forgive me. Please,” I whimpered.
He was my superior when it counted the most, and like everyone else, he could order my wolf. When she was this close, there was nothing that I could do to stop it.
Dirk had broken her to the point that she couldn’t stand up to anyone, and I was at her mercy.
The front door opened, and Danny looked up. I couldn’t see over the counter, but I knew exactly who had walked in. Not because Danny and the customer both bowed their heads in reverence. Not because I recognized his scent or the sound of his voice.
But because of the way my wolf shivered inside of me, keened with want and desire. It was all I could do to keep myself from launching over the counter and wrapping my body around him.
Can’t stand a man’s touch but his, and the man hated me with every bone in his body.
Really, my life was the stuff of dreams.
Sitting at the bar, Jax plucked the knife out of the wood and rubbed his finger over the gash. “Hello, Anna. I see you’ve settled right in.”
Chapter 3
Anna
I sank as low as I could against the floor. Had I let my wolf out, she would have clawed through the floorboards, certain she wasn’t worthy of being on the same level as Jax.
At his low laugh, my skin flushed with humiliation while my mind raced. For three years, I hadn’t seen him, and it wasn’t like he’d stopped by when I wasn’t at work. I lived above the bar. I was always here.
I figured he’d just left me here to rot with the bar. Maybe part of me hoped that by making this bar profitable, I’d gain his attention. Prove that I could be a capable member of the pack.
Nothing. Not a peep. It was obvious he couldn’t care less about me. Was he finally here to do what he should have done three years ago?
What would happen if he’d decided to marry? It wasn’t common for wolves to marry someone else if they were mated, but it did happen. Would he need to kill me?
Or maybe he’d figured out how to remove our mating bond. There was a witch attached to the clan. Maybe it was possible.
“Get up,” he sighed. “Now.”
He didn’t push any of his power in his voice. He didn’t need to. My wolf would have slit her own throat if he’d just casually mentioned it was something that would make him happy.
I slowly stood but kept my gaze to the floor. Silently, I waited.
“Look at me.”
Shit. He was here because of me or has decided to entertain himself while he was here.
Either way, I was not going to just be able to slink out of the bar unnoticed.
Still, I didn’t dare speak. It was all I could do not to cry as he looked me over with distaste. Behind him, two of the three guards smirked. The other looked on with curiosity. Him, I recognized. He’d been there when Jax eviscerated Dirk.
He’d held his claws against my neck while I watched. I never did learn his name.
“Stabbing customers is no way to get repeat business, is it?” Jax asked as he twirled the knife between his fingers.
“Considering that Fanged Smile is now turning a profit, maybe you shouldn’t question my techniques.”
I couldn’t stop the words from coming out of my mouth any more than I could stop my wolf’s reaction. Immediately, I was on my knees again, presenting my throat.
Is that smart mouth of yours going to be worth your death?
Parker’s voice in my head, laced with disappointment. If he could see me now, he’d be furious with me.
The bar was deadly silent. When Jax leaped over the counter, I closed my eyes and waited for the fatal blow to come.
Instead, I heard the ring of the cash register. Confused, I opened my eyes and watched as he pulled out the day’s receipts. He grunted as he sifted through them and closed the register.
After what seemed like forever, he turned to me.
“Get up.”
Once again, I pulled myself to my feet. If I started adding a little hop at the end, I’d be doing burpees and getting some killer abs.
I could feel his gaze on me. “Bar’s closed for the day. I want everyone out.”
Danny shifted behind me, and I turned to leave. “Not you, Anna. And Danny, you can wait for us in the office. I want a word with you before I leave.”
Oh, good. He wanted to kill me without an audience. At least it wouldn’t be public.
The bar was slow to empty. Clearly, everyone was hoping to see my humiliation. Finally, it was just the two of us with his one guard. “You remember, Jenson, I’m sure.”
I remembered him. I just never knew his name. Parker’s lessons on pack hierarchy came to mind. Jenson was Jax’s second-in-command. His power curled around me, not as seductive as Jax’s, but sharper.
A lot like those claws that were at my neck.
“Pour us some drinks, Anna.”
Woodenly, I did as he asked; he settled back on the bar stool and studied me. “You know, when Parker told me that you wanted to tend bar, I figured you had a death wish. A month later, this was my most profitable business. Apparently displaying Dirk’s daughter is the fastest way to get rich.”
Bile rose in my throat, but I kept my mouth shut as I sat two beers in front of him. He’d known what I was doing?
Parker must have told him. It made sense that he was reporting to his alpha.
“Haydenwood Brewery?” Jax growled. “You realize that’s a Snake River Pack beer, don’t you?”
“No.” I finally dared to look at him. “I don’t know anything about any of the packs. I know that it’s popular.”
“Parker didn’t educate you?”
“I think Parker’s only mission was to make sure nobody killed me. He did that fairly well up until he died.” I couldn’t help but let bitterness rise in my voice. “I don’t even think there was a funeral for him.”
“There was. You weren’t invited.”
Pain curled deep inside me. The old geezer had been a real bastard at times, but he’d also been far more kind than anyone else in my life. “Maybe it’s time you stop toying with me and just tell me what you’re doing here.”
“Fanged Smile is mine. I can come and go as I please. I’m starting to think I need to come by more often.”
Wonderful. I really needed to curb my tongue and become as boring as possible. “You are right, of course. Parker was a bastard, but I’m sad that he’s gone. Are you replacing my babysitter?”
Jax grunted but didn’t say anything. As he sipped his beer, I took a deep breath. “Please. I don’t even know how he died.”
“Suicide.”
“Suicide? No fucking way. You’re wrong. So wrong.”
With his beer halfway to his mouth, Jax narrowed his eyes and stared at me. “Shut up.”
“No, I’m sorry. I can’t do that. Parker wouldn’t commit suicide. He wouldn’t…he wouldn’t leave me.” Tears rose in my eyes, but I struggled to hold them back. I was weak in almost every single way that mattered, but I couldn’t be weak now. One person had shown me some decency in my life. He’d been drunk, abrasive, and incredibly offensive at times, but he’d respected me.
I would not let his death be written off as suicide. I just couldn’t.
“And here I was thinking that Parker killed himself because of you,” Jax said harshly.
“That I put him in charge of a woman I should have killed years ago, and in doing so, I stripped him of all his friends and family. He killed himself because he had nothing but you.”
If he was aiming to hurt me, his aim was dead-on, but I didn’t back down. “Parker told me that his son had been away for years before I came here, so you can’t pin that on me. And we both know that Parker didn’t have friends. What makes you think he killed himself?”
“Because he put a gun to his head and left a note.”
My hands started to shake, so I clasped them behind my back. “And what did the note say?”
“Wondering if he killed himself because of you, my dear?” With a smirk, he drained his beer and stood. “I’m here to promote Danny. He’s your new manager, and as you call it, your new babysitter.”
Bile rose in my throat. Of course Danny was the new manager.
“I quit.”
Jax cocked his head. “No.”
“You can’t keep me here against my will.”
“I can, Anna. Did you think this was a job? This is your prison, my dear. You leave when I say you leave. Do what you’re told, and maybe it’ll be another three years before I see you.”
I could run. I didn’t know much about the clan politics or the local packs. They were all independent of each other. The king exiled Shadowed Moon Mountains a long time ago. There was no higher authority than the alphas, but they controlled nothing out of their own territories. I could blend in with the pack-less rogues. I knew these mountains like the back of my hand.
It wasn’t the first time I’d considered running and picking my life up as a rogue. I might not make it more than a few years before another wolf ended my life, but it would be a few years of freedom. That was all I wanted.
“If you run, Anna, I will find you, and I will make sure that where I put you next will make this place look like a castle.”
Jax and Jenson stopped and headed for the door. Helplessly, I watched them go.
“You don’t understand. You don’t know the things Danny will do to me,” I called after them.
My mate didn’t even look over his shoulder. “I do.”
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