Shifters and Spice: A Shifter Romance Box Set Read online

  Shifters and Spice

  A Shifter Romance Box Set

  Desiree Holt

  A.J. Bennett

  Becca Vincenza

  Blaire Edens

  Carolyn Spear

  Dara Fraser

  Dominique Eastwick

  Erin Hayes

  Ever Coming

  H.D. Gordon

  Hazel Boyer

  Kate Richards

  Lila Felix

  Lisbeth Frost

  Louisa Bacio

  Margo Bond Collins

  Marissa Farrar

  Merry Dexter

  M.J. Haag

  Rachael Slate

  Contents

  Desiree Holt

  Shadow of the Wolf

  A.J. Bennett

  Masquerade

  H.D. Gordon

  Blood Sport

  Ever Coming

  The Mismatchmaker: Ruby

  Rachael Slate

  Untamed Lord of Thessaly

  Lila Felix

  Wolf Protector

  Dominique Eastwick

  Bearing the Hunger

  Hazel Boyer

  Accidentally Mated

  Merryn Dexter

  Bear Faced Lies

  Kate Richards

  An Evening in the Superstitions

  Dara Fraser

  Lion’s Pretend Girlfriend

  Lisbeth Frost

  Encounter on a Mountain

  Margo Bond Collins

  Laugh Out Love

  Louisa Bacio

  The Vampire, The Witch & The Werewolf: Luna Twins

  Marissa Farrar

  Wolf Torn

  Carolyn Spear

  Taming the Puma

  Becca Vincenzo

  Contracted

  Blaire Edens

  Frenzied

  Erin Hayes

  I Found My Rhino

  M.J. Haag

  Escaping the Lutha

  Afterword

  Published by Frost & Hazel

  Copyright 2016

  http://www.frostandhazel.com/

  Formatted by EK Formatting

  Cover Design by Inked Phoenix

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher, Frost & Hazel.

  Shadow of the Wolf

  Desiree Holt

  Jordan West was running from a desperate situation. More than anything she needed to disappear. Stone McKenzie was dealing with a bad case of PTSD. He wanted a place where no one would find him and no one would bother him. What were the chances they’d both end up in this remote area of the North Maine Woods where solitude was their best protection? And that both would be shifters, in a place where wolves had not been seen for generations?

  The lightning bolt of attraction struck them in both human and shifter form, a sign that despite what they were both running from, they were destined to be together. But not before they each faced their demons—for Stone it meant the nightmares of the past and for Jordan escape from the insane leader of her pack. Could Stone save her as she saved him?

  Prologue

  She didn’t know how long she’d been running. Her legs ached, and her lungs were starved for air, but she couldn’t stop. If she stopped, he would find her. Take her back, and the trap would close around her. So she pushed on ahead, using the light of the moon to guide her.

  She had been terrified it would come to this and prayed it would not happen. When the pack took her in as an orphan cub, the alpha at the time had told her she could be the future of the pack. White wolves were rare and treasured. At four years old, she hadn’t had the faintest idea what any of that meant. All she remembered was wandering in the woods, shoeless, in rags, until a woman found her and brought her to the town where the pack assembled. She recalled hearing the rules read out loud and the rest of the pack, meeting in human form, murmuring their agreement. But, at that age, none of it held any meaning for her. She’d been a frightened cub grateful for the security of the pack.

  She’d been given a home with a nice, but childless, couple who raised her according to pack rules. But, also according to those same rules, if the alpha decided to claim her, she was his. It wasn’t until she reached her teens she realized what that meant. By that time, Anton, the alpha when she’d arrived, had died, and the new alpha, Charles, was his complete opposite. Where Anton had been kind and a good leader, Charles was cruel, a tyrant and dictator. Everyone was afraid of him, except his tight little inner circle. And the females he’d been with were never the same afterward.

  For four years, since her twenty-first birthday, she had lived in dread of the day he would claim her. Several times she thought about leaving, but where would she go? At least, in the town where they all lived, she had a home, a job, and friends.

  But tonight, when he had shown up at their house and announced she should be ready in one hour, she knew she had to run, even if she had no destination. Heart pounding with fear, she gathered the money she’d hidden away from her job in the insurance office, stuffed it in her backpack along with a few personal belongings, and stole out the back door. Taking care to be silent, she lost herself in the woods behind their little community.

  She had no idea how long she’d been running, just aware she needed to put as much distance between herself and the pack as possible. Panting, she allowed herself to stop a moment and leaned against a tree. She had a painful stitch in her side, and her lungs felt as if they would burst any moment. She listened carefully, hoping she’d managed to run far enough, but she could hear the sounds of people moving through the woods, however faint they were.

  Oh god!

  If only she hadn’t been such an idiot. But she was twenty-five years old and might as well still be a virgin for all the sex she’d had. How was she to know the charming and sexy Dean Overhill hadn’t meant a word he’d said? Not on any of their dates and not on the night he’d seduced her. She was shocked and hurt when she learned by accident he was testing her for the alpha. Their leader could not take as his mate a woman who would disappoint him sexually.

  She knew then her days were numbered. Each night she waited, battling her fear, for him to come to the door. She thought about just walking away from her job and never coming back, but—

  But what? Did she hope he’d change his mind and focus on someone else? How stupid she’d been not to leave before this. She had no one to blame but herself. No matter what, she’d never put herself in that position again.

  She counted to ten as she pulled herself together then took off running again. She had to make it to the road. She could not let them find her and drag her back. The alpha’s cruel face flashed before her eyes, his expression avid and hungry. She’d kill herself before she’d let them take her back to him. Checking her direction, she headed toward a secondary highway, hoping they wouldn’t look for her there. Or, if they did, she’d be long gone.

  At last, when her strength was about to give out, she came to the edge of the trees and the narrow ribbon of road. All she needed was for the right vehicle to come along and she’d be free of this nightmare. Then she’d head for someplace as far from here as she could get.

  And pray.

  Chapter 1

  Jordan West took one last look around the cabin s
he’d just cleaned and closed the door, locking it with her master key. The place was spotless, if she did say so herself. She took great pride in her work, although she’d never have thought housekeeping would be her chosen career. Well, desperate times called for desperate measures. And she’d been very desperate, running for her life, determined to get as far from Missoula, Montana, as she could. And him. The pack alpha. The embodiment of evil.

  What if the truck driver who’d given her a lift hadn’t pulled into that big truck stop where the road to Allegash Sporting Camp met the highway? What if Allison Pelley hadn’t been there filling up her truck and stopping to have lunch? What if she hadn’t overheard the woman talking to the waitress about the help who had just quit and how she was desperate for someone to clean and do a little office work?

  Jordan had never thought of herself as having a guardian angel, but there must have been one hovering over her that day. Something was at work in her favor for Allison to take a chance on her, an unknown quantity. She busted her ass every day to make sure they didn’t regret hiring her. This remote vacation spot in Maine’s Great North Woods was ideal for her needs. More than a half mile from the highway, the cabins sat on the shore of the Allegash River, shielded from the world by the dense forest and accessible only by a narrow road.

  She figured she was a planet away from him now, in a place where he’d never find her. As far as she knew, if there were any wolves in Maine, they were few and far between. And none of them shifters, as far as she could learn. On one of her stops, as she’d looked for the right place to hide, she’d done some library research, determined not to end up in a place where she’d be handed right back over to the alpha. She even felt secure enough to chance a run in the woods now and then. She always waited until everyone was asleep then walked as far as she could before shifting and taking off. And, each time, she felt a little more secure, a little more energized.

  Yes, perfect was the right word to describe her situation.

  She placed her dust cloth and the can of polish she was holding in the top tray of her housekeeping cart and trundled it down the dirt path to the next cabin. The last one of the day, thank the lord. She took pride in her work, but damn, some people were terrible slobs. A glance at her watch told her it was almost noon. Lunch would be available and then she’d spend some time working in the office.

  “You’ve got the cleanups down to a science.”

  Jordan looked over her shoulder to see Allison Pelley coming down the path from the office building. She would be forever grateful to them for hiring her and giving her a place to live. One of these days, she would ask Allison and her husband why they’d taken a chance on her. Meanwhile, she did her best to work her ass off for them.

  “Thanks, Allison.” She picked a clean cloth out of the box on her wagon. “Did you need something? I know we’re super busy right now. I thought I’d just catch a quick lunch and then hit the paperwork in the office.”

  Allison chuckled. “You must have worked for a real slave driver, wherever you were before. Relax. You’re doing a terrific job. Don and I were just talking about it last night.”

  Jordan lifted her eyebrows. “You were?”

  “Uh-huh. We feel we’re very lucky to have found you that day. Not many people would want a menial job year-round at a remote place like this.”

  “I like the work,” Jordan was quick to assure her. “And I’m not one for crowds. Being here all year long will be a real treat for me.”

  And a place where I’ll be safe.

  “Anyway,” Allison continued, “what I wanted to let you know was the end cabin has been rented. Can you get it open and ready this afternoon?”

  “The one in the trees?” Jordan frowned. “You told me most people didn’t like it because it was so far away from the others. And from the office and the pier. That it was almost never rented.”

  “True. Most of our customers like the privacy but not the isolation. But this renter is different.”

  Jordan cocked her head. “He is? In what way?”

  Allison took a moment to answer her, as if choosing her words with great care.

  “He’s just returned from his third tour in Afghanistan and Iraq. This last one took its toll on him.” She sighed. “It was bad, Jordan. He’s not handling it too well.”

  “Is he from around here?”

  Allison shook her head. “No. A friend of ours recommended our place to him and he said it was perfect. He wants total isolation, no contact with anyone.”

  “He must be wrestling with some vicious demons,” Jordan said.

  “He is for a fact. Our friend was afraid if he hid away like that, he’d lose himself and never heal. He convinced him to come here as a kind of compromise.”

  “I’ve read so much about that. PTSD kind of stuff, I mean. He must be in a lot of pain.”

  “Yes, he is.” Allison nodded. “We want to help him get past that as much as we can.”

  “I’ll get the cabin ready right after this one.” Jordan took the bucket from the top of the cart and filled it with fresh supplies. “Anything special I need to do?”

  “You might open the windows to air it out. It hasn’t been used in months and is kind of musty.”

  Jordan nodded. “Of course. I’ll be a little late getting into the office, but I’ll just eat lunch real quick.”

  “Jordan.” Allison smiled at her. “You aren’t on the clock. Take your time and enjoy your lunch. Why don’t you take it out on your back porch to eat? Enjoy the nice weather.”

  “I’ll see.” Relaxing wasn’t in her DNA these days. Her plan was to make herself so valuable to the Pelleys they’d keep her on through the fall and winter seasons. If not, she’d need another place to hide herself, at least as remote as this one.

  In the weeks she’d been working here, Jordan had never seen anyone renting this particular cabin. It was situated a good quarter of a mile away from the others, nestled in its own little copse of trees. She’d cleaned it her first day on the job, but then Allison told her to leave it unless someone came along who wanted to rent it. The original owners of the sporting camp had built it for themselves, which was why it was twice the size of the others. When the Pelleys bought the place, they decided since they were going to run it as a year-round facility, they wanted something a little larger and sturdier and with a few more comforts. The place they’d built was much larger and sat on a slight rise across the road from the office.

  She dusted and dry mopped and made sure the kitchenette and bathroom were good to go. Then, her routine complete, she opened the bedroom window and the door to the back porch. She walked out to the railing and stood there inhaling the fresh Maine air. The scene was like something from a painting. Small boats dotted the lake, some of them fishermen who’d found good spots close to shore. Others were sailboats catching the day’s soft breeze, or small motorboats, people just out for a ride. She loved looking at this peaceful scene every day. Whenever her nerves started jumping again, this view always calmed her.

  The sun was almost overhead now, the bright golden hue bathing everything and reflecting off the water. Jordan loved the feeling of isolation this place gave her. Other than this vacation camp, there was nothing on the shoreline as far as she could see. The first thing Don Pelley did when Allison brought her to the camp as the new employee was take her out in the little motorboat and show her just how spare the population in the area was. Private cabins dotted the shoreline here and there with a lot of land between them. The public marina, where people could rent boats by the day, was a good two miles away from the cabins.

  “The only people you’re apt to see,” he told her, “are the customers and our suppliers.”

  “Sounds good to me,” she replied. “I’m not much for mingling with people anyway.”

  She didn’t want to mingle with people.

  Here, she felt safe in a way she never had with the pack once she’d begun to fear Charles, the alpha, had decided she would be his mate. The
environment added another layer to her sense of safety, of security. She prayed every day the pack would never find her here. That Anton had no idea where she was. This place was beginning to feel like home to her. She knew he was powerful, that other pack alphas were often intimidated by him. Had he been able to pressure them to use their resources to search her out?

  Quit driving yourself crazy. You left no trail, and no one can find you here.

  “They told me there was no one in here.”

  The deep voice startled her, making her jerk as if someone had poked her. The can of furniture polish fell from her hand with a clatter and rolled across the plank floor. For a moment, she thought her heart would stop beating, and she had to force a calm she didn’t feel. In slow motion, she turned around. This time when her heartbeat stumbled, it wasn’t from fear.

  She guessed the man standing in the living room to be about six feet. He had a lean runner’s body, outlined by the navy T-shirt and jeans he wore. His dark hair hung to just above his neckline in a messy tumble, framing a square-jawed face with light stubble and high cheekbones. As he walked toward her, she could see his eyes were like warm gold, but, right now, they did not look very friendly.

  “Um, yes.” She picked up the can of polish and wrapped her dust rag around it in a nervous gesture. “I’ll be out of here in just a second. I was, uh, just getting the cabin ready for you.”

  “I told Allison it was fine however it was. I don’t need cleaning service. In fact, I’ll take care of it myself from now on.” He moved closer to her. “You can leave now.”