Page 1 of Love in the Forest
Chapter One
Braden drew air deep into his lungs. He narrowed his vision to the target and moved like lightning. As an alpha wolf, the one thing he had in abundance was speed.
Rage consumed him.
The woman he chased, a vampire, had stolen a treasure from his pack, one that had saved his wolves in recent weeks from civil war. He couldn’t let her leave with the spelled chalice. He needed it desperately.
The female levitated swiftly through the forest, his forest, the forest of Savage Territory where vampires were not welcome. He could barely see her now and knew she’d cloaked herself in an invisibility shroud, which meant the woman had power as well as a connection to the witches of Elegance.
But he had power too, more than most in Five Bridges. Despite the shroud, he could detect her form swaying as she levitated, enough to follow her.
Enough to catch her.
Enough to bring her down.
There was something else as well which he didn’t understand. He had a strange connection to this woman as though a cord stretched from his chest to hers. This made no sense, but soon enough he’d find out what was going on, what she’d done to him perhaps with the help of a witch.
While levitating in midair, Braden shifted into his wolf form. His bones went first, then muscle, flesh and everything else. It was a flash of energy that gave him a burst of speed.
The figure moved faster the closer he drew. His wolf ears heard her scrambling for breath. She’d been racing hard through the air and through the trees, hoping to escape detection.
He smiled inwardly then called to her telepathically.Not this time, woman.
He heard her gasp and knew he’d penetrated her mind.
Adrenaline pumped.
He made one final leap and landed on her back, but he brought her down carefully. He had no intention of hurting her or damaging the chalice.
While keeping her prisoner, he shifted back to his human state then slowly turned her over. But he still couldn’t see her. “Lose the shroud, vampire.”
“Oh, no.” The words were filled with dread. “Not you. Oh, dear God, not you. How did this happen?”
Her voice sounded familiar, but he had no idea what she was talking about. He didn’t know that many vampires, though he had met several female Crescent Border Patrol officers during his long tenure at the same Five Bridges job. Still, none of those women had this exact lilt to her voice.
“Get off me, wolf.”
It was strange being on top of a woman, but not being able to see her. All he saw were the pine needles beneath what had to be her head.
“No way. You’ve got something I want. You stole it from my pack, and I want it back.
“You can’t steal what already belongs to you.”
At that, every muscle in his body tensed. “What do you mean?”
“The blood chalice was stolen from my center a month ago. I’ve been searching for it since and finally located it through the help of a witch friend. Imagine my complete shock that wolves had taken it.”
The sarcasm of this last sentence was not lost on him, nor the fact that she used witches to help her. He was pretty sure that was how they’d become connected.
Suddenly, he realized who the voice belonged to. Over a year ago, he’d taken a kidnapped vampire to a shelter that belonged to this woman. Her name was Abby, a woman of worth.
But there was something more and his heart started to pound. He’d bedded Abby right around the same time when he’d met her one night at the White Flame Club, a club in Elegance that catered to all five species of Five Bridges.
“It’s you, isn’t it? Abby, right?”
“Get off me, Braden.”
She definitely knew who he was. “Please show yourself. Clearly, we’ve got a problem and we need to talk. Show yourself and I’ll release you.”
