Wolf Hunted

  Fortitude Wolves - Book Three

  Nicole R. Taylor

  Contents

  1. Sloane

  2. Sloane

  3. Chaser

  4. Sloane

  5. Chaser

  6. Sloane

  7. Sloane

  8. Chaser

  9. Sloane

  10. Chaser

  11. Sloane

  12. Sloane

  13. Chaser

  14. Sloane

  15. Sloane

  16. Chaser

  17. Sloane

  18. Chaser

  19. Sloane

  20. Sloane

  21. Sloane

  22. Chaser

  23. Sloane

  24. Sloane

  25. Sloane

  26. Chaser

  27. Sloane

  28. Sloane

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  About Nicole

  Wolf Hunted (Fortitude Wolves - Book Three)

  Copyright © 2021 by Nicole R. Taylor

  All rights reserved.

  This book is written in British/AU English.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  www.nicolertaylorwrites.com

  Edited by: Silvia Curry

  Chapter 1

  Sloane

  The sun was hot on my shoulders, the rays frying my skin to a crisp.

  Pressing my fingers on the arms of my aviator sunglasses behind my ears, I angled them up so I could look at the horizon without the polarised filter. There was a hazy brown smudge breaking up the expanse of blue.

  Bushfires.

  I’d had enough of the sweltering heat of burning buildings and was glad we were in the Mallee—the hot, dry, flat plains of northwest Victoria—away from all that. Not that it was cooler…it was just a different kind of summer this close to the outback.

  I allowed my sunglasses to fall back into place, and I rubbed my eyes, forcibly trying to remove the images of flames roaring towards the sky. The inferno had taken hold of DeLuca’s remote miner’s cottage so easily, the smoke and stench blotting out the stars. The whole thing had been an unbelievable sight—I’d never seen anything like it before.

  The roof of the motel was empty, the high heat keeping most people away from the lacklustre patio area. Broken and faded lawn chairs were scattered across the tarred surface behind me, and tattered beach umbrellas cast mediocre shade. At some point, someone had the foresight to blow up an inflatable wading pool, but it had long since burst from neglect. Chaser sure knew how to find the shittiest hole this side of a bush oasis.

  My feet dangled over the side of the building, my backside firmly behind the lip of the flimsy railing my arms were threaded through. Staring at my boots, I closed one eye then the other, focusing on the car park below. The right toe had a deep gouge mark across the leather that hadn’t been there two nights ago.

  A gust of wind stirred my hair and a tumbleweed bounced across the street. The wind is whipping up, I thought. Sucks for those bushfires.

  There were lots of things I should’ve been thinking about, but I couldn’t focus. It wasn’t the heat or my exhaustion, it was just…trauma, I guessed. Ever since I’d woken up in the motel room downstairs, I hadn’t closed my eyes. I couldn’t.

  Reaching into the pocket of my jean shorts, I pulled out the engagement ring I’d stolen from Marini’s bedside table back at the Fortitude compound.

  My fingers worried the gold band, and my fingernail dragged along the ridges of the diamond setting. It was the only thing I had from my mother, and before the other day, I’d had nothing at all. I didn’t like what it stood for, but it was hers, which was all that mattered. Daddy gave that to me on the beach, she’d said. I hated that he’d kept it.

  “All right?”

  Closing my fist around the ring, I glanced up at Chaser. It always amazed me how he could walk in the sun. As a vampire, he should technically burst into flames at the slightest hint of UV, but a spell cast by a witch gave him the shield he needed—and another had bound him into slavery that’d lasted a century.

  “I’ve got a headache,” I replied, leaning my head against the railing.

  “You should drink more water.” He sat beside me and wiped the back of his arm across his brow. “You should put ice on your neck. It’s the perfect weather for it.”

  I shrugged and glanced at the horizon.

  “There’s bushfires near the border,” he said after a moment.

  I didn’t like the mention of fire. We still hadn’t heard from Gasket, who Chaser said had ridden off with the rest of the Fortitude Wolves to hunt down the remaining renegades after the standoff at the cottage.

  That was two nights ago.

  “I don’t like it,” I murmured. “It’s too open.”

  “We’re safe here,” Chaser said. “I made sure of it.”

  I grunted, turning my head so I was staring at the scrub. The wolf inside me still buzzed with the memory of my kill, the unexplored part of my psyche a little terrifying. It bayed for more, but this time, it wanted the blood of the immortal.

  On the one hand, I wanted to run in the other direction, the thought of more heartache and pain too much to handle. On the other, nothing would be as satisfying as murdering King, the head honcho of the vampires who believed I was their ticket to true immortality. The man my father was going to sell me to as a loaded weapon, to die in a ritual that bound their entire bloodline. He was also the man who was responsible for killing Chaser’s wife and turning him into a vampire—otherwise known as the whole psychotic package.

  I had promised revenge and freedom for the both of us, and it was far too late to turn back now.

  “Sloane?”

  “We should be planning, not sitting in a musty motel room,” I said, unable to hold on to my annoyance a second longer. “Can you get a respiratory disease from mould? Because I feel like I’m getting one.”

  Chaser gave me his trademark blank look. He was a master at hiding his emotions, which mainly annoyed me but must have been a riot when he was out on a job. Until recently, he’d been my late father’s vampire slave. An image of Marini’s vacant eyes appeared in my mind, and I shook my head. Chaser was bound by a magical talisman, so he had to follow the alpha’s orders, but he could only bear it because he’d turned his back on his humanity. Luckily for him, I now had control of the talisman after Gasket had given it up.

  If things had just gone the way they were supposed to, I’d have an entire werewolf pack riding into battle behind me, but the coup had been screwed before it had even gone down, and now I was in hiding with Chaser. The two of us against a supernatural vampire organisation that had its claws sunk into every major law enforcement agency. I may as well fling myself off the side of this shitty motel right now and be done with it.

  “You are not alone,” Chaser said, reading my mind with uncanny accuracy.

  “What? Are you a psychic now?”

  “Having the plan go off without a hitch was a dream, Sloane,” he replied. “They know we’re in hiding, planning something, so we may as well take our time.”

  Take our time? I wanted to scream into the void until my brain exploded. It’d only been three months. My whole life had been a joke. Thinking about my unfinished online university degree, everything seemed an epic waste of time.

  “I don’t want to live like this,” I muttered, my heart sinking.

  “Neither do I,” Chaser agreed. “That’s why we have to plan better this time. We went into Fortitude grossly unprepared.”

  I grunted, not wanting to acknowledge that he was right.

  “We had passion but lacked proper strategy.”

  “We winged it,” I said.

  Chaser nodded. “This time, we figure it out. The Hollow Men aren’t Fortitude.”

  “No, they aren’t.”

  “Besides…” he trailed off, his brow creasing. Plucking his sunglasses from his shirt pocket, he slid them on and gazed out at the horizon.

  “Besides, what?” I asked, lifting my head.

  He shrugged, folding his arms on top of the railing.

  “Chaser.”

  “Besides…” He sighed, then tilted his head towards me. “You haven’t talked about what happened.”

  “I don’t need to talk about what happened.” I scowled, any ease our conversation had instilled in my heart evaporating. “It’s in the past.”

  “Sloane, you mauled your father to death.”

  “Glad to see you describe it so tactfully,” I drawled, wriggling away from the edge of the roof. Rising to my feet, I brushed my palms over my backside, dusting off the grit from the flaky, tarred surface.

  “Sloane,” Chaser exclaimed, standing. He grabbed my arm and pulled, yanking me around. “You have to face it at some point, and I’d rather it wasn’t with a gun in your hand.”

  “Let me go.” I wrenched myself free. “I don’t need to face anything. I knew who he was, Chaser, and I damn well know the world is a better place without him in it. He’s not the first man I killed, remember? There was the vampire who tried to kill you on the side of the road. I shot him and it did nothing to my mental wellbeing.”

  “Sloane…you collapsed. You turned so fast, it was unnatural.”

  “So?” I scoffed and gestured at him. “I’m the wolf who can tu
rn whenever she wants. Screw the moon! What about you? I hardly know anything about you, and I have these…feelings. I’d go so far as to say the L-word, but how can I when I don’t know—” I let out a frustrated cry.

  “Don’t turn this back on me. I’m trying to help you.”

  “Maybe I’m just that indifferent about it,” I said, knowing it was a lie. I hadn’t slept a wink because I was afraid of what my dreams would reveal.

  Chaser pursed his lips. “I know we haven’t had time,” he said after a moment’s silence. “I know there are things you don’t know about my past, but know this… I’m standing here as a free man because of you. I’m no longer indentured to Fortitude; I no longer have to kill on command. And I sure as hell don’t have to answer to anyone I don’t want to. You gave me that, Sloane.”

  “The talisman still binds you, Chaser.”

  “And you’re the one who possesses it.”

  I shook my head. “But you won’t be truly free until we can break the spell.”

  “It’s close enough for now.”

  I didn’t agree, but there were too many spinning plates in the air. If someone managed to take the talisman from me, they’d have control of him…and he wouldn’t be able to say no. If the Hollow Men found out about it, then we were both screwed.

  “So I have all the power,” I said, jutting out my chin. “I could make you shut up, you know.”

  “You wouldn’t dare,” he murmured. “And I won’t help you further your denial.”

  I tensed, steeling myself to shout at him again, but he fisted his hands in my hair and pulled me close, his lips crushing mine, then he tore away with a gasp etched with longing.

  “You want to believe in something?” he murmured, his breath hot against my skin. “Something good?” His body curved as if he was sheltering me from the world. “Then believe in us.”

  “Chaser…”

  “I only just started,” he whispered. “Don’t leave me now.”

  I rubbed my palms over his chest, feeling the coldness of his body underneath the fabric of his shirt. I explored my way upwards until my hands circled his neck. They were far too small to close the entire way around, but I felt the thrumming of his pulse all the same.

  He had a vulnerable glint in his eyes, and Chaser was never vulnerable. That was how I knew he was telling the truth. He believed I needed to grieve my murderous, psychotic father while I believed I should’ve torn out his throat sooner. The point was, Chaser was right. This time, we needed to plot. The Hollow Men were vampires, some of them hundreds of years old.

  “Fine,” I said. “We do it your way. We plan.”

  His eyes narrowed.

  “And don’t you dare talk to me about him again,” I added, my lip curling. “I hope they left him out in the sun to rot.”

  Chaser nodded and glanced at the sky. “Either way, you need to get out of the sun.”

  “I hope that wasn’t a metaphor because I’m all out of patience for thinly veiled attacks on my personal decisions.”

  “Dehydration is known to turn people into raging bitches,” he said with a smirk.

  I rolled my eyes and let his neck go before I actually throttled him. Backing away, I screwed up my face. “Are you coming?” I asked, beckoning Chaser to follow. “There’s no time to waste. We’ve got to start planning our forever, you know.”

  Chapter 2

  Sloane

  The revolver was sitting on the table when I stepped into the motel room.

  The mother-of-pearl grip shimmered in the light, and I shivered despite the heat. I didn’t know why Chaser brought it with us. The gun symbolised everything Fortitude had been under my father, and I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to keep it.

  “You haven’t heard from Gasket?” I asked, sitting on the end of the bed.

  “No. It’s only a matter of time,” he replied, filling a glass with water from the bathroom sink.

  “Is that safe to drink?” I grimaced as Chaser handed me the glass. Lifting it to the light, I checked for floaties. “I heard there was lead in the water out here. You know, from all the industrial mining they did out here back in the day.”

  “Seriously? That’s what you’re worried about?”

  “Lead poisoning is no laughing matter.”

  Chaser raised an eyebrow and fished around in the plastic bag hanging off the corner of one of the chairs. After a moment of annoying crinkling, he tossed me a packet of ibuprofen. “Here, take some for your headache.”

  “I’m a werewolf who can supernaturally heal. I don’t need headache tablets.”

  “You can, but you’re not immune to everything,” Chaser told me. “You are a wolf, but you’re mortal…. Just take the damn pills, Sloane.”

  Shrugging, I slipped two tablets into my mouth and chased them down with some water. Seriously, worse things had happened to me, so what was a little lead? I rubbed my temple as the mattress dipped and Chaser sat beside me.

  He took the sheet of pills from my hand and set it onto the bedside table.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, realising I hadn’t asked. I didn’t think I had to, but every day held a new surprise for us.

  “I’m fine.”

  “I haven’t seen you…eat.”

  His gaze lowered. “I took care of it.”

  “You…?” I tensed. I still don’t know what it meant for a vampire to ‘feed’. He’d taken some blood from me before, but I knew he was being careful then.

  “I don’t kill people,” he said, reading my expression. “Afterwards, I heal the wound, then make them forget. I have my humanity now. I wouldn’t…”

  “I didn’t mean…” I hesitated. “Chaser, I’m just trying to understand.”

  “I don’t like talking about it.” He was silent for a moment, then added, “When I first turned, it was difficult. I couldn’t control what I’d become. There were…accidents.” He grimaced. “But I can control it now. You don’t have to worry.”

  I said nothing, I just placed my hand on his back and soothed my palm in a slow circle. He’d never told me how he’d turned, just that it wasn’t pretty. The fact that he was opening up at all was more than enough for me.

  A shrill ring pierced the silence.

  “You better answer it,” I said.

  Chaser picked up the phone and checked the screen. “It’s Gasket.” He answered the call, put it on speaker, and then set it on the bed.

  “Gasket,” I said. “You’ve got news?”

  “Hey, Sloane. You okay?”

  “I’m fine. What’s going on there? Have you found the renegades yet?”

  “We lost them on the road,” he explained, and Chaser cursed under his breath. The last thing we needed was to worry about two separate enemies coming after us.

  “And the house?” Chaser asked. “How many of ours made it out?”

  “Forty,” Gasket replied. “We lost eight guys in the firefight.”

  I glanced at Chaser, but his reaction was zero, as per usual. Eight good guys were now in the ground, casualties of our messed-up coup.

  “The renegades?” he asked. “How many are left?”

  “Hard to say. Thirty… Thirty-five.”

  “What about Shondra, Kelly, and the others?” I chipped in.

  “They’re safe, Sloane,” Gasket replied. “Bones has some contacts in Wagga Wagga. He’s taken them up there with Spike until things die down.”

  “And how long is that going to be?” I demanded, my irritation rising.

  “It’ll take as long as it takes,” Gasket shot back. “Damn, you’re impatient, woman. Guns blazing isn’t going to help us right now. You saw what happened at the cottage. I don’t want a repeat if I can help it.”

  “Speaking of…” Chaser interrupted. “What happened to the place after we left?”