Free NocC 027 - Michele Hauf - Wicked Games 07 - Claiming the Wolf - Harlequin 2012-11 by Nocturne Page A

I’ll talk to the
principal. I’ll make sure pack Levallois forgets Danni Weber exists.”
    “Even if that was possible, what about you?”
    Hart sighed, heaving out his broad chest. “I’ve been bitten,
Danni. In their eyes I don’t belong in the pack anymore.”
    “Then stay here with me,” she pleaded. “Start new.”
    “Doesn’t work that way. The pack needs to have their blood, so
to speak. I’ve been slated for banishing.” Taking her hands in his, he kissed
the palms of them, nuzzling his face against her warmth. “If I let it happen,
then we can be free.”
    “But you mentioned wolfsbane. Won’t that kill you?”
    “Not if I’m lucky.”
    “Hart.” She bracketed his face with her hands and kissed him
long and deep. She’d thought to have lost him while surrounded by iron bars in
the pack compound. Now they had a second chance. Would that chance be taken away
as quickly as they’d earned it? “I need you to return so I can fall in love with
you.”
    He took her hand and opened it, palm up, and pressed his palm
over hers, their silent language between one another. “I’ll return. I
promise.”
    *
    Remy Caufield had listened to Hart’s request they forget
the female vampire’s transgression against the pack in exchange for his
willingly submitting to the banishing. While Hart knew he didn’t have a leg to
stand on with that argument—the banishing would occur whether he submitted or
not—he hoped a glimmer of compassion resided within Caufield.
    “She did you no harm,” he reminded as the principal paced
before him. Hart had been shackled at ankle and wrists the moment he’d stepped
onto the compound’s grounds. Silver, wrapped with leather. The thin manacles
would contain him without killing him. “She won’t come after the pack. I’ve made
sure her tribe drops her. They were the force behind her spying. If anything,
tribe Zmaj is the true enemy.”
    “Are you in love with a vampire, Hart?”
    “I, uh...” Didn’t think so. I need you to
return so I can fall in love with you. On the other hand, hell yes,
he could love her. He’d begun to consider mating with Danni. That was as extreme
as it got in the emotional department, and he wasn’t about to turn away from it.
“Does it matter? After tonight, Christian Hart does not exist to pack
Levallois.”
    “True. I hate losing my best man.”
    Hart shrugged. “Tony is a good guy. He’s loyal, too.”
    “You’ve some integrity, Hart. Talking up your successor while
your future lands in the crapper. That’s what I always liked about you. You’ve
grown into a fine man—and yet... You seriously crave blood?”
    Hart nodded. “It’s pretty intense.”
    “That disgusts me.”
    As it should. But it no longer disgusted Hart, and that was all
that mattered to him.
    “Leave her alone, please?” Hart asked.
    With a nod of his head, Remy silently consented. Then he set
the two guard wolves to take Hart to the room where they held the blood
games.
    The stone walled room smelled of blood and not in an appealing
way that Hart could get behind with his newfound craving. He was unshackled, and
when the guard wolves shoved him toward an iron frame riveted into the stone
wall, Hart said, “No. I don’t need to be bound.” He gripped the iron bar mounted
a foot higher than his head.
    The wolves looked to Remy, as other pack members entered the
room. The principal nodded. “Leave him as he wishes. He won’t run.”
    Behind him, Hart heard the pack begin to shift to werewolf
form, and he knew he was not allowed that same blessing. No, not a blessing. He
must take this in were form. It was one small mercy against the wolfsbane. If he
were in werewolf shape, the wolfsbane could prove deadly. In this form? It may
cripple him, and would most certainly scar him.
    When the growls and low murmurs of a dozen pack wolves loomed
behind him, Hart squeezed the iron bar hard and centered his thoughts on the one
thing he wanted most—Danni. Then he