Wanted by the Forbidden Wolf, page 1
Wanted by the Forbidden Wolf
Brothers of the Lawless Pack Book 1
By Rachel Medhurst
Copyright 2023 © Rachel Medhurst
Please note that the author is English so spelling is in British English.
CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Her Wolf Protector – Book 2
Copyright
Author
Chapter One
It was time for my destiny. I was ready, prepared and wearing my kickass faux leather boots. I couldn't be a werewolf and be okay with wearing animal skin. It didn't sit right.
Glancing down at the knee-high gorgeousness, I admired the chunky heel and silver buckles. I hadn't been much into fashion in my teen years, but now that I earned my own money, and aspired to become my own boss, I was playing dress up, baby.
Shit. Bubbles churned my stomach, making me queasy. My attire should be the last thing on my mind right now. If I chundered in front of everyone, my first night as alpha would be a disaster. Not one member of my pack would respect me enough to take orders or pledge allegiance.
Looking out from where I stood by my favourite tree, just inside the pack-lands, I sighed. The fields stretched away, rising and falling, as if they were ocean waves. The rays of moonlight highlighted the interspersed clumps of wooded areas and small villages.
“It's been a long time coming,” I muttered, pushing off and grunting when I tripped over a tree stump. “Bastard thing.”
My father had called me clumsy since the day I'd been able to understand him. I’d made it my mission to become – mostly – agile on my feet. My father was also a bastard who had not only given me a complex, he'd run off and abandoned the pack, leaving me the alpha heir. At six years old.
Tony, my father's former best friend and now my stepfather, had become my regent. He had cleverly positioned himself as my mother's supporter when the shit hit the fan, instigating a public vote to get his current position.
Today, that ended. I would claim my birth right as alpha.
“Letty.”
Ah, speak of the devil werewolf regent.
“My name is Violet,” I replied, ignoring his attempt at catching up to me.
Speeding up, I strode across the field, on my way to Wolf Downs. Our pack's meeting point had been the birth place of the first werewolf in the South of England, almost a millennia ago.
Tony’s footsteps grew louder as he appeared behind me. His fingers gripped my elbow and he yanked me, shoving me behind him. I snarled, raising my lip to bare my elongated canines. This bitch no longer had to take orders from anyone, let alone the man who had manipulated and emotionally abused her for twenty years.
“My little pup has found her growl.”
A shudder shook my muscles as I squared up to him. He was a few inches taller than me and had no hair. His shoulders were stocky, like most werewolves, but he'd always seemed weak to me. The angle of his nose was a testament to the fights he'd got into when drunk. He liked a drink or sixteen.
“You have no right to lord it over me. You've kept me training to be alpha for five years, just so you can keep control of the pack. You can no longer put off the inevitable.”
Swinging away from him, I braced myself, ready for his attack. He had always taken his violent temper out on my mother and I, hiding his true nature behind closed doors.
“Don't be so cock-sure, pretty one.”
The gloating laugh floated to me, stilling my feet. When I looked over my shoulder, I clenched my hands into fists. He stood there, dressed in his best black suit, his bald head reflecting the moon above. The full moon.
A warm strength filled me from my feet and up. That full moon spoke to me, inviting me to release my lycan DNA. No matter what obstacle my stepfather tried to put in the way, I'd overcome it. I had to, I couldn't go on living like a prisoner in my own pack. A pack that belonged to me.
“The wolf god spoke to me in my dreams last night,” I said, gazing out to the lands I called home. These were my lands, they belonged to me. “He told me that fate was on my side. And as you know...” I faced forward, turning my back to my new enemy. “The wolf god always chooses who will become alpha.”
Dropping to my knees, I clasped the wolf shaped amulet around my neck, threw my head back and howled. The human-ness of the sound changed as my voice box morphed, along with my snout and eyes. The scene in front of me changed as the moonlight brightened, pretending to be the sun. My vision encapsulated the blades of grass and the rustling leaves as I settled into my wolf form.
Ah, there she was, my lycan spirit. She was powerful and hungry for justice. Sitting on the side-lines for too long, she was prepared for her destiny.
Not bothering to look behind me, I shot off, my paws digging up the earth as they thundered across the terrain, taking me to the hill on Wolf Downs. The wind brushed against my blonde fur, making me giddy with expectation.
I shook off the horrid memories of Tony and his dominance, embracing the wolf spirit that willed me across the fields and up onto the hill. A clump of trees sat on the very top, inviting me to rush to them. For there, I would meet my pack in the light of the full moon.
The thud of paws was joined by several others as the wolves of my pack joined me and we ascended the hill as a group. Slipping through the trees, we came into a clearing and slowed to a halt.
The circle of trees encased a sacred stone that was used in every werewolf pack ritual. The stone was just off centre and quite plain, if you asked me. The flat base jutted out of the ground at a slight angle. Nothing marked it as special. In fact, the only unnatural part of the clearing was the bare firepit in the centre and the rustic wooden benches that circled around it.
“Violet!” Tammy raised her hand, beckoning me over to where she sat on one of the benches.
I walked, rising to my hind legs as my human self reformed, still clutching the amulet. A kind witch had cast a spell on the necklace, allowing me to shift with my clothes intact and with minimal pain. It had made life so much easier in the twenty first century. Every wolf possessed a personal amulet, given to them on their sixteenth birthday. A year after a werewolf's shift began.
Other packs had been kinder to their teenagers, allowing them to have the spell earlier, but we were lycans, the first ever werewolf breed. We had to harden ourselves to the pain of the shift in order to survive our enemies.
“You're unusually early,” I muttered, lowering myself next to Tammy.
Tammy was my cousin. A year older than me, she'd snuck me out from under Tony's rule and taken me into London City in order to experience real life. Her short hairstyle and multiple piercings had attracted the wrong attention from the wrong werewolves. However, her pretty blue eyes had still fluttered at them. Her appreciation of the Lawless Brothers – a nasty pack of stray wolves – had sometimes petrified me.
“I'm surprised you made it.” Raising my eyebrows, I smiled when she glared. “You're usually out with one of those bad boys.”
Shrugging her shoulders, she lifted the hood of her sweater and pulled it over her head. Tony had disapproved of my choice of friend, despite me being old enough to build my own life. The sooner the seer arrived, the sooner I could leave my childhood trauma behind.
“I wanted to be here for you,” she said, glancing at a male werewolf as he wandered into the clearing. “You'll be a great alpha and we'll finally have some freedom.”
“Amen,” I murmured, my gaze narrowing on another man who'd walked into the clearing. “Who the fuck is that?”
The perspiration on my palms drenched the cuffs of my grey V-neck sweater as I grasped it. The man's dark hair was slicked back on top and shaved on the sides. He wore light blue jeans and biker boots with chains that clinked as he walked to a bench. His black T-shirt clung to muscles that I didn't even know existed. His snug sleeves hugged the curve of his biceps, hiding the beginning of an epic black and grey tattoo that stretched down his arm.
He was HAF. Hot As Fuck. But... not a member of my pack.
His gaze slipped towards me, catching mine before I could look away. A hard thump in my chest made me suck in a breath. I narrowed my gaze, daring him to look away first. The corner of his lip quirked into his cheek. I couldn't tell whether the handsome bastard was sneering or smirking. Either way, he had no right to be at my alpha crowning.
The man broke eye contact, dropping his gaze to rake down my frame. His eyebrow lifted when he caught sight of my boots, a slight appreciative smile flashing before he quickly looked away.
Frowning, I glanced down at myself. I'd paired my top with black jeans and a cute dark purple waistcoat. I might have been about to become alpha, but I wasn't changing my style for anyone.
Tammy cleared her throat as she glanced at me, her brow deeply furrowed. “That's Fender Gregory, a Lawless Brother.”
My throat went dry, my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth. Never in my twenty six years had werewolves from another pack been allowed into our sacred space. Who the F. U. C. K. had allowed a lowlife Lawless onto our land?
About to jump up and confront the man, I paused when two other unfamiliar guys sauntered up to Fender.
The clearing was pretty full now, the wolves milling around waiting for the seer. It was only moments before she would arrive. Shit, I couldn't even find out what was going on.
“They can't be here,” I said, looking at Tammy for some kind of answer, “why are they here? Do you know?”
My insides quaked, my nerves playing volleyball in my stomach. A sixth sense made me grip the bench. Something was going on.
Tammy cleared her throat, shaking her head quickly when I raised my eyebrows. Her shifty gaze and the perspiration on her top lip made it very fucking obvious that she was in on the joke.
Murmurs rumbled around the pack as Alini, the pack’s elder and seer, came through the trees, her beautiful long white hair cascading behind her. It fell down her back and to her knees, where it fluttered with her movement. She was called the elder, but she was only ten years older than me.
Our pack was ancient, born from the original lycan line when the wolf god visited a human in need. The beautiful woman had just lost her young son in battle and her grief was too much for the wolf god to bear. Here, on the stone of creation, he offered her solace, soothing her with his spirit and temporary solid form. From that union, the first lycan werewolf was born.
Every century, a seer had been born into the pack. Every wolf had their place, but a seer was special, gifted with sight by the wolf god. They were promoted to elder upon their 30th birthday, providing the pack with information and foresight. The alpha and the seer shared a close bond, working together to protect the pack. Alini and I were about to become crazy good friends. I couldn't wait, she seemed to know a lot. Ironically.
“There's something you're not telling me,” I hissed to Tammy, narrowing my gaze when she shuffled down the bench, allowing a young girl to sit between us.
Clasping my engraved white gold moon bracelet, I closed my eyes briefly. I was usually a calm person, but even I had to admit, I was feeling kinda insane.
The rustle of feet and hushed voices went silent as Alini strode through the crowd and stepped onto the sacred stone. I couldn't help but imagine a beautiful woman and a wolf man, naked and rutting in the moonlight. It was an image that had impeded into my mind since my mother had sat me down in front of it and explained what would happen to me on my fifteenth birthday and why. Speaking of my mother...
Her grey hair stood out as she came into the clearing, clinging onto Tony's arm. Her legs were wobbly and her hands shaking. The other wolves believed she had a degenerative disease. She had played up to it, pretending that the shakes were caused by whatever that wolf had imagined. However, the only disease she had was addiction.
Her gaze found mine and she smiled, attempting a wave before Tony grabbed her hand roughly. I looked away, embarrassed to see how she let him treat her... how she had let him treat us. No more though, today was freedom day. So named by me.
“Friends,” Alini called, drawing my attention, “today marks a time of change, a time of fate, if you will.”
Her tall frame and slim lithe figure had always taunted me, inspiring me to train hard. She was effortlessly fit and moved with such grace, it made me feel like a stomping elephant when I walked beside her.
Her bright blue eyes searched the area, seeking me out. When our gaze met, she smiled, gesturing for me to join her. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. I wasn't ready. Wait, yes I was.
Smiling, I stood and glanced at Tammy, glaring a warning. I would find out what was going on with her when I was alpha. It wasn't like my friend to act so shady, not with me, anyway.
“On this day, twenty years ago, our previous alpha decided to rescind his power and leave our pack.” Alini held out her hand as I drew nearer, beckoning me onto the stone.
Ignoring the daunting stares of my future people, I took a deep breath and reached for her, forcing my muscles to stay strong. If anyone saw the inner quake that rattled me, they would see me as weak. An alpha never showed weakness.
My foot touched the stone at the same time as my hand clutched Alini's. Her smile was bright as a spark of energy flew up my feet and into my chest. It was confirmation that my bloodline was directly from the first lycan. It had been a fictitious rumour that all alphas were male. Alas, it had never been true. An alpha's blood was pure, kept clean by the choosing of our fated mate.
“Violet Woodville is the heir to our pack.” Everyone stayed silent, agreeable, as Alini spoke.
I glanced towards where my mother and Tony had been standing. They were no longer there. Searching, I swallowed, uneasiness washing through me. If the bastard attempted anything, I would rip his throat out with my claws. There. They stood to the right of us, watching intently.
Alini squeezed my hand and went on. “She has been in training, but the wolf god has declared that it's time for the initiation.”
A rumble of excited voices made me smile. Good, they were mostly happy that I would be their new alpha. They'd better be, I'd been kissing their arse for years.
“Before we begin, I have to ask if there's anyone who objects to Violet Woodville becoming our new alpha?”
“I do.” A chorus of deep masculine voices made me jump.
Red hot heat ran over my skin as Fender Gregory and his friends came forward and stood in the centre of the circle.
Alini kept hold of my hand, the pressure of her fingers a warning to stay silent. I was ready to blurt out a few obscenities and maybe even draw blood. Who the fuck did they think they were? The only reason I hadn't kicked them out was because I had wanted to get the ritual done before we lost the power of the full moon. The Lawless Brothers were ruthless, not giving a shit about anyone else. They were not to be messed with. Before now, anyway. How dare the bastards ruin my swearing in day?
“Who are you?” Alini asked, her pretty eyes narrowing on the men.
Fender ran a hand over his dark hair and shrugged. Close up, I could see the light colour of his eyes and the layer of facial hair that highlighted his sharp jaw.
“My name is Fender Gregory and I'm from the Lawless Pack.”
A burst of laughter exploded from me. The Lawless Brothers saw themselves as a pack now? How utterly ridiculous. They were a bunch of outcasts, rejected because of their nasty ways.
Fender's gaze flicked to me as his jaw tightened. The others ignored me completely, keeping their gaze fixed on the seer. They were aware that even though they'd killed a lot of people, they wouldn't get far with my pack surrounding them. They were about to piss off a whole load of revved up werewolves.
Alini stroked her thumb over mine, her subtle movement telling me to stay quiet. Jeez, how could she even tolerate their presence? How could they object? They weren't even part of our pack.
“You don't belong here.” Alini narrowed her gaze. “What business do you have here?”
Ducking his head, Fender glanced up from under thick black eyelashes. “I just thought that you should know the type of woman you're about to call alpha.”
His gravelly voice sent a chill skipping down my spine. I'd never met the man. Someone had put him up to this. There was no other explanation.
Alini pursed her lips before gesturing for him to continue.
“Wait,” I blurted, “he has no right to infiltrate our pack. Why are you hearing him out?”
Releasing my hand, Alini turned to face me. “Because alphas have to face scrutiny from everyone. We might as well give you a practice run. All will be how it's meant to be.”
Clenching my hands into fists, I glanced around at the pack. They looked confused, their eyebrows furrowed. I had to let the charade play out, despite how absurd it was. It would be my first test of alpha.
“Fine,” I said loudly, “I have nothing to hide.”
Alini blinked slowly, her bright blue eyes turning a misty white for a split second. My heartbeat skipped as I stepped down from the stone. Had she had a vision in that moment? She didn't give me any clue, instead she turned to Fender and his men.
“State your objection to Violet becoming alpha of our pack. We shall take your reasoning into consideration.”
Inclining his head, Fender stood back and opened his arms. “I’m here to tell you that your alpha-heir is a whore.”
Gasps arose around me, one of them my own. What?
“She has slept with every single one of my brothers,” Fender went on, turning to point to me, “many times over.”
