You Wouldn't Dare (Khaos Trilogy Book 1), page 1
Praise For J.M Johnson
Memorable and on my list to read again - Heather
I loved reading this book. The characters were so well thought out and I loved reading it. When reading books, often there are things we want to happen, and the author delivers but not always when or how we want. The trigger warning is real people. There is one part of this story that had me shaking with anger and despair. But it is important for the characters. The author keeps me on my toes wanting to read more, and some steamy chapters too.
This book introduced me to the world of werewolves and fantasy in the most incredible way! - Kate Dixon Australia
I'd never indulged in books with a fantasy theme before, having never seen the appeal in them, until I took a chance on 'You Wouldn't Dare'. It drew me in from the very first chapter and the way J.M Johnson painted the picture of Violet and Khaos's characters and their journey together, had me instantly hooked. Before I knew it, I was onto the 2nd and 3rd books in the series, gripped by the immersive plot, hanging on every twist and turn their story took, unable to get enough!
You wouldn't dare – Shana Kirsty Atkins
I have read many books with tragedy & love & action, but none of them had reached me & seeped so deeply in my soul like this one! I absolutely love this book! In my opinion I think that this is probably one of the only books that I have read that has so deeply entranced me! The author made me laugh, cry, smile & scowl through this story. This is an amazingly beautiful, wonderful, time worthy read!! I absolutely recommend this!
Review for the entire Khaos Trilogy- Akanksha
The Khaos Trilogy is one of the best series of books I have ever read. It is much harder to move a person just with writing, but author you have done it multiple times, all throughout your books. The excellent choice of words at the right time ,with an amazing streak of intriguingly detailed turnings of the book at every chapter, keeps me at the edge of my seat with all the mind boggling twist and turns and THE most satisfying outcomes of the suspense that keeps building up with every passing chapter. All in all it is one hell of an adventure, that is sure to keep you awake until you finish the books .I absolutely cannot wait to read all of your other books because you simply kill it every time!
My favourite werewolf story so far - Diana
I loved this book from beginning to the end. I couldn’t stop reading it. I was laughing, panting, scared, angry, happy, shocked, excited, heartbroken and I could keep going. I really like the way the author writes and the way her characters are changing and developing, and not just the main characters. You’d think it’s just another werewolf alpha story, where the dominant guy tries to get the girl, and the girl resists, though she wants it, too, but this story is so much more than that. I can’t wait for the sequel.
You Wouldn’t Dare – Katie Alice
This book sent me on a rollercoaster of emotions. I was distraught, outraged and ecstatic at times. You could really create a connection with the characters. Even though this book contains some dark content, it also has such an impactful meaning about second chances. The book doesn’t move too fast and it doesn’t move too slow. The author also goes into such a depth in detail, which paints an elaborate image in the reader’s mind. This book is by far one of the best I’ve read from this genre.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2020 by J. M. Johnson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review. For more information, address: joannewritesx@gmail.com
First paperback edition September 2020
Book design created using Canva
J. M. Johnson
Joannewritesx@gmail.com
ISBN: 9798678006370
Scott,
Thank you for everything
The Beginning
Ryssa gasped as the sharp claws that penetrated her mate’s chest inflicted the same pain on her own body. She fell to her knees, screaming out as her heart was pierced and ripped from her chest.
Her handmaidens looked on helplessly as Ryssa screamed in pain, her eyes pleading with them to help her, to put an end to the burning fire that was licking its way through her veins.
No one knew how to help their Luna. There were no wounds on her body and her mate, Alpha Drake, was perfectly safe in his bed. Guards were posted outside his door - as they had been ever since the warning had been announced.
Ryssa knew better.
She knew her son had finally made good on his threat that he had roared at them all those years ago. She had always known he would come. It was just a matter of how, and when.
Now she had her answers.
He had entered the packhouse unseen. So many years of abuse had taught him well how to live his life in the shadows, never being seen, never being heard.
He would leave as silent as he came, but the devastation of this night would resound throughout the pack for years to come.
They would notice the utter carnage and devastation in the bedroom, Alpha Drake laying in a pool of his own blood – that is if they could find enough remaining pieces of him to identify him.
Then they would find the Luna, her face forever frozen in fear, her last moments one of terror as she anticipated her death at the hands of her son.
With a painful gasp, she ordered her maids out of the room. They would not be able to help her anyway.
It was too late now.
For the first time in her life, she would own up to her mistakes and take the punishment that was coming her way.
She knew she would be next; he would not let her live - despite the small amount of help she had offered him; it would not outweigh the evil she had committed.
Abandoned as a tiny pup, Ryssa and Drake had named their adopted son Khaos. A terrible accident had left Ryssa barren with no heir to speak of. Years of fertility treatment had all but destroyed the once loving relationship the two mates had shared. Too many heartbreaks and tragedies as one by one, the last of Ryssa’s eggs failed to take.
Until finally, it forced them to face up to the truth.
The Moon Goddess had not permitted them to be parents. She had seen into their hearts and declared them unfit for the job.
But free will could not be tampered with.
Defying the Gods, Ryssa and Drake had gotten their way. A babe was abandoned and Ryssa had snatched him up, seeing him as her new beginning.
They had named their new child Khaos, and had sworn in front of the pack that he belonged to them – a successful surrogacy that they had kept under wraps.
When translated, Khaos meant emptiness. A black void which they hoped to fill with love and laughter, mending poor Ryssa’s heart with the adoration of her adopted child.
They placed all her hopes and dreams on this innocent babe. She would become the mother that she was always supposed to be, winning back her mate’s affection as she lovingly raised his next heir.
It hadn’t worked.
Ryssa soon realised that Khaos was a poor substitute for the children she had lost. It wasn’t long before her resentment grew to hatred, until her arms ached for her babies, her own flesh and blood. Every time she looked at Khaos, she added another brick to the wall of hatred that had grown higher than anyone had foreseen.
From a young age, Khaos had been... difficult. As he grew older, he was death personified.
Living up to his namesake, he had the strength to rival that of the fabled primordial God himself.
No matter the vast richness and splendour he was surrounded with, he was always an unhappy child, a sullen teenager, eventually paving way to the arrogant, cold, unfeeling killer he had become today.
Ryssa would sob to anyone who would listen. Creating a fictional world of a mother who had been wronged, rejected by the child who she had selfishly given a happy home to. No one would dare call their Luna a liar, and they certainly wouldn’t question Alpha Drake, especially regarding their parenting.
Although, if anyone had bothered to ask their son, he would have a different tale to tell, and only too happily would he have shown them exactly what he had been through.
Some people were not meant to be parents, and he had the scars to prove it.
However, now the time for sharing was over.
He would have welcomed a friendly ear during those dark days, for someone to show him that there was kindness in this world, a light at the end of the tunnel, but no one came forward.
The pack he had once thought of as family turned a blind eye to the abuse he received daily, and now the time for repenting was long gone.
They had ruined Khaos completely.
Incapable of feeling anything other than hate, he welcomed the blackness that surrounded his heart and devoured his soul.
Ryssa both prayed for, and feared, the day he met his mate. Her life would not be one of adoration and happiness. She would be in a constant fight to save Khaos from himself, a battle to keep the beast that controlled him at bay.
Ryssa had failed - and for that, she welcomed this painful death, knowing it was her punishment for having failed to save her son from the very thing that haunted him - himself.
It wasn’t lost on her that th
Revenge would always be his.
As she felt another stab rip through her body, she thought back to the treatment Khaos had endured, and she felt the first tingles of shame nag at her. She shook her head, refusing to accept her portion of the blame.
She would not have this laid at her feet. She had done what she thought was right.
“He was no worse off for it!” she told herself with gritted teeth, growing angry with the situation she found herself in. There were no lasting scars as far as she could see, no hidden ailments that haunted him! He was okay in the end, wasn’t he?
Wasn’t he?
She gasped, feeling the bond between herself and her mate break as Khaos finally gave Drake some mercy and ended his life.
Her wolf kicked in, and with her heightened senses she smelled the blood, the scent travelling down the hallway, and she knew then that Khaos had shown no mercy at all.
Drake’s body had simply given up the fight - butchered and mutilated until he could no longer stand it and he finally left this world.
She was next.
She chewed her nails, knowing that he would find her, knowing there was nowhere to hide.
Her breath came in frantic gasps.
She scanned the room searching for anything she could use to defend herself and make her escape.
Why had she foolishly sent her handmaidens away?
She had thought she was ready to face up to her sins, but now that her ultimate fate was creeping closer by the second, her courage failed her.
She had heard the rumours of the man Khaos had become, knew that his size overpowered her tiny frame, and that his strength was one that had yet to be defeated.
She could run all she wanted, but she could never hide from him and she could never escape, not unless he wanted her to. Any attempt at running would only add fuel to the fire, appealing to the predator inside of him.
She looked at the tiny window and weighed up her options, a dozen frantic plans whirling through her mind until finally, with a sigh, she walked to the middle of the room; her legs shaking and unsteady.
It was too late for thoughts of escape.
Ryssa knew she would be fooling herself to pretend otherwise. Khaos was a master stalker, and now he had his prey cornered.
Her head snapped to the side as the door to her room smashed open, bouncing off the wall behind it.
He was here.
He stood still, an evil smirk on his face as his eyes raked over her terrified figure. She met his cold eyes and shrank back slightly from the formidable sight in front of her. The evil seeped from every pore on his body, his enormous frame dominating the room. Everything around her seemed to shrink, closing in on her until there was just her and him.
Mother and son.
Predator and prey.
The time had come.
He was no longer the small, skinny whipping boy. The man in front of her was everything he had promised he would become, and then some. He was breath-taking, his dark eyes glinting with hatred, the blood of her mate dripping from his clothes.
Ryssa made a mental list of all the reasons she hated Khaos, and was surprised to find that she couldn’t think of any. It was not his fault that she had been left barren, and it had not been his decision to be raised by two people incapable of love.
A small weight lifted from her chest. As selfish as she knew it was, she forgave herself. Her demons were nothing compared to the ones that haunted Khaos, but she had her reasons for doing what she did.
The past couldn’t be changed.
She lifted her chin, ignoring the tremors running through her. She still had her pride, and she refused to beg. If this were the way the Fates had written her death, she would not argue with it.
As he approached her with his sword drawn, she sent a prayer to the Moon Goddess to not judge her son based on his actions tonight. Give his soul one last chance and grant him his mate, let her be his redemption before the empty void became a dark abyss there would be no returning from, and he was damned to Hell for all eternity - as she and her mate were sure to be.
She smirked inwardly as she thought of Khaos with his mate, knowing that he would destroy her in his quest for love.
Who could willingly love such a creature? Who would be proud to stand at his side and declare to the world that they belonged to him?
History had a way of repeating itself, Just as Ryssa had been locked into a loveless mating, so would Khaos. He would finally understand some of the pain she had had to live with, to realise that it wasn’t only himself that was haunted by demons.
She locked eyes with her son as he lifted his sword, his eyes blazing with hatred. She would not beg and plead for her life; she had known all along it would come to this.
Instead, she closed her eyes and smiled softly, thinking soon she would be returned to the Kingdom of Paradise where she would be with her baby, the one who had been snatched away and not this murderous beast she had foolishly raised.
Surely the Moon Goddess would not deny her entry.
She had, after all, helped create one of the most fearsome warriors the world had ever known. That had to count for something, didn’t it?
Chapter 1
Violet
I stretched my legs out before me one last time, relishing the feeling of the warm sun on my bare skin.
I knew it would be a matter of mere months before this freedom was taken away from me. I had changed into my wolf to run to my favourite spot by the lake, and had but moments to spare as a human to bask in the sun before I was called away again.
My wolf purred, sending vibrations running through my body. She had missed being able to feel the grass under her paws as she thundered across the ground.
My mother didn’t approve of allowing the wolves to have free rein.
My mother didn’t approve of a lot of things, least of all my reluctance to go along with her ridiculous charade.
“This will be good for you Violet, a chance to make some genuine connections amongst strong packs.” I visibly cringed as my mother’s voice reverberated through my mind.
In two days, she and I would make a trip to visit all the packs in Europe. Mother would dress me up so she could show me off - her beautiful porcelain doll.
I would smile at the Alphas and thank them for their hospitality, compliment the Lunas on their lovely homes and watch as my mother beamed with pride at the lavish praise they would give. I could picture it now.
“Isn’t she lovely Amanda; such beautiful manners!”
“You must be so proud; your daughter is stunning!”
My mother had big plans for me. I was her bargaining tool, her ace card. My mother was a social butterfly, she craved the attention and jealousy of all the other Lunas and through me, she was receiving it.
From the moment they conceived me, my parents had already written my story, my life planned out to the finest detail, and it was too late to put my foot down and put an end to it.
I was the golden-haired angel, with a face carved from the Moon Goddess herself.
Mother spent most of her time teaching me ways to enhance my beauty, supervising me as she made sure I brushed my hair morning, noon, and night, with at least one hundred strokes until it shone under the light. Nothing was more important to her than showing off how beautiful her daughter was.
My brother was the lucky one. Mother left him alone, believing that the men made this world a better place by proving their strength and intelligence.
I was destined to be a trophy wife.
It sickened me to see her at her vanity table, applying layer upon layer of her expensive creams and youth serums. She was a shell of a woman, barely even alive. She refused to do anything that would require any effort, repeating time and time again that anything that was physically straining was also ageing to the skin. She had never wanted to be anything more; she didn’t care if she achieved anything or made her mark on the world. In her eyes, her role was fulfilled. She was the reigning beauty of the Atlantis pack, second only to her daughter. I’d be lying if I said her eyes didn’t cloud with resentment and jealousy when she looked at me sometimes. It was no surprise she was ready to marry me off to the strongest, most successful mate she could find.
