Mistletoe Kisses
Westmore Wolves
Book Five
Erzabet Bishop
Genre: Erotic PNR, Shifter, Holiday
Publisher: All Romance eBooks
Date of Publication: 12/1/2016
ISBN: 978-1-945193-88-0
ASIN: B01MXI521W
Word Count: 20000
Cover Artist: Erin Dameron Hill
Book Description:
With some gifts, it’s all about the unwrapping...
Jess looks forward to a holiday season of saving puppies and working at the shelter. With her new sister-in-law taking over the Yuletide Gathering, it’s run for the hills or wind up covered in glitter. What she doesn’t anticipate is her brother lining up yet another in a long string of bodyguards. She might be a wolf who can’t shift, but that doesn’t mean she needs anyone’s protection. When things heat up during the festivities, she finds herself face to face with the one man who just might hold the key to her heart.
It was supposed to be a two-week Ops for ridding the world of hybrid wolves, not a babysitting gig for the spoiled sister of the Westmore Pack Alpha. But when Thorne sets eyes on the curvy brunette, he finds a fierce beauty with a soft interior just begging to be tamed, and he’s just the gargoyle to do it.
Excerpt:
Thorne sat
across the desk from his new employer and tried unsuccessfully to shake away
the incredulous feeling gnawing at his gut. He’d come to Westmore with the
understanding that this would be a two-week Ops mission to locate and destroy
the violent hybrid wolves he’d been hearing about. They a role to play in his
father’s death, he was certain of it, and now he could finally get the answers
he was seeking and kill a few in the process. But, as he sat across from the
Westmore Pack Alpha, he found himself staring at the man, completely
disbelieving his ears.
“That wasn’t the
job.”
“I want her
protected.” Thorne met Carrick’s eyes, and Thorne struggled to hold in his
frustration. This was why he’d been brought to the famed Westmore Estate? The
Alpha was legendary for taking down his predecessors with nothing but brains
and his own two hands…but to suggest he babysit a female? He was no one’s
nanny.
“You want me to
be a bodyguard? For a woman?” Thorne sputtered and erupted from the chair,
stalking to the window. He kept one eye on the comings and goings outside and
another on the man behind the desk. Thorne had come at night, as requested, to
see the estate at its most vulnerable. What he hadn’t expected was to be
insulted.
“Not just a
woman. My sister. And the job is a trial period for two weeks.”
“And after?”
The Alpha
thrummed his fingers on the desk. “We’ll talk about that if you’re still here.”
What the hell
was that supposed to mean?
The door opened
and another man entered, closing it behind him. Thorne eyed the man and waited to
be introduced. The pinched look of the other man’s mouth and worry lines in his
face indicated he cared about this woman. Interesting.
“Where is she?”
the Alpha demanded.
“Probably at the
shelter again. She’s not in her room and the guard at the front gate said she
took off around eight this morning. Something about an adoption drive at
Barks.”
“Thorne, this is
Reid, my second in command.” Carrick ran his hand through his mane of dark hair
and frowned. “Jesus, she knows I want her to be careful. I keep telling her to
quit, but she won’t listen. After what happened with that fucking dragon…”
The other man,
Reid, unconsciously rubbed at his arm.
“You were
injured.” Thorne stepped away from the window and moved deeper into the room.
He could sense their unease. Perhaps something more was happening here than met
the eye.
“I was.”
Dragons? Now
that was interesting.
“I was told
there were hybrid wolves.”
“Originally,
that was the contract. Yes.” Carrick rose from the chair, came around the desk,
and leaned against it. “But we’ve come to find out that the previous alpha may
still have some support out there.”
“A dragon?”
Thorne raised an eyebrow. Dragon kind and Night Wing gargoyles were not on
friendly terms. Territorial disputes in his homeland had made them natural
enemies. But here? That would remain to be seen. Not that he would mind
tangling with one.
“An old bastard
of a firefighter, too. Seemed like he was setting more blazes at the end rather
than putting them down.” Carrick’s lips thinned and his jaw clenched. “He
endangered the life of my mate.”
Thorne
considered the Alpha carefully.
“If you’ve
rooted him out, then why am I here?”
“He’s not the
only one,” Reid bit out. “We know there are more out there. What remains to be
seen are when and where they choose to rear their ugly heads.”
“Why don’t you
go to them?” It seemed a simple question, but the shuttered looks from the men
in front of him stopped the suggestion before it could go any further.
“The Yule
Gathering is coming and I want no complications. Likely as not, there are more
of them out there and I won’t take a chance with my mate, my sister, or my
pack. I spoke with your last employer and he said you were the best, most
unobtrusive operative he had.”
“I am.”
And Thorne could
find the creatures the Alpha sought. All he had to do was give the command.
Thorne wasn’t
boasting. It was the truth. People paid for his work and paid him well.
“Good,” Reid
snorted. “If you’re tailing Jess, you’re going to need it.”
“Is she your
mate, this…Jess?”
“No.” A shade of
pink crept up the sides of the other man’s face. “More like…a sister, if you
want to know the truth.”
The Alpha
sighed. “And she’s stubborn.”
“Yeah…”
The two men
glanced at each other, a pregnant pause filling the room. Any information
withheld could jeopardize Thorne meeting whatever goal they had in mind.
“What aren’t you
telling me?”
“Her last
bodyguard didn’t make it longer than a day.” Carrick closed his eyes, a twitch
of humor playing at his lips.
This ought to be
good.
“May I ask why?”
“He, ugh…went up
in flames.” Reid coughed, but underneath the sound Thorne was certain he heard
a note of laughter.
Flames?
“What did she
do, torch him?”
“Not exactly.”
Carrick cleared his throat and turned his face away in what Thorne was sure was
an effort to compose himself.
Were they
hinting he couldn’t handle a woman? It didn’t sound like she needed protection
in the least.
Thorne’s lips
curved up in a humorless smile. “If she’s such a force of nature, then why the
protection? I thought your females were fierce.”
Reid met
Carrick’s gaze and the Alpha cleared his throat until his second glanced away,
his eyes finding Thorne’s.
“Tell him.”
“She can’t
shift.” The Alpha sighed.
Reid crossed his
arms over his chest. “Won’t shift. There’s a difference. She can but she
doesn’t want to.”
“I don’t accept
that.” Carrick pushed off from the desk and went to the window.
“Well, you’d
better start. You and I both know that bastard damaged her. She may be strong
for a female, but her wolf is broken,” Reid replied, his tone filled with
frustration.
Thorne’s stomach
lurched at the thought. To hear that her beast had been harmed was
unacceptable. War with men he understood well, but not females. Women being
abused made his skin crawl. He’d seen much in his line of work, but that was
one thing he would not tolerate. It took a good bit of doing to squelch an
animal. He should know.
“What happened?”
“You’ve heard
what took place here? What the previous alpha did? The atrocities and the
genetic experiments?” Reid asked with a bitter twist of his lips.
“I have. The
overthrow of the previous regime was unavoidable. Your prowess in battle is
legendary.” He nodded to Carrick in a show of respect. He’d found the main
source but some of the tendrils remained. And he fucking wanted to tear out the
rest of them by the roots. That was why he came here.
Reid shook his
head. “That’s not what I mean. He took them…the girls. The women. He…”
“Stop.”
Carrick’s voice was strained and his stance was tense. “We don’t need to hash
out any of the details.”
He didn’t.
About the Author:
Erzabet Bishop has had a love affair with books since she first started reading. Just recently, she discovered that writing naughty stories was even more fun. She lives with her husband, menagerie of dogs and a mountain of books she is sure will crush her one day in her sleep.
You can find Erzabet on Facebook, Pinterest, and Goodreads. Follow her updates on Twitter: @erzabetbishop and her erotica blog.
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/erzabetbishopauthor
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