Fever (Blood Moon Rising, #1)

Fever
, Book One of
Blood Moon
Rising

Smashwords Edition, 1st
Edition

Copyright © 2014 Lola Taylor

All rights reserved. The author has
worked very hard to bring you this story. Please do not
redistribute this book without purchasing additional copies. Thank
you for your understanding and support.

This book is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, places, organizations, and incidents either are
products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any
resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or
organizations is entirely coincidental.

Cover designed by Lola
Taylor in Photoshop CS6. Images found at
Shutterstock.com
. Fonts
found at Fontsquirrel.com. Ebook formatted in Microsoft
Word.

Special thanks to beta
reader extraordinaire, Marion of
Making Manuscripts
.

http://www.lolataylorbooks.com/

FEVER

Blood Moon Rising #1

By

Lola Taylor

When the Blood Moon rises,
the wolves come out to play… and find their mates.

Danica has about given up on love. In
a last-ditch attempt at finding “the one,” she agrees to a blind
date through an online dating service. But instead of finding roses
and romance, she finds someone intent on killing her. That is,
until the mysterious, brooding Gage shows up to save
her….

Gage is running out of time to find a
mate. If the Blood Moon sets before he can find her, he’ll lose the
rank of packmaster - and the peace within the pack - he’s worked so
hard to obtain. When he saves a luscious blonde in the parking lot,
he has no idea she is his mate - until he Marks her with his
touch.

Determined to keep her safe at any
cost, Gage whisks Danica away into a hidden world full of lust,
unlikely love, and treachery. Someone’s put a hit on his mate, and
he’s hell-bent on finding out who, all while the Blood Moon looms
closer, threatening to destroy his chances at true love forever.
That is, if something - or someone - doesn’t kill the woman he’s
falling for first.

Recommended 18+ for
frequent, explicit sexual situations and language.

Chapter 1

All right, it was official - her date
had stood her up.

Honestly, it shouldn’t surprise her.
Seriously, who took someone on their first date to a
bar?

And not even a
nice
bar.
Howl
was anything but
swanky. With wooden floors that looked like they hadn’t seen polish
- or a broom - in a decade, posters of couples in crude positions
all over the walls, and the stench of sweat, beer, and sex in the
smoky air, it looked like a gigantic version of a man
cave.

Speaking of men, there were entirely
too many rough-looking individuals here. Admittedly, it made her
pause when she drove up and discovered there were more motorcycles
than cars parked outside. She loved chrome and fast wheels as much
as the next girl, but all the, er, “decorations” - animal skulls,
hides, etc. - adorning said motorcycles gave her the
heebie-jeebies.

She took another long sip of her beer.
What the hell had she been thinking, agreeing to meet a total
stranger at a place like this?

Because you’ve been lonely
since Seth broke up with you and moved away.

Being the only person left in her high
school town, the only one in her old circle of friends who hadn’t
gone to college or gotten married, Danica had started to feel
pretty damn unwanted. That definitely showed in the extra pounds
she’d packed on since the “Epic Breakup.” Since the only people
left in the small town of Moonstruck, Arkansas were either the
young or the old, it was sparse pickings for friends, and even
slimmer prospects for dating. And since her empty bank account said
moving was not an option, she’d turned to online dating.

“
They worked,” the
advertisements said. Countless people on the commercials preached,
“I met my soul mate online, and we got married, like,
instantly.”

In hindsight, she should have known
better. If history had taught her anything, it was “Karma isn’t
going to make it easy for you.”

She smiled wryly. “Karma, fifty,
Danica, zero.”

Taking another swig of her
nearly empty beer, she looked around. For the most part, the men
had watched her with curiosity, but they hadn’t come over yet.
People seemed to be keeping their distance, which she found odd.
She thought she looked
damn
cute, with tight Jeggings, black ankle boots, and
a black see-through tunic that showed off her black lace bra. The
bra alone should have at least earned her a “get-to-know-you” beer
from somebody. But alas, here she was, sitting by herself at a bar,
waiting for a date that obviously was never going to
come.

Shouting erupted from across the room
as one burly man threw down his pool stick and shoved another man,
nearly spilling beer all over the pool table.

From the dais near the table, a tall
man stood from the shadows, his silhouette suggesting broad
shoulders and a lean torso. The dim lighting revealed dark jeans, a
button-down shirt, and a dinner jacket - not the typical biker bar
garb the other men wore.

He also wasn’t nearly as stacked as
the two guys about to go at it in front of him, yet they took one
look at the man and instantly backed down.

Huh
. This place was getting weirder by the second.

Danica felt her arms prickle with the
sensation of being watched. She looked up to find the mystery man
had stepped into the light - and was looking right at
her.

Her breath caught.

Holy. Hell.

Okay, the lighting in here sucked, but
she could definitely see a defined jawline, a straight nose, and
light brown hair that had been styled with a bit of gel. Despite
his Adonis-looks and more fashionable wardrobe, he didn’t look any
less masculine for it. If anything, it made him look
sexier.

Danica sighed, feeling heat building
below her navel.

She blinked. Wow, this was an all-time
record for her. She’d gone from falling head over heels for a man
in a few weeks - i.e. Seth, who’d been a jerk - to lusting for one
at first sight. She blamed the fact she hadn’t had sex in six
months, at least, not with anything human. Plastic, while
cherished, could only get a girl so far.

But she wasn’t about to bring a man
home with her tonight. She didn’t want a one-night stand. She
wanted romance, flowers. She wanted “the fairy tale,” as Julia
Roberts had said.

And something told her she wasn’t
going to get that with any of the guys here. Might as well cut her
losses and bail.

She’d started to take another sip of
her beer, with the intent to finish it, when that pleasant tingling
sensation went up her spine. Unable to stop herself, she turned
around.

The handsome stranger smiled at
her.

And dammit if she didn’t smile
back.

***

Gage’s inner wolf grinned as the
luscious blonde tried covering up the smile she’d flashed him.
Normally, human women didn’t do it for him, but this one had a
sense of spirit about her that was incredibly alluring. The fact
her top left little to the imagination in regards to her plump
breasts only made him harder.

God, he was so freaking horny. Ever
since the mating heat had taken hold of him at the beginning of the
month, his cock sprang to life at the mere sight of a little
cleavage. It was like going through puberty all over again, a hell
he never wished to relive. The heat had only intensified as the
month drew to a close. In exactly one week, the Blood Moon would
rise, sealing him forever with his mate the first time they made
love.

Now, if only he could find a
mate.

His best friend and body guard - as if
he needed one - came up beside him. He was also his brother. The
slightly older wolf wasn’t wearing as much metal tonight as he
usually did. His ears were only partially lined with studs, and
he’d taken his tongue piercing out. Ink crawled up the wolf’s
massive arms, which he showed off in a black tank top, despite the
chilly autumn weather. Since wolves ran hotter than humans, due to
their animal nature - and especially during mating season - they
rarely worried about the change of temperature.

His body guard, Nikolas, nodded in the
direction of the bar. “You’ve been eyeing that female since she
walked through the door.”

“
And?” Gage raised a brow
in challenge.

Nik shrugged. “And I can’t blame ya.
She’s hot, for a human. Got soft curves too. Wouldn’t be like
banging one of our she-wolves, all hard muscle and
bones.”

Gage’s rigid dick throbbed with desire
at the thought of feeling the woman below him, of his hands moving
over her soft, smooth skin. He’d never been with a human before. He
wasn’t the type to hold back during sex, and the she-wolves were
tough by nature. Humans were fragile. Breakable. He’d feel guilty
if he injured a woman during love-making.

Yet the thought of making her dizzy
with pleasure never left his mind as he watched the woman down the
rest of her beer and snag the bartender to cash out her
tab.

Nik chewed on his lip ring. “So I take
it you’ve had no luck with the last were-princess I brought you,
Your Highness?”

Gage scowled. He knew Nik was aware he
hated being called that, which was exactly why Nik did it.
Sometimes, he was as childish as a pup. “I’ve… bedded all the
princesses you’ve brought me, but alas, I have yet to form a bond
with any of them.”

While the sex had been hot, fast, and
furious, as it always was between weres, none of his partners had
been Marked by his touch.

He swallowed past the lump in his
throat.

Nik studied him, then elbowed him
lightly. “Think nothing of it. You’ll find your mate before this
month’s Blood Moon sets.”

“
I have to,” Gage muttered
darkly. An unmated packmaster was not worthy of calling himself a
King of Wolves. After at last claiming the position of Alpha over
that rebellious whelp Malachite only this past month, Gage couldn’t
afford to be demoted for the sheer fact he couldn’t find a worthy
female to be his mate. But he didn’t get to choose - the magic in
his blood did.

His attention snapped forward as the
woman, casting him one last look, donned her jacket and purse, then
started walking toward the exit. His blue eyes trailed her,
unblinking, his heart speeding up. He took a step forward, and Nik
grasped his arm.

“
Best let that fish return
to the sea,” he said. “Your efforts are better spent on courting
other royal she-wolves, considering the circumstances.”

“
I know.”

Still, he found himself leaning toward
the woman, wanting to go with her.

What was the matter with
him?

A dark figure moved within the
shadows, detaching itself from the wall and following the woman out
the door.

Gage’s hackles raised. “Excuse me,” he
said, shoving Nik’s hand aside as he stepped off the dais and
toward the door.

Nik swore then rubbed his temples.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

Following a gut instinct and feeling
half-mad for it, Gage continued his deliberate pace toward the
exit, senses wired for danger.

Then he heard her scream.

Chapter 2

Danica had gotten all of two steps
outside before this shadow lunged out of nowhere and pinned her
upside the building.

Skull meet cinder
block
, she thought as pain exploded along
the back of her head.

Disoriented, she scrambled to pull her
keychain from her pocket and give this asshole a face full of mace,
but he pinned her arms above her head in one massive hand. His
elbow drove into her windpipe, threatening to crush it.