Unchained (Dark Shifter Romance) (13 page)

“Shit, I don’t know...” Lacey scrubbed a hand through her spiky hair, not caring if it messed it up for the umpteenth time. “Maybe next week, I think? My sister’s still being interviewed and stuff.”

Even down the phone line, Lacey could hear her boss roll his eyes. “Sure, sure, more super top secret bullshit. Fine, whatever. Maybe those government goons can offer you a job, if you’re not interested in this one.”

“Wait, I— crap, he hung up.” Lacey let out an irritated snort, glaring at the phone as if her boss could see it. “Jerk.”

“Maybe it’s for the best.”

Jack looked completely at home in her apartment, lounging back on her cheap IKEA bed like a king. No, that wasn’t quite right. Lacey chewed her lip, looking over the scene in front of her.

Jack didn’t look like he was at home. Jack
was
home. As he raised an eyebrow at her uncharacteristic silence, the beginnings of a smirk playing on his lips, everything else in her apartment seemed... unimportant. Ill-fitting. None of it— the cheap furniture, the knick-knacks and bits and pieces, the tangle of chargers— none of it meant anything to her. Her life in the apartment had just been made up on whatever was handy at the time, every piece of it just there to make her time just a little bit more bearable, but none of it important.

“It looks like you’re having some pretty deep thoughts,” Jack said, mock-serious. Inside her chest, Lacey felt his rising amusement, and, underneath that, his ever-present need for her.

“I’m just thinking about all the things I own,” Lacey said, and closed the gap between them. In one smooth move she slung a leg across Jack’s lap, straddling him between her legs. “Furniture. Clothes. Make-up. You.”

He tugged her close, his hands sliding around her hips to cup her ass. “If that's the case, I hope you keep me in better condition than the rest of your things.”

“You ass.” She mock-slapped at him, tapping him on the side in reprimand. “Besides, you look good when you're roughed up a little.”

His eyes flashed, playful and riled up. “Is that so? Well then, I guess--”

Whatever he was about to say was cut off by the sound of a key in the lock, and Jenny's head poking around the door. “Hey guys, I bought-- oh, really? Gross. Knock it off. Don't make me turn the hose on you.”

Lacey rolled her eyes, but clambered off of Jack's lap to help Jenny carry in her groceries. From the dark intent still piercing through his gaze, and the way it lingered on her body as she climbed off of him, she had the feeling that this was just a temporary interruption.

“Are you done making eyes at each other? Geez. I know you already went through your teenage phase, Lacey, because I was there for it.”

“Yeah, yeah, little miss high and mighty.” Trotting at her sister's heel, Lacey helped her lug the groceries into the tiny kitchen of their shared apartment. Lacey's roommate had moved on, flaky even at the best of times, and having Jenny move in while Greenvale was being investigated had made sense. It had been great at first, having her sister back with her, and all three of them safe together. One little pack.

Now, though, as Lacey slotted food into the refrigerator, she couldn't help but frown. It wasn't Jenny, no, it was just... she didn't know. Everything about her old life-- her apartment, her job, her friends-- all seemed like they belonged to someone else. Something had changed in Greenvale, and it wasn't just the way that she could turn into a wolf and rip someone's throat out, or the hot slice of alpha that was warming her bed every night.

Jenny turned to her, and Lacey belatedly realised that the frown on her little sister's face matched her own. “Something's not right, right? I can tell.”

Lacey raised her hand to her chest, her fingers brushing against her sternum. “Because of the bond...?”

Jenny let out a rude snort. “No, dummy, because you're my big sister, and I'd know that expression anywhere.” She hip-checked the fridge door shut, looking up into Lacey's face. “So, spill. For the last week or so you've been seeming... weird. Morose, kinda. So what's up?”

Leaning back against the kitchen counter-top, Lacey couldn't help but sigh. “I don't know. This place... no, it's not just the apartment. Everything around here feels... off. I don't know how to explain it.”

“Everything?”

The apartment was small, and they hadn't shut the door behind them. It was no surprise that Jack came in to the room, picking up their conversation.

Lacey smiled weakly. “Well, not
everything
around here, I guess. You two are pretty okay, I suppose.”

Jenny stuck out her tongue at the weak attempt at a joke, but Jack raised an eyebrow, smiling. “Anything else?”

“Hmm...” Lacey tried to think. “Not really. Ever since I came back, everything around here just seems... like it belongs to someone else.”

Jenny and Jack shared a look, Jenny questioning, Jack curious. It took Lacey by surprise, but it had started happening recently. After a few weeks spent living together as pack, she'd started to catch little tugs of pack sense, telling her that their little pack wasn't formed of two one-way links-- Jack and Lacey, Lacey and Jenny-- but that it went all ways. Despite not being turned, Jenny was falling in with the both of them, able to feel their pack sense.

“Close your eyes,” Jack commanded, crossing his arms over his broad chest.

“Why?”

“Just trust me.”

“Fine.” Lacey rolled her eyes, then closed them, settling her weight back against the counter-top. “Though if you're taking up a new career as a hypnotist, you might want to pick a more mystical environment for your next client. The cutlery drawer's poking me in the ass.”

“Shush,” he hushed her. “Just listen. I want you to picture everything that's yours.”

“It's be faster just to open my eyes and look at it--”

He interrupted her. “Not the things that you own. The things that are
yours.
”

Lacey wanted to protest that they were the same thing, but even with her eyes closed, she could feel the weight of both of their stares on her, willing her to co-operate. Resigned, Lacey took a breath and let her mind wander.

“Well, there's you two, and then...”

What was there? Not her cheap apartment, full of bits and pieces she didn't care about. But if not there, then where?

Unbidden, her mind drifted back to her family home. Jenny's home, now. She pictured it not as it was during the shifter siege, windows broken and stinking of fear and blood, but as it had been years before, full of the sense of
family
.

Then, in one eager leap, she pictured their home not in the past, or as it had been in their recent present, but in the future. All three of them, in the Greenvale she knew and loved.

She'd left it as a teenager looking for excitement, but at that very moment, she was over excitement. Let it happen to someone else: all she wanted was a place that was hers, and her pack near her.

She didn't even have to say anything. When she opened her eyes, they knew.

Jack pulled her to him, holding her close, and behind her, Lacey heard Jenny laugh. “Lead the way, love,” he growled into her ear, and that was that.

“Let's go home,” she said, and her heart pounded with joy.

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Emily's life is small and uninteresting. Living on her family's farm outside of a small town, she spends her days helping out around the house and daydreaming about motorcycle-riding Markus Kain, her father's bad boy friend.

When Markus shows up on her doorstep with some troubling news, her life is turned upside-down. Emily's father owes some shady people more money than he can possibly pay, and it would be very, very bad for him to miss a payment...

Emily has to earn enough before the deadline to save her family... and there's only one way for her to go about it.

Now Emily's whisked off to the luxurious Club Siren, visited by only the most powerful and influential men-- and all of them want to bid for her innocence. With only two weeks to flirt and tease her bidding war higher and higher, the stakes are steep. Will Emily be able to navigate a high-rolling life of men and debauchery, or will she succumb to backstabbing and double-crossing? Can she step up to the challenge, or will it eat her alive? More importantly, will Markus still be there for her, or is suave club owner Lysander interested in her for more than just business...?

Now available on Amazon

Hailing from Sydney, Australia, Sophia Wren enjoys reading and writing dark erotic romances. A fan of stories involving temptation and redemption, she likes her heroines to go through hell, and her heroes to be there to catch them.

She can be reached at
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