Her True Wolf Page 4

  He was probably the worst, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t get better. That didn’t mean he couldn’t change and become the kind of man Karol would want. He wanted to understand her. He wanted to understand because he cared. He wanted to know her.

  He wanted to prove he was more.

  Chapter 3

  THREE YEARS LATER.

  Karol Lee was at The Red Maiden like she was every night, and she was in for another long one. Old Tree Creek was slowly being built back up, but she was so far inside of Old Tree Creek that she hadn’t seen much change herself. It was the same old terrible job and situation that she couldn’t bring herself to leave that it always was. But her head was elsewhere tonight. She was working on automatic while her thoughts ran marathons in her head.

  She told herself she wouldn’t work in this bar longer than she had to, but she got tips and she couldn’t find a place that would pay her better. No one seemed to want her. Maybe she had done that to herself. She kept trying to climb the mountain in front of her, but she never got to the top because then she started climbing a new mountain. Or she wasn’t climbing a mountain at all and it was all lies she told herself to make herself feel better.

  She didn’t know how to get ahead.

  Her mother passed away a few days after the night she helped that strange man who found his way into The Red Maiden all ragged and hurt like he had been running for his life. God, and she was a complete mess around him. When she first caught sight of him, warmth spread all over her body and concentrated in her core. She had never had any trouble ignoring men, but that one nearly undid her in one night. She almost did something totally out of character for her—beyond the kiss she shared with him. That kiss replayed in her mind late at night when she was trying to sleep, and she hated that she savored the memory. She hated that she liked that kiss. She didn’t have time to go out and mess with guys. She didn’t need the trouble either.

  Even worse, she wished Casey would come back to The Red Maiden. She told him she didn’t want to see him again, but it was because she was afraid of what he made her feel. After her mother died, she wished he’d come back more than ever as if he’d be the one to provide her the comfort no one else could. She had been the breadwinner for her family since she was seventeen. She dropped out of high school when her mother got really sick with cancer and started working illegally at The Red Maiden. At least she was getting a fair wage now, at age twenty-two, compared to the scraps she was paid before. The little money she earned and the cost of medical bills meant the Lee family had to use up all of their mother’s meager savings. Karol was the sole person responsible for keeping her family safe and healthy now. She didn’t have time for guys. Especially at the risk of falling in love with one.

  At least old Mary could help Karol with the kids. Karol often worked all night, but she got home in time for breakfast and she always saw the kids off before going to bed for a good portion of the daylight hours. They made it all work somehow. Just like they always had.

  If Karol’s father had stayed in her life, maybe they wouldn’t have been in this situation. Her mother had a horrible history of men. Karol’s father was the one she stayed with the longest. All of Karol’s younger siblings were from different men who wanted to fuck her mother and ended up with their own kids. Most of them bailed because they couldn’t handle the responsibility or lost interest and wanted to fuck a younger woman. Some of them were abusive and her mother was the one to leave. Eventually, Karol’s mother gave up on that happy family idea and decided men weren’t worth it. Karol had to agree.

  Karol learned from her mother and had her own experiences. That was why she had absolutely no interest in dating or having a night of fun with some girlfriends to pick up guys—not that she even had any girlfriends she could go out with to pick up guys. Then Casey came along. She almost did something with him she would have regretted. Like that kiss. Except she almost didn’t regret the kiss. It was a memory and sensation that pulled her through some rough spots because that kiss made it feel like someone cared. But that was impossible.

  It wasn’t fair.

  If a man could make her feel so good, she could only imagine how much he could make her hurt.

  Casey had already buried himself deep inside of her that night so she couldn’t forget, but it didn’t help that Isabelle gave her random updates about the guy whenever she came to The Red Maiden to see Karol. She always had this look of pity on her face too.

  Whatever. It wasn’t like Casey cared enough to visit.

  Cared.

  He didn’t care. She knew that.

  Isabelle always offered help when she came, but Karol never took any of that. Her mother had taught her they were plenty capable on their own, and they were. They got what they absolutely needed. No, they didn’t have anything extra, but a lot of people didn’t. The Lee family didn’t need or accept anyone’s charity. It was prideful, but Karol would carry her mother’s pride to her own grave. It was what made her lot in life bearable. She had worth. She had importance.

  She had pride.

  Karol’s automatic pilot mode didn’t have good reflexes.

  She snapped out of her thoughts after she ran into a table and spilled a piss colored cocktail all over a patron. The sound of glass shattering as the drink finished making its mess on the floor had her stunned. She still had her serving tray in hand. She dropped the glass. She never messed up like that even when she was busy in her own mind. She had done this too many years to toss a glass like that. She was about to apologize to the man when she noticed he had his foot sticking out just far enough under the table he was seated at that it was almost inevitable he would have tripped her unless she was staring at the floor.

  She forced an apologetic smile as she looked the guy over. She had never seen him in The Red Maiden before. He was younger than most of the guys who hung around there. He was naturally tan from a job that probably required a lot of work in the sun. Maybe something like construction. He looked strong. There was a dangerous look in his unique green-gray colored eyes.

  “Sorry about that, sir. I’ll get you a wet towel and clean up this mess right away,” Karol said.

  She was about to scurry away and get that shit done when the man reached out and grabbed her ass. He held her hard and forced her into his lap. She thanked her lucky stars that her dress didn’t allow her legs to spread wide enough to straddle him. She preferred being slumped awkwardly face first into his lap to that. She pushed at his hard thighs, but it did nothing. His grip was like fucking iron. She couldn’t get him to budge an inch.

  “If you wanted a taste, you only had to ask,” the guy said with a chuckle. His voice was like static in her ears.

  Her chest squeezed with the anticipation of him burying her face into his covered dick, but instead, he caught her wild red hair, yanking it out of her ponytail and easing her up to face him. Her hands were splayed on his thighs in support as she tried to move back. With her red heels, she tried to dig back into the old wood floor to get away from him. It hurt her and did nothing to him, so she stopped. She didn’t have anywhere else to look, so her eyes rested on his. They weren’t just an odd green. His pupils were little black slits like a cat’s in the daylight.

  A scream was caught in her throat, but she held it in. Her boss made it clear to her the first day she started working for him at the age of seventeen that she was to take care of herself. Sexual harassment or anything she might report to him would be pushed aside. He could get another cocktail waitress easily, but he needed his paying customers. She had worked for him for five years now, and she had never complained to him once. She dealt with more harassment than any girl should have to deal with, and she nearly cost her boss customers and therefore her job more than once. But it turned out her defiance drew men in more than it kept them away. She kept her job and got a nickname from patrons and new patrons alike because apparently the cocktail waitress they nicknamed Firecracker amused them. They even gave her decent tips. She didn’
t care as long as she was able to protect herself and kept her job.

  She had overcome a lot and had gotten away with her dignity intact every time. Somehow. With luck. It seemed like all of her luck had been used up. She wasn’t sure she could best this one.

  “Let me go,” Karol said as steadily as she could as the beast of a man continued to hold her by her hair.

  He laughed. “You got guts, Firecracker. I like that. I see why you’ve got so many fans.” He jerked his chin over his shoulder. Everyone in the bar was watching and no one was doing a damn thing. She couldn’t count on a man to do anything decent let alone save her life if she was about to die.

  “Show him, Firecracker!” one of the drunks shouted. Cheers followed him.

  This wasn’t a fucking cage fight. She was in trouble! This guy didn’t move. She tried stepping on him, digging her sharp heel into his foot, but that didn’t elicit a reaction from him either.

  “I hear you win every fight you find yourself in,” the man said. She wished he’d at least move her back so her face wasn’t right in front of his, but his grip on her hair was making her scalp burn. “Guess you know how to best drunk on their ass men who can barely walk, but I’m different.”

  Yeah, that much she knew.

  He pulled her closer, brushing his lips against her left ear as he caught her moon earrings in his teeth. She was afraid he’d rip them out and tear her skin, but he didn’t. He spat the earring out of his mouth and said, “Damn Moon shit and its marks.” He chuckled. “I’ll get what I want whether you fight me or not.”

  This time Karol did scream. In anger. She fought through the burning sensation on her scalp and smashed her head into his nose. That action definitely cost her some hair, but it was worth it. Eyes watering, she looked up to see the damage she had done.

  Nothing.

  His nose looked perfectly fine, and his grip on her hair was as strong as ever.

  He shoved her away from him, finally releasing her hair. She flew back a few feet and hit her back hard against a table which shifted upon impact. She cried out, but she managed to grab onto the table and used it as support to keep her standing instead of falling to the floor. The man had a handful of her torn out red hair in his hand and a sadistic look on his face.

  She ran. Her back hurt, hindering her movements along with her damn high heels and restrictive dress.

  “Someone help me!” she cried, desperate. She never asked for help. Never.

  The sound of wood cracking and glasses shattering answered her plea. The bastard was tearing the whole bar apart behind her. He was too strong. Could a man really be strong enough to do this?

  Karol screamed again when the monster man’s arms wrapped around her waist and locked her against him. He moved one hand and plastered it to her chest, crushing her rib cage. His other went to her leg, ripping the tight skirt of her dress as he trailed up to her thigh.

  “Please,” Karol begged, tears in her eyes.

  All the fight left her when no amount of struggling did anything at all. She was powerless. She had never felt more powerless in her life. Even with everything she had gone through, she never once felt like she was incapable. She was able bodied and minded. She could work. She provided. She was the owner of her own body even when she had to deal with scum, but this one was different. It was like he said.

  She couldn’t get away.

  Her vision was fading to black, and she was glad. She didn’t want to be aware of what would happen to her next. Better to faint and let the darkness envelop her in a cold embrace.

  She was almost lost to the abyss when the violent jingle of the skull shaped bell that once hung from the front door came skittering across the wood floor as the door slammed open. A feral growl drowned out all other sounds less than a second later.

  Karol blinked through her tears, trying to understand what was going on. The man holding her had stopped his hand from traveling up her body. The whole bar went quiet. At the door, hunched over and snarling like an animal, was a man Karol met once. He was the same man she dreamed about from time to time. The same man she helped three years ago.

  “Casey,” she whimpered.

  The immense relief she felt just by seeing him was like nothing she had ever experienced before. There was an entire flood of emotions crashing through her body, but the one with the most force was relief. Sweet, simple, and pure relief.

  She didn’t remember his eyes being such a bright yellow-green though. His eyes had the same kind of animalistic glow as the man holding her hostage.

  “Hands off,” Casey demanded, voice full of authority.

  “Make me, kid,” the monster behind Karol said with an undertone of amusement.

  Karol only blinked, and Casey was suddenly in front of her. One second he was ripping her assailant’s hands off her, and the next she was safe in his warm embrace, pressed against his firm chest. He was bigger than she remembered, older, commanding. But he wasn’t the beast size the man who had held her captive was.

  She turned her head far enough behind her to see her assailant shaking his hands and hissing. Red was dripping onto the floor. His hands were bleeding! What the hell did Casey do? And he did it without hurting her?

  “Are you okay?” Casey asked her.

  “Y-yes,” she squeaked. She dug her fingers into his t-shirt in an attempt to stop any more tears from escaping her eyes. Even though it was fall he was running around in nothing more than a t-shirt and jeans…

  Karol’s assailant growled and charged forward. Casey spun Karol out of his arms and out of harm's way. Suddenly, she was behind him, and he was meeting the monster man head-on. The man threw a punch at Casey which he dodged with surprising grace. But the man expected this. He caught Casey and threw him onto the ground so hard that Casey slid across the wood floor and bulldozed into some tables and chairs like a fucking bowling ball. People were getting the hell out of the bar now. Staying would probably mean broken bones.

  Karol was about to rush to Casey’s side, but he stood and charged again before she got a chance to. He was bleeding from a cut above his right eye. There was a fucking wooden stake lodged in his left arm too! He pulled it out and threw the bloodied scrap onto the floor like he didn’t feel anything at all. It hadn’t gone in deep from the look of it, but still!

  “Let’s take the rest outside,” the man suggested as he dodged Casey’s fist and rushed to the door. His eyes glinted that odd green, his pupils in slits, as he glanced over his shoulder. He didn’t wait for Casey to consent as he disappeared into the darkness outside.

  Casey wiped a trickle of blood from his lips and headed for the door.

  “Wait!” Karol exclaimed as she grabbed Casey’s right arm, the one that hadn’t been hurt. “Don’t, Casey. It’s over.”

  “He’ll be back if I don’t go after him and finish this,” he replied, staring out the door with a look that said kill.

  For the first time since Casey arrived, Karol was unsure. She was even a little scared. She let go of his arm and braced her bruised back against the bar counter. Then Casey looked at her. The terrifying gleam in his eyes was gone. There was a softness now, in eyes that were brown with only a hint of green. These were the eyes she remembered. The way he looked at her filled her with warmth and reassurance. There was something safe in how he was looking at her.

  “I’m going to make sure he never bothers you again,” he told her. Then his gaze wavered. “I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner.”

  Karol shook her head. She didn’t know what to say. It was a miracle Casey got here at all. She didn’t understand it. It was like he knew she was in danger. She hadn’t seen him once in three years, and then he showed up out of nowhere and saved her.

  Casey dashed for the door and disappeared into the night without another word. For some reason, the sight made her heart ache. She slid down onto the splintered floor against the bar counter, ripping her red dress further up her thigh, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. Her back was
killing her.

  “What have you done?!” her boss roared from behind the counter. He came around to meet her and grabbed the low neckline of her dress, exposing her breasts. He quickly let her go because even though he turned a blind eye, he never laid a hand on any of his waitresses. He was shaking in anger. “You’re fired.” He established as he stood up, and his fiery rage froze over.

  “No, please,” Karol begged as she scrambled to her feet. “I need this job. You know I need this job.”

  “You just cost me way more than you’re worth.” He spread his hands out to indicate the jacked up and abandoned bar. Everything was broken.

  “Leave!” he shouted. “I never want to see your face in here again, Firecracker.” His glare made her skin crawl.

  Karol balled her hands into fists. She shook with emotion. She wanted to tell him he couldn’t do this to her, but she knew there was no way she would be able to change his mind. She walked with as much dignity as she could manage as she grabbed her heavy jacket in the back room. She couldn’t do anything about the terrible tear in her dress, but at least she had her pepper spray.

  She walked out the door, standing tall. Once she was sure her boss couldn’t see her anymore, she let her shoulders slump. She staggered on her feet, but she kept her high heels on because it was better to suffer through walking in them than to get cut by some glass. She would have brought sneakers and a change of clothes to work, but her boss never allowed her to bring anything more than a jacket.

  “Damn it,” she said under her breath.

  She pressed her hand to the small of her back, trying to relieve the bruising pain she felt there.

  “Damn it!” she screamed in the dead of night to a world that didn’t care.

  Chapter 4

  IT WAS EASY ENOUGH for Casey to follow Otto’s swampy scent. It was distinct and a smell Casey was not fond of. Like a rat in a sewer. It led him to the tree lined river for which Tree Creek was named. Of course, it made sense Otto would choose someplace with water as their battlefield. He was an alligator shifter; water gave him an advantage.