Staring Into the Eyes of Chance

Back Cover

A Paranormal Erotic Romance Novel by Kay Dee Royal

Olivia endures a thirty-four year passionless marriage, discovering her dead husband’s philandering history at his funeral. She devotes her energy and life-long sensitivity with animals to her wildlife refuge and preserve.

Chance, a Lycan alpha and leader of the Lycan International Investigation Agency (LIIA) throws himself into his investigations. He chooses to neglect his duty of finding a primal-mate after watching his father become an empty shell over the loss of his.

A murderous rogue pack draws Chance onto Olivia’s wildlife preserve, sending Olivia’s animal sensitivities into overdrive. Chance and Olivia discover a sizzling force driving them together.

Will they succumb to its enticing tether, or fight to resume their loveless lives apart?

Staring Into the Eyes of Chance © 2012 by Kay Dee Royal

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 permission in writing from the publisher.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, or events, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

A MuseItHOT Publication

MuseItUp Publishing

14878 James, Pierrefonds, Quebec, Canada, H9H 1P5

http://www.museituppublishing.com

Cover Art © 2012 by Suzannah Safi

Edited by Nancy Bell

Copyedited by Greta Gunselman

Layout and Book Production by Lea Schizas

eBook ISBN: 978-1-927361-99-3

First eBook Edition *March 2012

Production by MuseItUp Publishing

To the one who believes in me most and doesn’t hesitate to shove me forward.

~Sunny Beach.

Acknowledgements

Thank you, Allison, as my number one reader who keeps me on the right track and reins in any characters that start to wander off.

Bless Donna and Sharon for always having my back and knowing exactly what inspires me to move me forward.

A deep and grateful admiration for my editors, Nancy Bell and Greta Gunselman ~ you ladies give my words strength & clarity. You both ROCK!

Lea Schizas, I love MuseItUp Publishing because of you…you care about all of us.

K & D~You bring joy to me, accept my authentic ‘me’, and you love me unconditionally…as I love you, too…

Staring Into the Eyes of Chance

A LIIA (Lycan International Investigation Agency) Book

Kay Dee Royal

MuseitHOT, division of

MuseItUp Publishing

www.museituppublishing.com

ADULT CONTENT: Contains graphic sexual content.

Chapter One

Olivia needed calm, not the stress of yet another five minute lecture from her sister, Lacey, who was hell-bent on finding her a man. She squeezed her eyes tight and started counting.
One…two…
Of course, it helped Olivia faced the opposite direction from her sister.

“Ray’s been gone for over two years. It’s time,” Lacey said. She sighed, sounding as exasperated as Olivia felt. “You’ll like this guy, trust me.”

Three…four…five…

Lacey refused acknowledging that Olivia lived a contented life. She incessantly set up ridiculous dates of handpicked men. Those chosen few, Lacey’s caliber of men, were deeply established in the corporate world and a little too much on the wild side. If Olivia ever climbed onto that branch of life again, she’d select less business-oriented men. At fifty-five years old, she found it a highly unlikely branch.

Ten…
count over. Olivia opened her eyes and saw the farthest floodlight kick on. Her whole back area of barns and sheds was illuminated, but when the back light facing the woods came on, it looked like a hit of pure sunshine. She stared out the three-season porch window, interested in what tripped the motion detector. Once in a while a rehabilitated deer wandered in for a visit from her wooded preserve.

“Olivia, are you still here?” Lacey’s sarcasm shot Olivia back into the room.

“How many different ways have I told you? No. More. Men. Period,” Olivia snapped. Thank God Lacey was leaving in the morning. She’d only stayed the weekend with Olivia for a forester seminar, but it seemed like a month.

“Okay, just this one. If you see this guy, I’ll never fix you up again.” Lacey shuffled back into the kitchen, most likely fixing herself a cup of coffee. No one drank more coffee than her sister.

“Like that’s going to happen.” A movement from the trees drew Olivia’s attention and she watched for whatever was there.

“I promise, just this once,” Lacey’s voice carried through the open door between the kitchen and three season room.

“Oh my God,” Olivia gasped. A huge black wolf pranced out of the tree line and sniffed the air. Its head snapped around, staring at her. Their gazes connected and something tingled inside her. She’d never connected with a wolf before. It crouched low. All of her porch windows were open and a steady breeze wafted through toward the wolf. She knew it should run in the opposite direction after smelling human, not come closer. It was tough figuring the exact size of the beast, being a good one hundred plus yards away, but she knew it stood larger than anything she’d seen, even in its crouched position.
How in the hell did it get over my eight-foot fence?

“H-e-l-l-o, am I talking to dead air? What do you mean by, ‘oh my God’…Olivia?”

“What?” Olivia focused on the wolf with its body slouched and moving in the direction of the barns.

Oh God, he’s after the animals there.

“Just meet this guy. His name is Chance.” Lacey started through the door into the porch. Olivia rushed over, stopping her.

“Okay, sure,” Olivia answered without caring what her sister just said. Olivia needed outside without panicking Lacey. “Go take that bath you talked about earlier while I check on my healing critters.”

Olivia stood trembling at the doorway. She watched the wolf move closer from her peripheral. Lacey would freak if she saw it.

“Okay, guess we got guy stuff covered. Jacuzzi here I come.” Lacey turned and walked through the kitchen toward the bathroom.

Olivia kept an eye on the wolf’s progress, grabbing her tranquilizer rifle on the way out of the porch. Once clear of the house, she lost sight of the wolf. It disappeared behind the barn. She bent low and ran until she reached the building. Olivia swallowed the knot of panic, followed the outer wall until she reached the corner, and peeked around it.

Where the hell is it?

Sharp prickles raced up her spine as the deepest, longest, eeriest wolf howl she ever heard echoed through the forest. Her body froze and her fingers clung white-knuckled around the tranq rifle. A longer ominous howl answered. It came from the backside of the barn. She took a deep breath, stood up with gun ready, rounded the corner, and ran the length of the barn. Olivia paused for another breath before dashing around to the backside of the structure.

Nothing.

She stepped away from the building, intent on walking her yard perimeter, head pivoting in all directions, scanning the short grass and fallen leaves. Movement to her right alerted her too late as she pivoted toward the motion.

“Oomph!” She took a hit, like a truck slammed into her front side. A flurry of black and silver fur, claws, and teeth. She fell flat on her back, her head bouncing off the ground. The rifle flew from her grasp. No footfalls, no heavy breathing, but a pungent scent of musty dog fur lingered in the air. Olivia lay there, afraid to move, afraid the wolf had just called in his pack.

She closed her eyes, calling up her animal sensitivity ability, while shoving down her own panic. After years of psychically working with animals, she knew they sensed panic and fear. Her breathing needed regulating.

Olivia relaxed as best she could and opened her mind. She sensed the wolf; masculine. He came across with an urgent need to protect, more like helping her feel safe. Another howl, with a deep and sinister timbre, shattered her concentration. A stab of electricity zipped through her, pumping adrenaline and tightening every muscle. This howl came from farther inside the forest than the first one. She sensed aggression in the wolves within the forest, ready for battle. Her heart drummed against her ribs in anticipation of an answering call, and she couldn’t stop the tremors running rampant in her belly.

Instead she saw the lights go out through her closed eyelids. She opened her eyes and saw nothing but blackness.

Nine o’clock on a September evening, what did she expect?
Damn power company! Hopefully Lacey sat in the Jacuzzi and wouldn’t come running out.

She lay listening for any sound. Her own breath, the loudest panting she’d ever heard, came in at a close second to her heart banging against the walls of her chest. Slowly, she sat up. The back of her head throbbed, her spine hurt, and the front of her body ached, especially her breasts. She bent her legs to stand and in that same moment a jet of hot mist coated her face.

Wolf breath.

Olivia froze, tamping down the run-for-your-life urge. Her mind reached toward the beast beside her, searching his energy markers, his emotions, urges. She read him as curious, stimulated. Maybe a misread of…sexually stimulated? She sat back on her haunches, figuring if she stretched at least four feet of her five-foot ten frame, maybe she’d appear larger. His breath assailed her from above, she remained squatted.

Damn, this thing is huge!

He sniffed the top of her head, down by her ear, licked the length of her neck and up the side of her face. Another howl close by, echoing near the tree line, got the wolf’s attention. He raised his head from her and shoved her body back with his own. She went down on her butt, folding her legs sideways. Fur from his backside pressed into the front of her, including her face. Olivia turned her head away and took a breath. A shiver began in her belly and inched through her arms, legs, and up her neck. She sensed his urgency, he must move and his need…again, to keep her safe and again something else, another misread?

He moved back, his head next to hers. A growl vibrated, harsh and deep, beside her ear. Olivia jumped when he yipped instead of howled. He circled her, stopping behind her. A sudden scratch of claws and pebbles from rain washout near the barn pelted her. Air swirled around her as the wolf leaped over her head in the direction of the woods.

Olivia’s breath whooshed out like a balloon being released. Tears welled and trickled down her face. The wolf’s size was about as abnormal as it got. She’d never heard of any wolf being that large. She’d done plenty of research on the species, brushing up for the wolf pup she rehabilitated and released back into the wild years ago when Ray and she first opened the refuge, before they owned the preserve property.

Olivia pushed herself up onto wobbly legs, her stomach lurched, and before she could blink, vomit spewed. She retched hard, falling onto her hands and knees, weak and crying, something she hadn’t done since Ray’s funeral. As if on cue, all the lights popped on, illuminating her shadow against the barn wall.

Oh, that’s lovely. Damn power company.

A howl, and then another and another, echoed from different locations in the forest. Her forest, her wildlife preserve, not a place for a beast like her visitor, and most definitely not a place for the aggressive lot in the forest. She swiped her face with the bottom of her shirt and looked toward the woods.

About thirty yards away in the mowed meadow, her wolf circled with another, close-in-size, milky-eyed wolf with a deformed face, both spot-lighted in the yard light. They flashed razor sharp teeth and glowing eyes, with the exception of the one’s coated eye. Their vicious growls and snapping jaws filled the air. Olivia found her tranq gun on the ground and grabbed it. By the time she turned for a shot, she saw the tail end of both wolves leaping into the woods, her wolf chasing the other.