Her True Wolf Read online

  Marked by the Moon Book 0

  Kamryn Hart

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2017 Kamryn Hart

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, etc.

  This is a work of fiction.

  kamrynhartauthor.com

  Summary

  She has a no man policy.

  Karol Lee has a cynical outlook on dating and men in general. Her own father walked out on her, and she has seen her mother’s failed marriages one too many times.

  Then Casey happened. He’s drop dead sexy, and she feels an immediate connection to him like he was made for her.

  But she can’t have him. Nothing changes the fact that he’s just another man who won’t stick around.

  He’ll do whatever it takes to claim her.

  Casey Hunt left Blue Pack, his fellow wolf shifters, to find his Fated Mate. He found her, and she’s everything he could have wanted with her fiery personality and blazing red hair.

  But she doesn’t want him.

  Luckily, Casey isn’t willing to give up that easily. No matter how long it takes—or what it takes—he’s determined to win her heart.

  Fated Mates. Forever Love.

  Marked by the Moon

  Book 0: Her True Wolf

  Book 1: Her Brave Wolf

  Book 2: Her Fierce Wolf

  Book 3: Her Wild Wolf

  Book 4: Her Noble Owl

  Book 5: Her Bad Cat

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Kamryn's Books

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Epilogue

  Message from the Author

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  HE KNEW THE DAY would come when he had to claim her. His pack expected it. He expected it. His mate to be expected it. But he was having second thoughts. Rebellious thoughts.

  Casey Hunt stood at the door to the master bedroom in the beautiful house his father had designed and constructed as a gift for Casey and the mate he was supposed to claim. It was as beautiful as all the other houses in Moonwatch, burgundy wood with expertly carved images of wolves. Some of the images were discreet while others were blatant. It was time-consuming work that yielded beautiful results.

  Casey pressed his fingers to one of the wolves carved into the door jamb. To say the town was obsessed with wolves would have been an inaccurate statement. It was true all of the buildings in Moonwatch, Idaho were built in this same style of large homes and wolf carvings, but that was because those living in the small town were wolf shifters, and they were proud of their lineage. All these buildings were created by the Hunt bloodline.

  Things used to be so good.

  “Casey.” Willow Sipe, the she-wolf Casey was to claim tonight, touched his shoulder softly. “You going inside or are we going to stand outside the bedroom all night?”

  He could sense her insecurity. Her usually energetic and sassy nature was hidden somewhere under a stone surface tonight.

  Because she knew.

  He showed her.

  “We’re supposed to do this thing before the sun comes up. Full Moon, really important union, saving the Wolf and everything,” she said quietly when Casey hadn’t turned to face her. “It’s supposed to be a big celebration after you claim me. We’ll renew Pack Vows under my dad as mates. But you’re acting like this is the worst night of your life.”

  Finally, Casey turned to face her. She was a stunning beauty. Her natural long white blond hair was fascinating and a lovely complement to her flawless porcelain skin. She was shorter than him but taller than most human women he had met. She had curves that would make any man weak with his need to feel her, to be inside her. And she felt good. He didn’t deny that. Her killer boobs and ass were to die for. If her looks weren’t enough, she was the Blue Pack Alpha’s daughter. That was how he knew he was completely out of his mind.

  Willow caught his hands and squeezed them tight. “You do know how important this is. Right, Case? Me and you could be the ones to save the Wolf.”

  She called him Case, an obvious attempt to lighten the mood. It was the nickname she and her brother Nick called Casey. The three of them were close because they were the only wolves their age. Casey was about to destroy that bond.

  Willow never used to talk about him claiming her as the thing to save the Wolf. It left a dissonance that using his nickname couldn’t mask. She used to be much more into the romantic aspect of Casey claiming her because she loved him. Saving the Wolf was the reason her father wanted her and Casey to become mates. Wolves were either infertile or had wolfless young these days. Other than Casey, Willow, and Nick, there seemed to be only older wolves around. It was true for Casey’s pack as well as the other packs they were in contact with. All packs were getting desperate because of the rapid decline.

  Saving the Wolf would have been noble and everything, but Casey and Willow had had plenty of unprotected sex in the last year when Willow turned seventeen, and she had never gotten pregnant. She didn’t smell infertile or anything, but she never went into heat, a female wolf shifter’s most fertile time, just like all the other female wolves. Casey and all the other male wolves weren’t infertile either as far as anyone’s senses could tell, and yet this was how things were. No one understood it.

  Casey glanced out the open window, letting in the light of the Full Moon. The Moon was the celestial body that made wolf shifters. Its power, Lunas, coursed through their veins to some degree. Whatever was going on with the Wolf, Casey was sure it had to do with the Moon.

  “Casey, look at me,” Willow said. Her voice nearly breaking.

  He tore his gaze away from the window and did as she asked. Looking into her pleading chocolate brown eyes made him feel guilty for what he was going to do.

  “We can put it all behind us, okay?” she said, tears pooling in her eyes. “The humans, the sneaking out to Tinsdelle to meet them. I know it’s new and exciting. I liked it too when you showed me it, but what about your pack?”

  “You really want to be told who you have to love, Willow?” Casey asked. “Who you have to mate?”

  “But I love you!” she protested, and the tears fell down her cheeks as she looked up at him. “I want you to claim me. I want you.” She closed the small distance between them and held on to him tightly as if that would be enough to make him stay. “What about all the times you made love to me? You were out messing around with humans too, but you still wanted me? Or maybe you want lots of women but no mate.”

  He did want a mate. He wanted his Fated Mate like the Fated Mates his mother, the pack’s history keeper, told him stories about since he was a pup. No wolf he knew was mated to their Fated Mate. But he knew in his bones that his Fated Mate was out there somewhere—and it wasn’t Willow.

  “Casey!” she begged. “I love you. Please.”

  “I’m not going to claim you,” he stated as he placed his hands firmly on her shoulders. “I love you too, Willow, but not the way you want me to. You’re a good friend, and you’ll always be my packmate.”

  “No,” she whimpered.

  He moved her away from him and went to the bedroom window, facing Blue Forest. Willow collapsed onto the floor. She had never looked so miserable with black mascara running like charcoal down her cheeks.

  “I’m sorry,” Casey said.

  He opened the bedroom window. Then he quickly undressed and willed his body to shift. He focused on the sounds of his bones snapping and reshaping along with every inch of his flesh. Dark brown fur sprouted from his body. H
is face elongated. His teeth grew large and sharp. He now had a tail. He was down on all fours, being supported by big paws. In no time, he was completely wolf.

  He gathered his t-shirt, shorts, and a pair of sandals in his mouth and leaped through the open window. He picked light clothes for this very reason. He could only carry so much in his mouth at a time, and he would need to be fully clothed if he stopped at a human city. Regardless of his efforts, the load he was carrying was plenty cumbersome.

  Ignoring the urge to drop everything in his mouth so he could move faster, Casey locked his jaws into place. He ran on green grass straight for Blue Forest. The home his father made for him and Willow was on the edge of town. He doubted anyone would catch up to him in time to force him back to Moonwatch. Willow probably wouldn’t tell anyone what happened anytime soon either. She looked too shaken up to care, and if he didn’t want her, what good did it do her to tattle on him to daddy and bring him back? Did Casey feel like a dick for leaving her like that? Yes, yes he did. But he didn’t regret the decision. He had to leave, and there was no easy way to break it to her.

  He was his own wolf from now on. If the Moon agreed with his decision, it would ensure his escape and guide him. That was what he believed. He hit the cover of the blue spruces making up most of Blue Forest and kept running. The Full Moon watched over him, gleaming through the needles and branches of the trees, the only thing that had his back as he dug into the rich dirt beneath him with each strike of a paw. The Full Moon should have compelled him to meet his Alpha and renew Pack Vows, but it was spurring him on and filling him with energy.

  The forest spanned many miles, but he hardly noticed any of them. He ran with a vigor he had never felt before. He didn’t stop for anything, not even when he cleared the forest. He could have shifted back to his human body and gone to a road in the hopes of hitchhiking, but it was dark, none of the roads nearby were well-traveled, and he wanted to get as far away from Moonwatch as possible.

  As the Moon moved across the sky, he kept running. It was hours into the night, well past midnight, when he became aware of the ache in his paws. He slowed to a stop and examined his bloodied pads. His jaws were also aching from carrying his clothes and sandals for miles on end. He had kept to smaller residential areas and long stretches of land so he could continue as his wolf. Not too far back, he saw a sign announcing he was in Wyoming now. The city not too far ahead of him was the biggest one he had come across on his long journey tonight.

  Exhausted, he decided he would take a rest here. He dropped his clothes and sandals at the base of a maple tree. His tongue hung tiredly from outside of his mouth. He shook his head to try and ease the ache. He quickly scouted the area, using his eyes, ears, and nose. When he was certain it was clear and that he was hidden, he shifted in the darkness.

  As his skin stretched on his paws, he gritted his teeth. The wounds were opened larger because his body was changing so drastically. By the time he no longer had brown fur thick all over his body, he looked human again. He shook out his hands, using the cool night air to ease the burn. He sat by the tree for a moment before getting dressed. The cracks in his hands weren’t deep, so they sealed over with a thin layer of new skin in a few minutes. He wiped off the excess blood as best as he could in the grass and then got dressed.

  After his sandals were on his feet, Casey walked to the lit up city ahead of him. He glimpsed a run-down sign that read Tree Creek that wouldn’t have been visible if not for his ability to see well in the dark. It was then he noticed there was more to this city than the lights that had caught his eye. The lit up part of the city belonged to tall skyscrapers. The area he was closest to was a shadow in the night with hardly any lights, broken streets, and run-down one-story buildings. The two didn’t look anything alike, but they seemed to be connected.

  He walked down an uneven street and glimpsed decrepit buildings with boarded up windows. This place almost looked like a disaster zone, and yet, if you walked far enough, you’d find yourself in a brand new city. Maybe the whole city was getting renovated and they were slowly working on this part of it. He saw heavy equipment sitting in the dark near the buildings they were in the process of demolishing. They were quiet for the night, eerie silhouettes that kind of looked like monsters.

  Maybe he was hallucinating. He was feeling faint. God, he was thirsty. He tried to swallow, but there was a desert in his mouth. He was swallowing nothing but sand.

  An annoying buzz in his ear brought his attention to a blinking sign that said The Red Maiden. There was a silhouette of a woman underneath the letters, both outlined in red neon. She was seated with her hand holding her weight, her legs crossed, as her other hand held a glass of champagne. Casey walked closer to the building the neon sign was representing. It looked as run-down as the rest of the area, but the lights were on, and there were people inside. He glanced inside one of the windows and identified the place as a small bar. It was full of mostly tired looking old men. In a dump like this, Casey figured the people here definitely had something to drink about.

  The grit in Casey’s mouth begged him to go inside. He was twenty years old, technically underage, but all he wanted was a glass of water. There was nowhere else nearby where it looked like he’d be able to get water. This was his only option. He had snuck into clubs and bars to hang out with humans plenty of times, so he wasn’t worried about that. He easily passed for twenty-one or a few years older, but he didn’t like the look of this place. Honestly, he would have avoided it entirely if he wasn’t dying of thirst.

  He winced when he grabbed the door handle, reminding him of the rawness in his hands. A little skull hanging over the door jingled as he entered the bar. He expected at least a few heads to turn at the sound, but no one bothered to look at him.

  The inside of the bar was entirely wood, but it was wood that looked like it had been scrubbed down raw. It had no polish, and he wouldn’t have been surprised to find rot. Disgusted, Casey shrugged as he walked forward, intending to sit on one of the barstools, but his feet turned traitor with their current tenderness. He stumbled into the cocktail waitress moving past him. She had a single beer on her serving tray, and it would have fallen on the floor, but Casey acted fast. He caught the glass without spilling a single drop of the beverage. The cold eased the pain in his equally tender hand. He quickly set the beer back on the woman’s serving tray, not eager to chance reopening any wounds.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  His eyes rested on a head of red curly hair piled into a high ponytail. Then his gaze slid down to a freckled face and light brown eyes that made his heart beat a little faster. The woman before him was wearing what had to be a work uniform, an almost skin tight red dress that accentuated her hair. Red lipstick. Red nails. All red like the sign outside. The way her dress dipped down the middle of her breasts and hugged her pronounced hips was going to kill him. She was wearing red high heels too, but he guessed she was a foot shorter than him without them.

  He couldn’t take his eyes off her. The attraction was instant. His dick was hard and ready. He wanted to kiss her senseless. He wanted to feel every inch of her. He wanted to claim her right now. His canines were threatening to burst from his gums. This was her. He could feel it in his bones, an emotional need as well as a physical one. All it took was for him to leave his home and the Moon led him right to his Fated Mate. She was the most gorgeous woman he had ever laid eyes on.

  Human woman. Her scent didn’t lie.

  His mother’s stories always said Fated Mates were wolf pairings. He shook his head at the thought. It didn’t matter. Until he started leaving Moonwatch to mingle with the humans in Tinsdelle, he only knew what he had been taught, but there was much more to everything. He was sure there were other shifters out there, not just wolves. Why couldn’t there be humans the Moon chose for its shifters too? It made sense to him. He felt wolves like his pack had been closed off for too long. That was a big reason why he left the pack. He was tired of being closed off.

/>   “Nice save,” Casey’s Fated Mate said.

  She was checking him out as thoroughly as he was her. Her voice was warm like the rays of the sun. She smelled heavenly. Her scent was overpowering the unsavory smells of the unwashed men in the bar. She was cherry sweet. With each passing moment, her scent seemed to ripen. His nose told him the same thing her dilated pupils did. She was as attracted to him as he was her, and it all happened as fast for her as it did him. Instant. Fated Mates.

  “Thanks,” Casey replied.

  The woman walked past him with a sway of her hips that got him hot. He didn’t think it was possible for his dick to get any fucking harder. He did his best to discreetly adjust himself, but it didn’t do much good. He watched his Fated Mate’s ass as she set the beer down on a guy’s table. She had a great ass. Literally the best he had ever seen. The way the fabric of her dress hugged it, outlining it perfectly, made it impossible for him to look away.

  He straightened up and tried not to look like a total loser when she turned back around, her light brown eyes set on him. He hadn’t moved from where she left him. She walked back to him with a concerned look on her face.

  “You feeling okay? You look like you’ve run yourself ragged. Need a little something to take off the edge?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “Water. I need water.”

  “No joke. You sound parched as hell. C’mon over.”

  She led the way to the front of the bar and walked behind the counter as Casey took a seat on an empty barstool, away from the other men in the bar. The woman passed him a glass of water topped with ice. He drank it like he’d never get a chance to drink again, and she refilled it without saying a word.

  “What’s your name?” she asked.

  “Casey.”

  “I’m Karol. There anything else you need besides water?”

  He loosely gripped the cool glass, using the water that condensed on the outside of the glass to ease his raw hands. “Actually,” he said, “I could use a little help.”