Embracing the Wolf

Embracing the
Wolf

Kat, a hunter
with the Werewolf Control Forces, fled her alpha werewolf lover,
Amon, when he told her that she too had the gene in her blood and
would one day mature into a werewolf—into his mate.

Four years on,
Kat has now matured. Each night she fights the ‘beast’ inside of
her and her desire to return to Amon. She hunts rogue werewolves
with a vengeance, hating her kind and her blood, gaining
satisfaction from eradicating those that have surrendered to
darkness and violence, but she can’t change her feelings and her
craving for Amon is becoming stronger with every dream she has of
him.

When Amon’s
pack finally catches up with her, she discovers that he’s
dangerously close to turning rogue and only she can save him from
the darkness. An encounter with Amon reignites the passion they had
once shared, dreams constantly stir her hunger for him, and Kat
finds herself faced with a hard decision. Will she let him turn
rogue and hunt him, or will she embrace the wolf and mate with Amon
to save them both?

Embracing the
Wolf

Felicity
Heaton

Smashwords
Edition

Copyright 2008
by Felicity Heaton

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 author, except for the
inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

****

Chapter
1

Four years.

Four years ago, she had
fled her home. Four years ago, she had run away from him and her
feelings.

Those four years had not
erased him from her memory. She still recalled the heat of his
touch and the tender brush of his lips against her skin.

Amon.

Kat ghosted her hands over
her bare arms, over flesh chilled by winter night. As she thought
of him, her hands became the intimate, loving caress of Amon’s. The
memory weakened her and stirred desire to return to him. She
cursed, breaking the silence of the cemetery. It was impossible to
escape her feelings and her intense craving for him. No matter how
far she ran.

She stood on the stone
sarcophagus in the centre of the cemetery, a breeze washing her
skin. Inky darkness stretched in front of her. Bright
moonlight-cast shadows stretched long from the trees, swallowing
the graves that edged the crammed lot. Silence became a comforting
shroud over the Earth.

Her target lay dead below
her. One less werewolf in the world. In human form again and naked,
his body was bloodied and beaten from their fight. Lifeless eyes
stared up at the moon, as though that goddess could still answer
the prayers of her child.

The recovery unit were
coming to take the body away. Kat hated having to wait for them.
With the hunt over, she had nothing to occupy her mind. Her
purposelessness ate at her, opening up a hollow feeling inside her.
It attacked the carefully constructed barriers around her heart and
brought thoughts of Amon.

Kat’s gaze rose to the
moon. She sought the calm it normally inspired in her. Her black
pistols weighed heavily at her sides tonight, their silver load
dragging her insides down and turning her stomach to
lead.

She pressed a hand to her
chest.

The beast stirred in the
depths of her heart and snarled for freedom.

Amon had warned her that
it would once she had matured. Back then, she hadn’t believed him.
She had run.

The idea of housing a
werewolf in her body had frightened her. When her beast had risen,
it had redefined the word ‘frightened’. Kat had been so scared that
she had almost run back to Amon. He had been right. Her blood was
werewolf, just as his was, but that didn’t mean that she was going
to let it control her. She would never change.

She was not an
animal.

And she would not
surrender to it. Every day of her life, Kat fought it and hid her
dirty secret. Every day of her life, she hunted her kin.

Kat had joined the
Werewolf Control Forces after they had rescued her from an attack
in which a friend of hers had died. The commander of the group had
taken pity on her and had offered to train her so she could have
her revenge. She had gladly taken the opportunity.

Back then, Kat had not
known what tainted blood ran in her veins.

When she had reached the
level of hunter, she had met Amon. He had come to her unit and
reported a rogue werewolf within his pack. Even though Kat had
known what Amon was, she hadn’t been able to stop her feelings for
him. He was everything good and, over time, she had come to see
that not all werewolves were out to kill humans. It was only then
that she had discovered she carried werewolf blood in her
veins.

If she had known about the
genes she had inherited from her parents before she had joined the
Werewolf Control Forces, she still would have gone through with it.
Eliminating the rogue werewolves, those that had turned dangerous
and had made it onto the WCF’s lists, gave her purpose.

When she had found out
about her blood, her job had given her something more too. It gave
her a strange sense of satisfaction. She hated her kind more than
ever. She hated the blood that ran in her veins. She hated that she
had never known, and that her foster parents had never told her.
She hated her dead parents.

Now she hunted those her
of her kin that had turned dangerous, those that had become lost in
darkness and the violence that the beast inside called
for.

She killed others too,
werewolves that were not on the list.

Anyone that Amon sent
after her met with a silver bullet.

The beast inside her rose
again. She forced it to heel. It fought back and she took deep
calming breaths until the hunger to change had passed. Her hand
trembled against her chest. It was growing stronger and harder to
control, but there was not a chance in hell that she would let it
take over.

A large black van crawled
along the winding gravel road of the cemetery. Stones crunched
under the fat tyres. She gestured to it and then hopped down from
the tomb.

Her gaze fell to the dead
werewolf.

Amon would be
angry.

Tonight, it had been one
from his pack. Amon was close to finding her. Or was she close to
finding him? Her unit moved every four weeks. A few months ago, she
had realised that her and Amon were gradually moving towards each
other. Every new town brought them one step closer to meeting again
and she could not bring herself to make the unit change its
schedule.

Not when she was so
close.

Every inch of her craved
the fire of Amon’s touch. Every night she had dreamed of him,
reliving each sensual and erotic moment of their time together.
Those dreams had now turned to nightmares. And in those nightmares
there was nothing but pain—agonising, searing pain—that woke her
bathed in cold sweat and shaking.

What did they
mean?

Her heart said that she
knew the answer to that question.

The sound of the van
pulling to a halt snapped her out of her thoughts. Three men
dressed in the standard black fatigues of her unit hopped down from
the back. They grabbed the werewolf and hauled it into the van as
though it was meat at a market.

The commander offered her
a lift. Kat waved him away and watched the van leave.

The graveyard fell quiet
again. The silence was comforting. Out here in the dark night, she
could forget the horror of her dreams and the words they
whispered.

Kat turned slowly to
regard the man stood barely fifteen foot from her. Leyton. It had
taken him longer to arrive than expected. The grim set of his face
said the dead werewolf was not the only reason for his
visit.

“
Amon is in
pain, isn’t he?” she whispered, afraid to raise her voice and
acknowledge that Leyton was really there. He looked exactly as she
remembered him, but then werewolves didn’t age once they had
matured.

Amon had sent him on
purpose.

Leyton was like a brother
to her.

A solemn nod was Leyton’s
answer. Long pale fingers pushed through his sandy waves of hair,
clawing it back in a movement of sheer frustration and
helplessness. His hair fell back down when his hand had passed,
brushing his forehead.

“
He needs you,
Kat.” The deep voice didn’t suit his tall slight figure. Neither
did the black jeans and dark zip up jacket. She was used to seeing
him in smarter attire. Blue eyes held hers, bright in the
moonlight.

Kat knew what those words
meant.

Leyton took a step towards
her.

When werewolves reached
maturity, the need to find their mate would arise. Once it had
awoken, they only had a few years to complete the mating or they
became feral and dangerous. The longest recorded time between the
mating awakening and being completed safely was five years. Four
years ago, Amon had told her that she was his mate. That night, she
had fled. By now, he would be verging on dangerous. If he turned
then she would have to kill him.

As much as Kat feared that
thought, the alternative frightened her more. To become his mate
she would have to accept what she was and change. She couldn’t do
it. The idea of becoming an animal, a hybrid being, turned her
blood to ice.

“
He knows that
he scared you,” Leyton said in a coaxing whisper, calm and
measured. “He was only being honest that night. You’re his mate,
Kat. Without you he’ll—”

“
Don’t!” Kat
cut him off with a glare. Leyton didn’t need to tell her what would
happen. She dealt with rogue werewolves on a nightly basis. She saw
the dark, violent creature he would become. She closed her eyes and
told herself that it would not happen to Amon. Leyton was only
trying to scare her.

The trouble was he was
succeeding.

“
Will you see
him?”

Kat looked into Leyton’s
eyes.

There was hope in their
depths. Meet Amon?

She couldn’t.

Every inch of her rebelled
at the thought. It would be dangerous. Not because he could be
close to turning, but because if she saw him, she might lose her
nerve and return to him.

She longed to feel his
warm fingers stroking her skin, caressing her in a way that spoke
so deeply of his love. She ached to have his soft lips sliding
against hers. She craved the way it felt to be in his arms,
comforted and safe from the world as she breathed in his spicy
scent.

Her eyes closed. She
couldn’t do it.

“
You must feel
it,” Leyton continued with a desperate note in his voice. Clearly
he had realised that she needed convincing. If anyone could do it,
he could. Leyton was Amon’s beta wolf and she had grown close to
him during her time with Amon. She trusted him. He knew that and it
seemed he was going to use it against her. “You must sense the
looming danger.”

Kat lowered her head and
turned it away. She stared blindly at the grass. She did feel it.
As a potential mate for Amon and someone who shared a love bond
with him, Kat felt his pain as though it were her own.

It ripped her apart each
day.

“
Will you see
him?” Leyton repeated, firmer this time. His tone demanded an
answer. He stepped towards her, until she felt his presence close
to her back. “Just see him, that is all I’m asking. It will soothe
him. He will not hurt you.”

Kat’s stomach turned. Was
Amon that far gone? Icy fingers squeezed her heart. She couldn’t
bear the thought that he might become dangerous and make it onto
her unit’s list. The idea of having to hunt him turned her stomach,
but her only other option was to give in to the werewolf
inside.

“
No,” she
whispered, unable to say that word with conviction when her heart
begged her to go to Amon.

Leyton stepped closer. Her
senses detected the aura of worry surrounding him. Leyton never
worried, not even about Amon. It confirmed her worst fear. Amon was
growing close to turning.