a Wolf's promise (paperback)

There's a fine line between WHO you love and WHAT you hate.

For Lucian Kincaid, that line may as well be a wall. As far as this Scottish shifter is concerned, the only good Faerie is a dead Faerie. With the Fae's deceitful nature, his wolf is forever on edge when they're around, ready to bust out at the slightest provocation. Until a chance encounter with a human woman captures the interest of the predator inside of him. His need to be near her is unexpected. His hunger for her insatiable. Before the truth of her identity is revealed…

Being chased down by creatures determined to suck out her soul is not the way Keelin Doran pictured her evening walk. Lucky for her, she's rescued by something far scarier—a wolf with a thirst for blood who shifts into a man beautiful in his savagery. Despite the rage she senses simmering just beneath the surface, he makes her feel safe, and her body instantly craves his. But her heart is not prepared for the man beneath the fur, or the revelation his presence in her life reveals.

Keelin is The Key.

Muzzle tinged red with the fresh blood of a deer, Lucian rounded a curve of the  mountain trail. Evergreen trees towered over him, obscuring the moonlight and filling the  air with the strong, damp smell of pine. He padded over to the ledge and looked down.  Beneath him, a few modest properties snuggled up to the base of the mountain. Far  enough away from each other to afford privacy, but close enough to feel secure in having  a neighbor within walking distance. The scent of their fires tickled his nose, and every  now and then he saw a human pass in front of one of the lit windows of the houses,  oblivious of the creatures in the dark watching them from above.  

He envied them sometimes. Humans. They had no fucking idea of the dangers  happening all around them or the things they shared their world with…or the creatures  that protected them from some of those dangers. There were times Lucian wished he  could throw the unknown into their faces, just to bathe in their shock. To see their happy  little lives get tossed upside down.  

But what purpose would that serve? It wouldn’t make anything better for him or his  kind. If anything, it would make it worse. Because humans, as history has proven time  and time again, don’t acclimate well to anything considered “other”. They either enslave  things that are different from them, or hunt them for trophies to hang over their mantles.  No doubt they would do the same to things like him, in their “appreciation” for that  protection. 

With one last look, he decided it was time to go home. The others were waiting for  him, and despite his frustration with them, his sense of duty to the pack weighed heavily  on his shoulders. 

An emotion he recognized well, but couldn’t name, tore its way through his chest  as he started to turn away from the cozy scene below. But before he could leave, 

movement in the trees far below caught his eye. Sitting back on his haunches, Lucian  tilted his head and watched through the mist floating midway down the mountain as a girl  burst from the woods directly below him and ran across the stretch of cleared land toward  a small, white house in the distance.  

Two figures emerged a few steps behind her, their excited grunts and hisses  reaching his sensitive ears over the girl’s heavy breathing. Her pursuers ran with an  awkward lope, their bodies twitching so hard one of them stumbled and fell. Lurching to  its feet, it quickly caught up to its friend again.  

An olc. 

No, worse. 

Soul suckers. 

Baring his teeth, Lucian threw himself over the side of the drop off. The way was  steep, and he half ran, half skidded down the mountain, landing hard on his haunches  when he reached the bottom. He used the momentum to spring after the things chasing  the girl, covering half the distance between them with one leap. The smell of rotten meat  soured the cold air as he neared, confirming he’d been right. These two were Dark Fae,  overripe with dark magic and crazed with the hunger for humans. If he didn’t catch them  before they reached the girl, they’d suck out her soul and leave her corpse for the crows.  

Lucian pushed forward, weighing his options. There was no way he could take  them both down from behind in enough time for her to get to the house. And even if she  managed to make it, it wouldn’t matter. Once they knew where she was, a few walls  never stopped these things. Though a little sheetrock and paint did wonders to hide the  scent of humans if the crazed ones didn’t know they were in there.  

Unfortunately, these two would know exactly where she was hiding. Making a decision, Lucian lowered his head and lengthened his stride. When he  reached the an olc, he pushed hard off the ground with his back legs, leaping over their  heads and landing directly behind the girl. He caught a whiff of honey flowers right  before he spun around to face them. The scent lingered in his nose, sweetening the air  with a memory that danced right on the edge of his thoughts, but he had no time to nail it  down.

Disgust rolled through him as Lucian faced off with the two Faeries, their sour  scent overpowering everything else, and the wisp of memory blew away with the stench.  He bared his teeth and growled in warning to distract them from the hunt. It was enough  to give the things pause in the face of this new threat. In their efforts to slow their  momentum, they stumbled over their own feet and each other so as not to run into him,  and Lucian took full advantage of their surprise.  

With a vicious snarl, he clamped his jaws around the bony thigh of the one closest  to him and tossed it out of the way before going after the second. The diversion gave him  time to remove its head before the first one launched itself back into the fight, wrapping  its stinking limbs around Lucian from behind and sinking its teeth into his shoulder.  

With a grunt of pain, Lucian leaped off the ground and flipped over in midair,  landing on his back with the thing beneath him. The impact jarred them both, and Lucian  let out a yelp of pain as he felt its teeth tearing through the skin and muscle of his  shoulder.  

Scrambling to his feet, Lucian bared his teeth. Wasting no time, he pounced on top  of it before it could get up, tearing into putrid muscle and petrified bone, ripping it apart  with his powerful jaws. When it stopped moving, he stood watch over the remains, just to  be sure, before he released his jaws and spit out the shoulder and a piece of an arm,  gagging in disgust.  

Tremors of adrenaline ruffled his fur as he caught his breath, ears pricked for any  indication there were more of these fuckers, or worse, that the human neighbors had  noticed the ruckus. He heard nothing but his own breathing, and that of the girl.  

She stood about twenty feet away, hair dripping with the rain that had begun to fall  during the fight and which was quickly turning into a right downpour. She blinked  against the wind and rain as she stared at him, her stunned expression frozen in a mixture  of disbelief and horror. Her scent blew to him on the cold breeze, and Lucian stilled. It  filled his nose, teasing the back of his throat as he inhaled the smell of honey flowers  deep into his lungs, knowing he should flee, but unable to force his paws to move.  

Finally, after long minutes that felt more like days, she pushed her hair out of her  face and wiped her eyes, her movements jerky and hesitant. From this distance he could 

see the freckles spattered across her cheeks, white with terror, and the shock of blue green color in her eyes. Lucian realized too late, as usual, what he had done. There would  be no explaining away what she’d just witnessed, especially when he would have to shift  back to do it.  

Moments like these were the times he envied the bloodsuckers their ability to fuck  with the memories of humans.  

Angry with himself for jumping into the fire without thinking of how it would burn,  and unsure what to do now that he had, Lucian began to pace back and forth with nervous  energy. His mind spun with different ways he could fix this mess he’d caused as he kept  one eye on the girl, constantly gauging her reaction. The heavy rain soaked his fur, but he  barely felt it. All he could think was he needed to leave. Run away. Eventually the details  of her memory would fade, and her tales of a giant man/wolf would seem less and less  believable, even to her own ears. 

The headless bodies, however, would be a wee bit harder to ignore. 

“I know what you are.” 

Lucian tilted his head at the first sound of her voice. Though it was a bit on the  shaky side, the dulcet tones rippled over his fur, easy as a warm summer breeze.  Gooseflesh rose on his skin as her words sank in. But, she couldn’t know what he was.  Not truly. It wasn’t possible unless she was “other”, like him. And if that were true, she  wouldn’t have been running from the soul suckers. Or living here.  

No. She was human.  

His steps picked up speed. Back and forth. Back and forth. In his gut, the instinct to  escape waged a fierce battle with the inexplicable need to remain near this human girl.  Her voice gained strength. “And I know you can understand what I’m saying. So,  thank you. For helping me.” She paused. Looked to the side before bringing her gaze  back to him. The directness of it made him uncomfortable, and utterly aware of her. He  must look a monster to her. Not truly a wolf. Not truly a man.